Make a Terrarium

 Last year, we brought Kaia's faerie garden inside for the Winter for her to enjoy and care for. This year, with the addition of new plants, it will need to stay outside under the snow to do well. By Spring, her garden wasn't looking so hot anyway. So instead, we decided to make a terrarium for her to keep through the snowy season. We looked up a whole bunch of information and tutorials, and this is how we ended up making ours. 

You will need:

•A Watertight Container With Lid

•Gravel

•Activated Carbon (Or Activated Charcoal)

•Sand (Optional)

•Soil (Or Other Substrate)

 •Mosses (We Also Used Lichens)

•Decoration (Also Optional)

We found our glass containers at the craft store. You could use a corked jar, a food canister, or simply use a canning jar. Anything that will hold water and can be closed will work. Start by putting in a good layer of gravel, about ½ to 1 inch deep. This will provide drainage and help keep your plants from being overwatered. Eskaba came to check what Kaia was doing and find out if she can eat it. The chicken is not necessary for the successful building of your terrarium.

Add a light layer of activated carbon to the top of the gravel. Put in enough to spread over the gravel, but it doesn't have to completely cover it. This terrarium got a little extra dose because I was trying to take a picture, and Kaia dumped it all in. Woops! We found our activated carbon at the pet store, where it is normally used for fish filters. It removes impurities from the water, and ours needed to be rinsed before being used. You should wash your hands thoroughly after handling it, which is why I put it in little cups for Kaia to use. We also spread a layer of sand over the top of the carbon, for more filtration and drainage, but I saw many examples which did not use any.

Next, put in a layer of soil, or whatever substrate you chose. I like the look of soil, but moss does not really need it. Mosses absorb all their nutrients and water through their leaves, not through their roots, which are simply used to anchor the plant. You could instead use stone, woodchips, or even brick. Pat it down gently, then begin adding your mosses, (and lichens if you have them.)

We collected our mosses and lichens out in the woods, and if you do, try to take note of what kind of light your plants are growing in. Different types of mosses have different tolerances to sun. Most prefer a dappled shade, like that of the woods, but if you are collecting yours under full sun, it may need more light than other types. Once you've arranged your plants as you like, add your decorations. I made a few simple things out of polymer clay with toothpick stakes baked in. Kaia wanted a couple bunnies and a few mushrooms. I've seen other people use charms, beads, rocks, little figurines or toys, etc. Be creative, and use what you like!

Put your lid on...

 And enjoy! Little Katalin loves it as much as her big sister.

Keep your lid on, moss and lichens will dry out very quickly. Your terrarium will fog up and evaporate in a natural rhythm, but if you believe yours is too wet, leave the lid off for 15 minutes or so. You will only need to water it once every two or 3 months. Give it one or two light sprays with a spray bottle, some people use an eye dropper. Take care not to overwater, most plants can much easier survive too little water than too much, so if you are not sure, err on the side of less. If it seems to be drying out, you can always add a little more.

Kaia's terrarium was the second we made, the day before we made one for a friend of Kaia's. We had quite short notice to her Birthday party, as her friend realized that, while she'd invited Kaia, she'd forgotten to let us know the actual date, and gave us a call that morning. This was a sweet little gift to whip up in a hurry, and it, along with a packet of polymer clays for her to continue creating on her own, was very well received by an 11 year old Birthday girl. I made a little fawn for her terrarium, and a sprinkling of mushrooms as well.

Unless, as I pointed out earlier, you collected your moss under full sun, you will want to find a place to keep your terrarium in indirect or filtered sunlight. It does need sun, but too much will fry it quickly.

I would love to see any terrariums you create! Kaia already wants to make more, and I already picked up a few more glass containers. I suspect that, in addition to making a few as Christmas gifts, (because, yes, I am working on those already, oh my!) that we will also be adding to our own collection. I love them as much as the girls, they are just so sweet.

Pretty Little Birdhouses

Remember when we were making our Living Wreath and I fell in love with how the watercolours came out on the tiny birdhouse? We did buy some larger naked houses to paint and I love them, too! We started with crayon and Kaia worked long and hard on one house, then asked me to colour the other two while she ran off to play. ;)

Seeing as she felt she'd spent long enough on this project for the day, we put them away and got them out again a few days later to paint. I dunked them in water first so that the paint would blend and flow, this yields quick results and so Kaia was happy to sit and paint all three bird houses.

