As I said earlier, Natalie gave me the inspiration to create a terrarium. After going over to their place and looking at her wonderful terrarium, I just had to make one (and I have always wanted to grow moss and ferns- both needing a terrarium environment). The most expensive part would have been the container, but fortunately when my neighbor was moving out, she gave me a large hexagonal aquarium sitting on her back porch (along with some other lovely pots and plants). With that solved we only had to buy the hood (which was the most expensive part).

For the inside of the aquarium, Natalie gave me a list of supplies- the first layer was hydroponic clay pellets (1-2") which looked like chocolate candy. The second layer was CocoTek, which was 1" deep at the shallowest level. Aparently the husk of coconuts won't break down for at least 5 years -very cool stuff- and you buy it in bricks which expands to 8 times their original size. Now comes the shaping: Mark and I made two hills with a path for a stream flowing just off center.

Now we can add anything we want- the hardest part is not adding too much. We purchased three river stones and a crazy piece of african driftwood from Pet World. Natalie had some extra cushion moss we placed on top of the moist coco-tek. It really looks amazing! And there is almost no care involved. There only needs to be a very low strength fertilizer applied to future plants and the moss, and occational spraying of distilled water to keep up the humidity- much less care than my time-consuming african violets. Still thinking about adding a little sheep- on the hill grazing- just seems appropriate!