Would you like to be able to enjoy the beauty and serenity of a garden no need to have one? An everlasting garden, albeit on a smaller scale, makes it possible! Create a small ecosystem with four simple elements inside a container and decorate a space corner in your home with this. We teach you how to do it!
What is an eternal garden?
An eternal garden is the recreation of an ecosystem inside a glass container that allows isolating the plant composition from the rest of the environments, generating nutrient and water cycles inside that allow the development and growth of the flora.
The ecosystem of an eternal garden is self-sufficient, that's why it hardly needs care. Their beauty and easy maintenance probably played a role in their popularity in Europe in the 60s. Plus, of course, the chance they offered to experience the serenity found in gardens, without having to own one.
What do you need to create one?
You only need four elements to create an eternal garden, plus some creativity and taste. And some tweezers, since otherwise it will be very difficult for you to introduce and place each of the elements. But what are these?
- A container with a lid. Regardless of the shape of the container, what will be essential is that it be of Clear glass, so that natural light passes through it and you can check the situation in which the garden is located and enjoy it. The ideal way to get started in this art is to choose a medium-sized glass container with an entrance mouth that is comfortable enough to make its creation and maintenance more comfortable for you. Later, you can play with other types of containers that allow you to create aesthetically more valuable gardens.
- Stones. Stones and gravel are placed as a base to help drain water so that the soil does not remain puddled.
- Substratum. The substrate is placed on the pebbles; Ideally, it should be a substrate that retains moisture and that sticks or pine bark should be incorporated into it.
- Plants. The moss is a plant with a lot of presence in these gardens, but in addition to this you should choose other slow-growing plants, adapted to conditions of high humidity and low light. Tropical plants already rooted such as orchids, ferns, lichens, ficuses, tillandsias, phytonias...
In addition, to make your eternal garden more attractive, you can add to this as many details as you want. We love those that use small rocks between the plants and those that incorporate figures or decorative objects that give the garden a personal touch.
As important as choosing the right elements is do not saturate the container. Leave space between the plants and the walls; they should not touch them. And make sure that each plant breathes; Gardens with few but selected elements are more beautiful.
Care
The care of an eternal garden is simple, although like everything the first time it can be quite a challenge. And it is necessary to maintain some concrete environmental conditions so that the plants are not stressed and can develop properly:
- Luz. Place the terrarium in a bright place with indirect light, never direct light! This could raise the temperature of the container making the development of the plants unfeasible.
- Irrigation. Once the garden has been created, a first uniform watering with a syringe is necessary, which you can take advantage of to clean the remains of substrate attached to the walls. This should be smooth, preventing water from running through the drainage layer or you won't be able to close it for a day or two.
- Humidity. Maintaining the moisture balance is the most complicated thing in an eternal garden. To achieve this you will have to play with the opening of the container (to reduce humidity) and watering (to increase humidity).
- Pruning. You should only prune the plants when the leaves touch the walls of it. Once pruned you can leave them inside, in order to add nutrients to the substrate.
Would you like to create an eternal garden to decorate your home? Now you have the knowledge and tools to do it.