DIY: CACTI & SUCCULENT TERRARIUM.

Houseplants are a huge trend right now and are currently all over the internet and glossy decor magazines. Rightly so in my opinion, not only do they make a beautiful decorative item but they add a  real element of life to a room without having to go out and purchase a bunch of fresh flowers every week. With houseplants and cacti being highly popular right now it comes as no surprise that terrariums are also having a moment in the spotlight as they are such a great way of bringing the outside indoors. 

You can buy pre-made terrariums online but I really wanted to make one for myself as it is probably as close to gardening as I am going to get whilst living in my first floor apartment. To make one yourself all you will need is a large glass bowl, some small stones, cacti compost, cacti and succulents of your choice and cooking tongs (I promise part this will make sense soon.) To start you need to place a thin layer of small stones at the base of your bowl to act as drainage. Top the stones with cacti compost until your bowl is about 2/3 full. Now is the time that you need to grab your cooking tongs and pick up the cacti using these them to avoid being stabbed by the spikes and position your plants within the terrarium. Next comes the tricky part of planting the cacti, for this I found a combination of the cooking tongs and wrapping the cacti in thick paper worked best but I am afraid you still may end up with a few war wounds when filling in with soil. Once your plants are fully planted in the position you desire all you need to do is cover the compost with the same stones that you used earlier to decorate and represent the plants desert origins. To get the stones into the tighter spaces I simply moved them into place using tweezers but I am perfectionist so you could easily skip this step. I personally love this and it sits in pride of place on my balcony whilst the terrarium addiction strives strong in my living room in the form of yet another more cat friendly version. 

Cacti and succulents make great houseplants as they are near impossible to kill as you only need to water them once a week. A god send for people like me who have unfortunately sent many a plant pot to an early grave due to lack of water and sunlight - my bad! You will be happy to know though that I have righted my ways and actually made this terrarium last summer so I am very pleased with myself to have kept this alive for a full 365 days!