BOISE, Idaho — With the cooler weather of fall, the growing season outside will soon come to an end. So why not move your gardening adventures indoors and keep your green thumb in shape until next spring?
Today on You Can Grow It, Garden Master Jim Duthie gets together with a terrarium expert to learn what it takes to put together a successful indoor garden that will be a fun project for the whole family.
The YCGI team teamed up with Brett Haney here at North End Organic Nursery in Boise. And spoke about moving gardens indoors to keep your green thumb exercised during the winter with a terrarium.
"Terrariums are a very easy, indoor, kind of a low maintenance thing to do and awesome to watch grow," Haney said.
Terrariums can be traditional, or more whimsical, opening a fantasy world of miniature gnomes and fairies. They come in all sizes, some open, and some sealed.
"The best container is usually just a glass container. And terrariums can come in different types. You can have an open top like this one, or some that you can seal. Also, you can seal one permanently, you just rely on the water that's in there to work on its own.
"I like bringing them to life with little figurines and stuff in there, but very easy," Haney said
The whole idea of a terrarium is that it can be a nearly self-contained micro-climate, holding much of its moisture so that it almost waters itself.
"With the open ones you'll always still have to water, because the water is evaporating out," Haney said. "But with those closed sealed ones, yeah, it's supposed to mimic a natural water cycle where the water will come up on the edge."
Almost any plant will grow in a terrarium, but smaller, tropical plants will grow the best.
"The high-humidity plants will really love a terrarium," he said.
Haney showed a large lear maiden hair fern. He said that ferns, palms and ivies are really good for growing and give some height.
A question that comes to mind is where to start.
"I usually will pick plants first, kind of have that idea," Haney said "It doesn't really all start coming together until I have the plants planted, and I start putting in the decorative mosses and stuff, and then I think that's when you get the ultimate gratification from the whole thing."
When building a terrarium, be sure to get the right ingredients to make it a proper growing environment for the plants.
Haney starts his terrariums with porous materials like LECA pellets, which are made out of baked clay. They are good for the bottom of terrariums because they leave a lot of space at the bottom, which is good for airflow.
To keep any standing water clean and pure dd a layer of activated charcoal. Next comes a layer of orchid bark, to help hold moisture. And a layer of sphagnum moss to keep the soil out of the aquifer at the bottom.
Haney said that he uses moss to add decoration and some dimension for a more natural look, rather than just a flat planting area.
"I like my terrariums to go at an angle because it gives your terrarium more depth and movement," Haney said.
If you choose not to build a terrarium from scratch, there are some simple kits you can buy that will make it very easy. All you have to do is to add the plants. Haney showed off a kit where he placed a small plant into a mason jar.
Finally, place your terrarium where it can get plenty of bright but indirect light, and keep the soil moist, but not too wet.
"So what I usually do is I'll use a squirt bottle, and either do a mist style or turn it onto the really direct, and kind of saturate those little areas," he said.
Terrariums need bright sunlight to grow but do not place them in hot direct sunlight because they work like a mini-greehouse and the inside will get too hot.
Watch more Local News:
See the latest news from around the Treasure Valley and the Gem State in our YouTube playlist:
HERE ARE MORE WAYS TO GET NEWS FROM KTVB:
Download the KTVB News Mobile App
Apple iOS: Click here to download
Google Play: Click here to download
Watch news reports for FREE on YouTube: KTVB YouTube channel
Stream Live for FREE on ROKU: Add the channel from the ROKU store or by searching 'KTVB'.
Stream Live for FREE on FIRE TV: Search ‘KTVB’ and click ‘Get’ to download.