Steel Mill Terrarium

I work in a Steel Mill. It's poorly lit, hot, exhausting, sometimes lonesome (I operate an overhead crane) and sometimes a little depressing. Recently I stumbled across this beautiful flowering plant on the plant site where I work,which I'm pretty sure is actually a weed, which reminded me that beauty can be found in the mundane. I've read a couple of terrarium -ibles that have been much more detailed and proper than this one,(I'm sure I've broken many "rules" with my plant selection, etc.) but this is meant to be more durable and portable than other terrariums.

Step 1: Gather

You'll need: -a container: preferably clear -dirt: since my terrarium amounts to planting pretty weeds, I didn't feel any need to be particular...there are lots of pebbles in my dirt... -plants: in my case some moss, and a couple of flowering weeds that caught my eye. -optional:rubber gloves...the irony is far from lost on me that I work in an industry where I routinely get filthy, and yet I hate getting my hands dirty...

Step 2: Arrange

I collected my plants into a foam cup...oh so elegant:-). Then I put the elements into the container (the bottom half of a water bottle-uber portable and inconspicuous) from the bottom up as follows: dirt, pebbles, dirt then plants. As you can imagine, thin layers of each. As far as the aesthetics of flower arrangement go...I work at a steel mill...I like the way this looks but I'm sure there are parameters that would yield more growth, better photosynthesis, etc., but I'm going to try this out. I'm calling this project complete! The two in the bottle bottoms are for use right away: one in my crane and one in my car. The one in the foam cup is coming home with me for another terrarium project I have planned. Happy growing!

Step 3: UPDATE

It's been a few days now and my car terrarium is blooming nicely! Looks like everything took!