Garden in a pickle jar

We are immersed in the miniature world of terrariums. About six months ago we discovered the art and science of building these enclosed ecosystems. It was mostly TerrariumDesigns YouTube channel that got us hooked, presenting terrariums, vivariums and paludariums at many levels of difficulty, with an encouraging presentation. We have taken a lot of inspiration from our YouTube guide and made very successful miniature gardens (without a lid), and some enclosed moss gardens. The enclosed gardens had all the problems you might expect: mold and dead plants.

With interest still high, we got an order of specific terrarium plants that are good in high humidity environments and grow compactly — peperomias, small ferns, fittonia, bromeliads and the cutest miniature climbing vine, the oak-leaf climbing fig. Plus the essential housekeeper of the terrarium: the springtail, a detritivorous hexapod that eats the decaying matter and keeps fungus at bay. Detritivore is now my new favorite word.

I constructed mine in a pickle jar, my youngest used a vintage glass-topped canning jar, and my eldest used a purchased terrarium jar that I gave him for his birthday.

We found homes for all sorts of natural treasures that we’ve picked up over the years — a deer skull, driftwood, a collection of barnacles, and all the special rocks.

Its tough to put all of these things in jars with small openings, so we appreciated our specialty long tweezers, and still it took a while to arrange things as we wanted them. But having done some large-scale landscaping projects recently, fixing up our front yard, I appreciated the tiny scale of it all – how lightweight a spoonful of soil is, compared to a shovelful.

Once the land was formed and the hardscape was placed, we were ready for plants. Moss, in tiny clumps, was pressed into the growing medium, and a few plants were planted in between the clusters — some of them cuttings that will root out, some rooted plants that might need to be trimmed back in a few months so they don’t take over the jar.

A garden in miniature is so delightful, we all keep returning to stare at the enclosed ecosystems. It looks like a little fantasy land – one were I can garden without all the groundhogs, rabbits and deer.