How to make a succulent terrarium

Hey hey! Happy end-of-weekend to ya! I hope you had a great one. I got a TON done outside – I worked my tail off and sweat off about five pounds. (I hope.)

There’s something about working in the yard – it’s a feeling of accomplishment like nothing else. I fall even more in love with our home when I work in the yard too. :)

Today I’m sharing a little project I worked on weeks ago. I’ve been wanting to create a little terrarium for years now. Every time I see the little succulent plants at Lowe’s I just DIE at their miniature-ness:

Last year I got some and planted them separately into little pots, but they didn’t have much impact all by their lonesome.

This time I wanted to create a terrarium that would have a little more oomph. I’ve seen them done a few times in blogland, but couldn't remember where. So I just searched “how to make a terrarium” and it was super easy.

I have a bunch of empty apothecary jars so I knew they would be perfect:

You want to use glass so the light can get to the plants.

The first step is a layer of small rocks, the second is a layer of soil:

I hear there is soil just for terrariums but I was using what I had, and so far so good. (I read you can use either.) I’ve also seen a sand/soil combo used, but they come in regular soil so I’ve always figured that works just fine. (And it has for me.)

I later found out that it’s not a bad idea to add bits of charcoal as well, to help with moisture issues.

And that’s it! Really, I had no idea it was this simple. I thought you had to use very specific “ingredients” and you so do not.

I planted my little succulents in the soil, then filled the top with some moss:

Only because it’s pretty. :) A local nursery gave me some – awesome!

I couldn’t believe how easy it was. I did another one as well because I had some extra plants. Some of the succulents looked like they were one plant but were really three or four, so you really get a bang for your buck with those:

I love all of the colors – the minty green and purple tones are my favorite. :)

You barely have to water these – actually too much water will kill them. Did you see that perfect little water droplet?:

I haven’t watered them in at least a week so it must have been there all this time. Wild! I spray them so they don’t get too much water and just kind of watch to see when they need it.

Succulents need dry air, not humid. So I go half and half with the glass lids – sometimes on, sometimes off:

I left them on too long at one point and there was a small bit of mold growing. I read online that cinnamon helps with that, so we’ll see. So far so good!

If anything, they smell scrumptious!! ;)

I loved them so much, I got another plant for a mini-terrarium in one of my mason jars:

This one was one of those that actually broke down into three plants, so I was able to make two mason jar terrariums. So fun!

I think they are too cool and if you have a brown thumb, this may be the plant for you. It’s hard to kill them, in my opinion. I had one at one point that I SWEAR went months without water.

The cost isn’t bad at all – you could gather rocks out of your yard for the bottom layer. The succulents themselves run about $3 (for smaller plants) and $4 (larger) each.

Not bad for some easy plants and bringing some green indoors! These have been going strong for a few weeks now. LOVE. Have you created a terrarium? Any tips I missed?

**The May Before and After Party will go up Monday evening!