Playin' in the Dirt

If you were to walk into my house today and you could manage to overlook the random Mr. Potato Head pieces littering the floor, or the Elmo toys that were tossed from the balcony you would notice that I have three live plants.

1) A tree thingy in my dining room.  I manage to kill this about twice a year and subsequently replace it.
2) An aloe plant in my living room.  This ole' boy is struggling, but I am determined to make it thrive as it came from my grandmother's aloe plant.  I screwed up by trying to thin it out.  I did that about  a year ago and it just hasn't been the same since.

3) A peace lily in my living room.  I've successfully kept this puppy thriving for over two years!!  And, I realize that killing a peace lily is no easy feat.  But can we ignore that little fact and just applaud my accomplishment?  Thanks.

I think I read somewhere that, based on the size of my home, I should have 8-10 live plants inside for ideal air purification.  Well, there is just no way on earth that I could possibly manage that many plants.  I would need a staff for that!  That being said, I do love succulents and think they are just such a charming addition to any room.  Also, they're pretty hard to kill (my aloe plant being a prime example).  So I found an idea for this succulent terrarium on Pinterest and decided to try it.

First, I found my container -- a pretty, but inexpensive glass bowl thingy that I found at the Miz.  Then, I scooted off to PetsMart to buy activated charcoal and pebbles for my container.  Can I please digress for a moment and talk about how disgusting PetsMart is?   I could go the rest of my life without darkening the doors of that wretched place again.  After I had all the basic supplies I went to Home Depot to buy the mini succulents and the cactus soil. 

I did this little project last night, so the lighting in my pictures is horrid but I'll share anyway. 

The supplies:  cactus soil, mini plants, pebbles, activated charcoal, glass bowl. 

First, I put a thin layer of pebbles in the bottom.  This is supposed to help the drainage, which is evidently important if you don't want to kill succulents.  (I hate that word)

Then, activated charcoal.  I think I read that this is necessary for air filtration or something?  Who knows.  If it turns out to be an unnecessary step, that would be a good thing considering that is the whole reason I went to the dreaded PetsMart. (I forgot the picture of this part, but its not really much to see anyway)

Then the dirt.

Then, you plant your little plants in a cute pattern.  I like the final result, although I do think there is one 'open' area in this terrarium that I don't really like.  However, according to Mom, you must plant things in odd numbers so adding a 6th plant is out of the question.  I do not think 7 will fit.

Hopefully I won't kill  it!!!!  

OH!! And I guess this new addition technically achieves that whole 8 plants goal, huh?  I'm not so sure these count because they are miniature.