Red Lips,
Mom Hips
& Coffee Sips

I recently made the joke that if you show some plants a lot of love and care, give them water and sunlight, and place them in the right kind of soil and planter...they will love you back. They will show you this love by being beautiful and growing big and tall and producing new leaves. This is a vast contrast to the fact that you can show a person a lot of love and care, give them time and affection and make their house a home and yet, there is no guarantee that they will love you back. There is no guarantee of growth or the promise of sharing a life together.

Plants however...plants will love you back!

So....I have been getting into plants! And quite obviously, continuing along on my journey to heal my heartache. It has most definitely been quite the journey! And I feel much better than I did a few months ago and it is partially because I have kept my mind busy and allowed myself to discover some new interests and hobbies and just let time do what time does best and that is to heal.

I have been wanting to learn how to create a terrarium with cactuses and succulents. I have always thought they looked so cute and creative and unique. I researched on how to go about making them the proper way by I watching some videos, reading some blog posts and articles and gathering a list of the supplies I would need. And in true Brooke fashion, I just dove right in! I will learn as I go, make some stumbles along the way, mutter a few swear words and of course, share the beautiful end result in a blog post!

So here it is! The step by step tutorial on how to build a cactus terrarium, as taught by someone who literally just did it for the first time, today!

I gathered my dirt, stones and charcoal.

Picked my vessels.

Grabbed some cactuses (or "cacti" if I am being pretentious!)

And selected some cute little succulents. I chose a bear paw, a rhipsalis and a haworthia! The rhipsalis
and haworthia both needed to be divided because these were too big.

Materials List:

• An open, clear glass container. The opening needs to be wide enough that you can fit your hands into it. A fishbowl style is a great option, as well as a simple round or square glass vessel. Your terrarium, your choice! Visit your favourite thrift store, the perfect glass container can almost be guaranteed to be found there for less than a couple dollars!
• Activated Charcoal
• Pea Stone Gravel, Aquarium Stones and/or Aquarium Gravel or River Rocks. I used all of these!
• Cactus/Succulent Soil and Sphagnum Moss (I ended up not using the moss, but it could be a great organic material to have.)
• Small planting tools. I used a mini spade and trowel.
• Plants of course! A little variety of cactuses and succulents will allow you to be creative.
• Optional fun items like crystals, little animal figures, shells, driftwood. I didn't get too creative in these items, mostly because I didn't have any on hand! I decorated with a couple river rocks.

Step by Step:

• Pick your vessel! I picked three to play with, one larger and two on the smaller side.
• The first layer will be a thin layer of pea stone gravel, which will give some drainage for your plants.

• The next layer will be the activated charcoal. This helps to keep the soil fresh and filter out any impurities or smells.

• Pour a couple inches of cactus/succulent soil on top of the charcoal and just let it settle naturally, do not pack it in tightly. You will be digging around to plant the plants, so keep it loose!

• Pick your plants!! I liked to mix the taller ones with the shorter ones and picked some with some visual variety that I thought looked nice together! A rule of thumb that I did read during my research was to pick a thriller, a filler and a spiller. I simply grabbed a few that I had on hand and hoped for the best!
• Wear some protective gloves. Those cactuses are bitchy little pricks and they do NOT show you love if you touch them! Just trust me on this. Divide your plants if needed.

• And now it is your time to shine and be the creative genius that you are! Play around with the general placement of where the plants look good, leaving some room for the decorative items and just dig in. I planted and replanted the cactuses and succulents a couple times until I was happy with how they all looked together! Use your tools or fingers to dig the holes and plant them deep enough so their roots are buried under the soil and the plants are sitting nicely. Once you are happy with the plant placement, then you can firm up the soil and press them into place. Give the vessel a little tap or a slap to settle the roots into their new home.

The big decorative item in my larger terrarirum was this rock. I needed to place it first and design my plant layout around it.

The general idea of my plant layout. I moved the two bunny ear cactuses later!!

• Sprinkle the aquarium stones and aquarium gravel to add some visual interest and place a couple river rocks or the other decorative items you decided to add.

• Give the entire terrarium a little bit of water or mist with a spray bottle and admire your work of living art!
• These terrariums are going to live happily in a sunny bright spot and the biggest word of advice is to not overwater it! Seriously. Water them every 2-4 weeks or when the soil is completely dry. A light misting is better than pouring water in this type of plant home, because there is no actual drainage holes and overwatering can cause mold and rot.

The end result! Not too shabby for my first time!

And a couple more I put together after this first one!

My three creations hugging it out, lightly misted and enjoying the sunshine!

Some final thoughts from this red lipped, hot mess of a Mom!

I love the way these turned out. What I loved about the actual process was that it gave me an outlet to quiet my mind, focus on a fun project and create something beautiful. I gave these terrariums a little bit of love and I just know that they are going to love me back! As long as I find the perfect little sunny spot for them to call home. Ohh....and refrain from giving them too much water of course!

Brooke

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