Friday, March 02, 2012

I am clueless about plants. Absolutely, utterly clueless. I would like to learn how to take care of plants and garden, but I am at a loss. One morning we met a nice older lady a few houses down from ours, who mentioned that she loves gardening and would be happy to help me if I have any questions. Come Spring, I think I might have to take her up on that.A couple months ago, we bought two plants to go in our entryway. I really love these plants, so I was determined to keep them alive. I read the (short, mostly useless) instructions that came with them and tried to water them the right amount and keep the front door open all the time so they would get enough sun, but things are not going so well.They are obviously dying. For awhile I thought maybe they would be okay, but the brown spots on the leaves of one and the constant withering of leaves off of the other one are making it pretty clear that they don't have long to live. Boo.Despite this setback, I decided to bring even more plants in our house. I saw some cute little terrariums on Pinterest and I knew I wanted to make some of those for myself. I tried to find some artificial succulents to put in them, but I couldn't really find anything that looked half as good as real plants. When I came across the perfect terrarium containers - in the cookie jar section at Target - I figured it was time to just suck it up and get some real plants.

We took a trip to Suburban Lawn and Garden, where it just so happened that a lady working there that day was a self-proclaimed "terrarium expert". She was eager to share her extensive knowledge with us, which I very much needed and appreciated. The kids, however, weren't too thrilled to be walking around looking at plants while this lady talked about terrariums for more than an hour. By the time we had gotten everything we needed and left, I felt like I was a terrarium expert!As soon as we got home, I set up my little terrarium workstation and got busy putting in all the necessary layers - rocks, charcoal, and some particular kind of potting soil, then more rocks - and deciding how to arrange the plants. Aren't those little plants adorable?It's been a couple weeks now and so far they are not only still alive, but they appear to be thriving. Hurray! I'm not exactly sure why, but I really love these terrariums. It makes me happy just to look at them. They look a little lonely on this table right now, so maybe at some point we'll add something else, but for now - as long as I can keep them alive - I'm content just to enjoy them here all by themselves.

4 comments:

Laura said...

Your terrariums are lovely. I hope they continue to thrive. How nice that you have such a spacious kitchen, you can create terrariums in it!

Those tropical plants in your entry (at least that's what they kinda look like) can go thru quite an environmental shock from store to home. The conditions are so much different that they sometimes go thru a transition period before establishing themselves in a new environment. They may pull thru yet.

Chick in the Czech said...

I really like houseplants but we can't have any because two members of our household poop in the dirt (it isn't me). I still have the plant your parents gave me for passing the bar in my office and I usually find that just watering it helps a ton. Maybe yours will pull through!

Mom said...

Sarah, I hate that your entryway plants are dying. Could you move them and see if that helps? So far my new plants by the living room window are doing ok, but since my previous big plant died, I keep expecting them to start withering any day!

Allison said...

I love the terrariums, it makes me want to go out and make a few...sometimes, very cute Sarah!