Introduction: Indoor Garden or Terrarium

I love having green things in my house, unfortunately so does my wife's cat (he thinks he is a vegetarian). So when my beardie outgrew this aquarium, I knew I needed to do something with it. Then along came the contest, and I had to enter!

Step 1: Gather Materials

Things you need:

  • 1-10 gallon aquarium. I purchased mine from Craigslist.com for $10. I got my use out of it while my beardie was growing. :)
  • 1 gallon or so of HydroBalls. I got mine from the local hydroponics store; a 50 pound bag was $30ish.
  • Screen - common household screen, left over from making some screens.
  • Substrate mix - I mixed some sand from my yard and some potting soil we had laying around the yard from another gardening project.
  • Plants - whatever you would like. I have several I purchased at HomeDepot, as well as some ferns from my yard.
  • Decorations - again, whatever you would like. I have an old bird house that was never used (I ultimately decided that it is too big for the tank) and a garden gnome from the Dollar Store.

Step 2: Clean the Tank

Like I said, the tank I used had my bearded dragon in it. I scraped some tape residue from the outside and cleaned inside and out with Windex. Make sure to rinse it well.

Step 3: Put in False Bottom

Take your HydroBalls or pebbles or whatever you have around and put about a half inch layer in the bottom of the tank. This is to give any excess water a place to go, so your plant roots are not sitting in water.

Step 4: Add Dirt

I put down a piece of screen, so that there is a permeable barrier between the HydroBalls and the dirt. We want to keep the roots out of the water....

Step 5: Arrange Plants

Arrange your plants until they suit you. I left the Schefflera in the pot, as it will likely become too big to fit comfortably in the tank. But that's OK, because in the next step I am going to add mulch.

Step 6: Add Mulch and Decorate!!

Like I said, I added mulch to cover up the dirt to retain moisture. I also wanted it to look woodland-ish for my Florida Glass Lizard Florida Glass Lizard (really, he is in there, but has already gone under the mulch).

Indoor Gardening Contest 2015

Participated in the
Indoor Gardening Contest 2015

Leftovers Challenge

Participated in the
Leftovers Challenge