thealliumgardenerWould you consider ‘winter garden’ an oxymoron? Only if you mean to garden outside. But if it’s too cold to do that stuff, how about gardening indoors? I’m speaking of the art, and I really mean art, of the terrarium.
I discovered the terrarium “garden” last year. That was the winter we had record snow fall here in Delaware. All that snow made me claustrophobic, compounded with the significant withdraws I was having from my then dormant perennial garden. That winter, I discovered Tovah Martin was coming to town for a book signing and terrarium class at a local garden center. Who is Tovah Martin you may ask? Well, she is only the reigning queen of the terrarium. I love her book on the art of the terrarium, and in it, her message of hope and imagination (no seriously, I’m not being melodramatic, she really saved me). And that winter, everything I could get my hands on went under a glass of some sort for my own Tovah-inspired terrariums. I’ve since reined myself in, and just in time to share with you how much fun creating your own terrarium can be, especially in the dead of winter when we need a spot of green the most.
Terrariums are essentially an artificially created environment for growing plants. Terrariums are usually under glass and produce an environment meant to raise the humidity of what’s underneath. Needless to say, whatever you are growing underneath should be most content with this environment, or you could end up with, dare I say it-gook…
I found some of the most inspired terrariums at The Bella Life | Search results for terrarium.
photo from The Bella Life Blog at http://www.thebellalifeblog.com/?s=terrarium
Who says one can only garden outdoors? These cute little Tillandsia plants (a.k.a. air plants) could surely brighten even the most grey of days.
Many plants work well in terrariums, for instance orchids, mosses, ferns, begonias, etc. All you need is a little imagination and a little inspiration.
If the weather is great where you live, then look for dump carts for sale in anticipation of the next gardening project, or look for railing for the planter box you’ve been dying to create or even prepare for your next pool party using your battery operated pool surface skimmer. But if the weather is crummy like mine, think how great it would be to have a terrarium all your own.
More to come on the winter garden, we have 87 days until spring!
The Allium Garden® 