After they were dry, I slapped a coat of clear sealant on them. I unfortunately forgot to take a picture of them all before she'd given one to her Grandmother for her Birthday, which was of course the one she drew herself, but here are the other two finished. She gave one more to her Uncle for his Birthday, and we hung the last outside. We'll see if anyone calls it home!

Grass Horse and Diggin' Up Potatoes

Would you believe you can turn these into an adorable little horse toy? You can, and it was actually pretty easy and didn't take very long, either. Even with a 2 1/2 year old helping. ;) The dead leaves around our Daylilies were perfect, but you can use lots of other materials to make it.

Kaia helped to gather up all the dead leaves (I was calling them fronds, as the tutorial says, but my Mum, Ms. Master Gardener, informs me that they really are not technically "fronds", well, it sounded nicer!) and bunch them together. Kaia did all the trimming (although I touched it up a wee bit while she wasn't looking ;) ) and helped dole out the twine for me to tie the knots.

You can see the full tutorial that we followed at Acorn Pies. Hers is a bit stouter and cuter I think. :) While Kaia played with her new horse (which she was totally enthralled with,) I got some of our garden work done. I called her over when it was time to dig out the potatoes, which she has been waiting and waiting to do! Would you believe that anyone could have an absolute blast digging out potatoes? Kaia loved it. Every potato was like uncovering buried treasure to her. She was incredibly excited when she discovered a big potato, and she was giddily thrilled with each tiny potato. Our potatoes were dug in quite late, so most of them were pretty small, but it was certainly worth every bit of work and space put into them for the amount of joy they brought Kaia. She planted them with Grandma when her baby sister was born, and watched them grow, anxiously waiting for the day she would get to dig them up. :)

This potato was hilarious because it had a clod of dirt hanging from it. (Well... Kaia thought so anyway)

We also found a worm! While she held and pet it we talked about what worms do and why they are such great friends to have in our garden. We also found a tiny bright green spider that Kaia said was, "so cute!" and informed the spider that it had beautiful eyes. We talked about why he was a good friend to have in our garden, too.

Stormy cat even popped a little mole right out of the garden next to us. Unfortunately for her, we did whisk it away to safety. Although I do appreciate her work!  By the time Kaia was telling her Papa about it, she had forgotten what it was called, so she told him, "Stormy found a squeaky thing!"

We brought the potatoes in and Kaia carefully washed them all.

 Not exactly a huge harvest, but not bad for only having been in for 2 1/2 months! We still have a brimming full basket of green tomatoes to use up, too.

 

Green Tomatoes

So, despite knowing about the oncoming freeze in advance, and even though we got our booties out there and staked and covered everything with blankets ahead of time, regardless of us both having just come down utterly sick, everything froze. :( Kaia and I went out the next morning to pull the blankets off to be greeted with this:

We had a sad, but Kaia has been dying to pick those tomatoes since they started fruiting, so she was very excited to finally get to do so. And we found a real monster of a tomato, too! Kaia loved it.

We brought them in and turned a portion of them into green tomato pizza at Kaia's request.

We made a green tomato sauce...

 Then we made a "cream cheese" sauce, and topped it with roasted garlic and big slices of fresh green tomatoes. Mmm!

 It was super delicious! Now we just need to figure out what to do with the rest! Salsa? Green tomato and apple chutney? I've been eying that recipe. Any suggestions? :)

Herb Harvest

Brought in some of the herbs to dry! Harvested at least half of the rosemary, thyme, oregano, and savory, and bit of the basil. Took in a cabbage, too, and another musk melon. Ohhh they are so juicy good! Brought in a little kale, too, but our kale has been plagued. :(

Aside from those herbs, cabbages and muskmelon, this bed also has broccoli, kale, peppers, onions, parsley, sage, dill, and some of the tomato plants.

Here's the basket we brought in today! Minus the melon because we ate that already, it was so good... : )

 

Speaking of harvest, we went to the DeGraaf Nature Center's Heritage Harvest Day, too. Kaia's dipped a candle and made a corn husk doll. We saw a hammered dulcimers band, (so cool! Katalin loved them, too,) a bench built (which Kaia tested,) watched some dying, spinning, and weaving, made a little friend, made a big friend, ran through some giant mud puddles, and got to have some apple cider and even some vegan chocolate chip cookies!

The Demise of Three Flowers

Look, Grandma Karleen! I'm into plants, too! Into mercilessly crushing them to death, anyway.
Same thing, right?

 
First, I woo them...

*touch, touch*

*CRUSH*

 And I don't even care.

Tasty good times. (Actually she was quite disgusted with her little taste...)

Wallowing in my destruction.