Woodland Scene Terrarium

In “New England Under Glass,” Tovah Martin took everything we love about the New England landscape and captured it in a series of lovely terrariums.

Materials to Make a Woodland Scene Terrarium

• Glass container, with or without lid
• Live Hypnum curvifolium (sheet moss)
• 3/8-inch pebbles (for base drainage)
• Horticultural charcoal
• Potting soil
• Euonymus japonicus ‘Green Spire’ (mini variegated boxleaf Japanese spindle)
• Fittonia verschaffeltii argyroneura (variegated nerve plant)
• Viola labradorica (Labrador violet)
• Nephrolepis exaltata (Boston fern)
• Crumbled Cladonia rangiferina (reindeer moss)
• Faux mushrooms
• Acorns, pine cones, lichen-encrusted sticks, and other natural elements

Instructions to Make a Woodland Scene Terrarium

1. Wearing gloves, take a large sheet of sheet moss, line the bottom of the container, and continue 3 inches up the sides to create a planting pocket.
2. Insert 1 inch of pebbles inside the moss pocket in the bottom of the container.
3. Add 1 tablespoon of horticultural charcoal and mix it with the pebbles.
4. Add 2 inches of potting soil within the moss pocket.
5. Dig holes in the potting soil, insert the spindle, nerve plant, violet, and fern, leaving space between the plants.
6. Take another sheet of sheet moss and patch it in around the plants to cover the potting soil; firm the moss down.
7. Add crumbled reindeer moss and insert the faux mushrooms.
8. Arrange acorns, pine cones, and lichen-covered twigs around the ground.
9. Water the plants, making sure to moisten the moss.
10. Cover the terrarium if you have a lid.

Tovah Martin

More by Tovah Martin