- Author: Maria X. Isip-Bautista
Growing up, I was lucky to spend many of my waking hours in our family garden. As an adult, I treasure these memories and credit this experience for giving me a respect for the natural environment, an understanding of where food comes from, and a love for gardening. My husband and I are now raising our two young kids, ages four and nineteen months, “in the garden.” This blog series will share our attempts, sometimes successful and other times not so much, at projects, crafts, and activities that we endeavor while simultaneously growing a garden and a couple of curious young humans.
This first project, Glass Jar Succulent Terrariums, is one that we undertook in preparation for our daughter's fourth Frozen/Dinosaur party. (She's an imaginative kid, as you can tell.) We thought they'd be nice giveaways for friends and family who joined us in celebrating. We also made one large one to use as a centerpiece for the table on the big day. Our kids loved helping with just about every step of this process!
For this project we used:
- Repurposed pint-sized canning jars (we'd received several boxes from a generous community member who wasn't using them any longer)
- Glass stones/marbles (bought at local dollar store)
- Small size pebbles/river rocks (local garden store)
- Cactus Mix (local garden store)
- Succulents (we used three varieties of Sedum)
- Plastic Dinosaurs
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To prep, lay down some newspaper and layout/put into buckets with small scoops each of your materials. This makes it easier and slightly less chaotic when the kids start helping.
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First, we put a layer or two of the flat glass rocks (we used all blue, in tribute to Frozen) at the bottom of each jar. Could also use regular rocks. This helps to ensure good drainage of your soil, which succulents appreciate.
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Then, we added a thin layer of the small pebbles to fill in some of the gaps between the large rocks (to prevent all the soil from falling in the big gaps between larger rocks).
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Next, we added a good couple inches of Cactus Mix, another thin layer of the small pebbles, and planted cuttings from the succulents. The Cactus Mix is a potting soil specially formulated for cacti/succulents, but you can also use plain potting soil. Be sure to plant a large enough cutting for the plant to be able to root and grow again fairly easily, and be sure to plant it deeply enough that it'll stand upright.
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Lastly, we added decorative items. In our case, since we were having a Frozen/dinosaur party, this included blue colored glass marbles and assorted plastic dinosaurs. You could also add ribbon or raffia at the tops of the jars, or even paint the jars, if you're so inclined. That's part of what's so cool about these: you could use just about anything to decorate them depending on the theme you're working with- fairies, jungle animals, etc.
Be sure to lightly water your new terrarium. You'll want to keep the soil damp but not wet for the next couple of weeks while your succulents take root. In just a week or so you'll see roots sprouting and coiling through the soil. (This is also super cool for kids to watch!) We were sure to assemble these terrariums a couple of weeks in advance of the party so that they'd be well-rooted by the time we sent them home as favors.
Your plants can outgrow their jars fairly quickly, depending on the size plants/jars you use. You can replant them into bigger containers as soon as they look like they could use the space. Just remember to not overwater! Enjoy!