I love the look of a glass terrarium. They make great decorative pieces and are a fun way to collect baby plants and show them off in a way that saves space. For this plant DIY, I was inspired by some baby ferns that I spotted at my local nursery. I had been wanting to up my fern collection, but I just don’t have the room or the indoor humidity. Ferns love humid air, so putting them in a glass terrarium makes perfect sense.

Materials for glass terrarium:

  • Glass enclosure with lid, consider a unused cookie jar and save a few bucks.
  • Small pebbles, decorative rock or stone for drainage layer
  • Activated Charcoal
  • Sphagnum moss, screen or landscape fabric
  • Potting soil
  • Terrarium plants of your choice

Step 1: Drainage

Start with a layer of rock. Consider your habitat and what your plants will need. The ferns I am going to use won’t need much water because I plant to keep the soil moist, but if you plan to water your terrarium, you will need a thicker rock layer

Step 2: Charcoal

Some tutorials mat say that this is optional, but for any closed terrarium that you want to keep long term, you will want to add activated charcoal to filter the air in the glass terrarium

Step 3: Sphagnum Moss or Screen

Now add your screen or sphagnum moss to keep your soil from running into your drainage layer. If you use sphagnum, you will need to soak the moss for about 10 to 15 minutes to make it pliable and easy to use.

Step 4: Soil and Plants

This step encompasses both your plants and soil because you might need to do some arranging and playing around to make sure everything fits and works together. Place your plants in the glass terrarium and place soil loosely around their roots. Try and keep you plants from touching the sides of the glass enclosure. The wet glass can cause you plants leaves to rot.

Lastly, you might want to give you arrangement a good spray down to clean off soil from leaves and make sure it is nice and moist in the terrarium. Store in indirect light so as not to burn your plants or roast them in hot sun.

For more plant DIY projects check out this easy succulent arrangement made from my succulent propagation from fall.