Hands in the Dirt: from Aquarium to Terrarium

At one point we kept a fish tank.  Well actually we have two fish tanks.  I don't talk about them much ... and that's probably a good thing since all the fish in our large tank have passed on to fishie heaven.  We thought about starting the tank up again, it was a tough call after having one fish live with us for almost three years, but we decided not to.

So, what to do with a 29 gallon tank and stand?

First of all... I drained the water.  It was full to the top, I luckily remembered to take this picture mid-draining.

Then, I flattened out the rocks and cleaned the glass. 

I added about one inch of sphagnum moss (was surprised to find it at Home Depot of all places fairly cheap!) on top of the rocks.  Then, a bunch of potting soil.  Then, I started planting little indoor plants.  I also put the fish rocks and decor back in between some of the plants for added drama.

And voila!!

Here you can see (from left to right):

"Creeping Fig" Ficus, "Silver Tree" Pilea, Polka Dot plant, and Spider plant in the back right

On the left side we have (from left to right):

"Magenta" Dracaena, African Violet, and I have a bit of Christmas Cactus behind the horse 

After everything was planted I gave it a generous watering until I could start to see some of the water making it's way down to the rocks. 

I really think this is going to be a great transition for me to indoor gardening over the winter. 

I know, it's only August... I shouldn't be talking about winter.  But I am.  This should make those cold winter months more manageable.  I hope.

I am going to see how these plants make out for a bit.  Hoping they are all hardy and low light enough to thrive.  I was also thinking about adding a few aromatic plants like mint or oregano. 

And there you have it!  I now get to tend to my very own little terrarium -- we are only on day three, I'll be sure to let you know how it fairs.

Also, here is a shopping list in case you also have an old aquarium laying around that you want to set up as a terrarium:

• old aquarium - I used my old aquarium... doesn't mean a new one wouldn't work.  You can also look for other containers.  Really the sky is the limit on what can become a terrarium.small rocks/pebbles
• small rocks/pebbles - these are also used for drainage.  If you had a fish aquarium, then by all means use the same fish rocks.
• small indoor plants - I found "Angel Plants" to be good ones for low-medium light and the bonus is they purify air too!!  These ran me about $2-3 a plant.  I also looked around at my current house plants and clipped a few pieces of the spider plant and Christmas cactus to include.
• potting soil/dirt
• Sphagnum moss - this is optional; but seems to really help the plants from getting too dry.  I managed to cover the whole surface for about $4.
• decor - anything goes for this too.  I used a plastic horse, fish rocks from the aquarium I had previously kept, and that rad skull which also came from the aquarium.

 Do you keep a terrarium?  I'd love to hear about it!!  And if you set up a new one, I'd love to hear about your experiences as well! 

Let's go garden!! 





I will be adding to these parties:

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