A few weeks ago I wrote about Handmade Garden Projects (Timber Press), a new garden book out that I was interested in by Seattle-based freelance garden writer, author, blogger, Lorene Edwards Forkner. The book arrived this week in the mail offering up some pretty unique creative projects for the garden and I just had to share one of my favorites for a weekend project idea, an outdoor terrarium. Lorene created this unique garden end table of sorts by transforming an industrial light fixture she salvaged.
Terrarium Basics: Click here for a helpful video on planting a terrarium which also suggests what plants work best. Use pebbles in the bottom (for drainage), then a thin layer of activated charcoal (extracts fumes from decomposing matter) and finally a good cactus or draining soil. Lorene tells us in her book, charcoal can be found at garden or aquarium supply stores and to keep an outdoor terrarium in partial to full shade to avoid cooking plants. Light fixtures like this could be found at salvage yards such as Habitat for Humanity Restores. Photo by Lorene Edwards Forkner. Have a great weekend!
9 comments:
Fantastic idea! Look great.
Wow, that's gorgeous! Its beautiful projects like this that make me wish my balcony wasn't north facing! (I'm in Melbourne, Oz)
Thanks for sharing! This is my first visit, looking forward to a good read :)
What a clever idea for an industrial light fixture. It's simply gorgeous. And it's an end table too. It doesn't get much better than that! I love this upcycling and multipurposing!
Ok, this is fantastic! Such a great idea and makes a perfect side table too!
~Lily
i know Lily, I want to make on!
Wow this is really new for me, really genius. Heading to the video tutorial now, thanks for the share. Got my eye on your blog now.
This sure looks nice, but it can´t stay like that for long. Plants need air exchange - if the toxins the plant leaves emit gather in that bowl those plants will die pretty soon.
Thanks for this lovely coverage of an outdoor terrarium project from my new book Handmade Garden Projects! Writing a book is a labor of love and time. The projects depicted in its pages were designed, crafted, and photographed in the summer of 2010. So my outdoor terrarium - which still occupies a shady nook of my backyard - is now in its 3rd full year. Several of the original plants still persist... lime-colored selaginella or club moss has been very successful and I've been pleased with how enduring the dwarf maidenhair ferns have been as well. The amber heuchera have frankly outgrown their welcome, pressing their leaves against the glass top - they look like they're struggling to escape. The only plants that have had to be replaces are seasonal annuals and tender coleus (note: coleus was a little too happy in this closed environment and required constant pinching back to keep it in bounds. All my composition needs a little seasonal primping and one or two waterings throughout the summer months. This is not a hermetically sealed environment but a sheltered,contained community of plants that thrive in the same conditions! Try it - low maintenance handmade garden fun!
wow great idea making it into a table.. Id never thought of that!
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