A garden in a jaris an attractive and recently very fashionable decoration consisting of a glass vessel and plants enclosed in it, planted in a properly prepared substrate. Suchminiature forestenclosed in glass creates its own microclimate and does not require special care. Seehow to make a garden in a jarstep by step what is needed to create a miniature forest and how to care for it so that it retains its decorative value for many years.
A garden in a jar, or a miniature forest in a glass
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Creating glass gardenswas fashionable more than 100 years ago. This trend was initiated by the French botanist David Latimer, who nurtured his garden in a glass bottle for several years. Theseminiature gardens create their own stable ecosystemsthat require almost no support. Moisture-loving, small and slow-growing speciesof jar garden plantsthrive in a warm, humid microclimate. They need very little nutrients, especially since they should not grow too lush - if a garden in a jar is to survive for many years, the plants placed in it must grow very slowly.
Plants for the garden in a jar
For the glass garden, choose plantsdelicate, slow-growing, which require high air humidity and do not like drafts. Small ferns, mosses, Krauss Spotted and Martens Spotted Eagles, Small-leaved Ivy, Spotted Ivy, Asparagus, Brower's Begonia, Curly Peperomia, Tangle, Phytonia, and Small Orchids are well suited to such gardens.
The garden in the jar resembles a natural landscape
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Jar gardens with exotic plants
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When planning a garden in a jar, remember tochoose plants with similar light, thermal and soil requirements . Here are examples:
- If you like Asian climates, you can put a small bonsai tree or a coral palm in the jar and complete the composition with colorful phytonia.
- If you want to reproduce a Polish forest, take ivy, fern and miniature conifers, such as: black pine, European larch or yew.
- You can get the tropical jungle by planting such plants as: perennial, miniature orchids, croton, dizygota or calathea.
A garden in a jar with a bonsai tree
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Garden in a jar - what you need
To create a forest in glass you need the following products:
- Glass Jar with Lid- Any glass jar that has a lid is suitable for this purpose. Size doesn't matter, but the hole at the top does. A sufficiently large opening will allow for easy placement of the components of the composition and will allow for easy maintenance of the garden in the glass.
- Drainage- small pebbles, expanded clay, brick crumbs, clay pellets or volcanic gravel placed at the bottom of the container will serve as drainage for excess moisture in the jar.
- Dried moss- a layer of dried moss is placed mainly for decorative purposes. Often it also serves as an intermediate layer between the drainage and the potting soil. The moss absorbs the moisture in the drainage layer. The soil placed on it in which we plant the plants takes up the water accumulated by the moss.
- Charcoal- we add a small amount of charcoal to the drainage layer to prevent the development of fungal diseases.
Preparation of the forest in a glass bottle
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How to make a garden in a jar?
Here is a simple step-by-step instruction on how to make a garden in a jar:
- Clean the glassware thoroughlyinside and out.
- If the hole is large enough, you canadd a drainage layerby hand. If you have a problem with this, use a funnel or a tube made of cardboard or paper. The drainage layer should be 2-3 cm thick.
- Add 1-2 tablespoonscrushed charcoalto the drainage layer. Activated charcoal is the best, it is easy to buy at any pharmacy.
- Thenput a layer of moss .
- Place a 5-6 cm layer ofmoist potting soil on top . You can also give up moss and place the soil directly on the drain, but then it can get between the pebbles and reduce the effectiveness of drainage.
- Nowplace the selected plantsso that the roots are covered and the individual specimens do not touch the walls of the jar and each other.
- If you want,add decorative accentsin the form of pebbles, bark, moss or miniature animal figures.
- Water the finished compositionwith soft, lukewarm water . The soil should be well moistened, but no water should collect at the bottom of the jar. If you pour too much water, just leave the jar open until the excess water has evaporated.
- Close the jar tightly .
A garden in a jar as a table decoration
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How to take care of a garden in a jar?
The glass garden should not be placeddirectly in the sun, so that the container does not heat up too much. A bright place full of diffused light is ideal.
Closed glass containers allow water vapor to condense on the inner walls. If you notice that too many of them are created,move your forest in the glass to a more shaded placeor open the container for several minutes. Airing prevents the occurrence of fungal diseases of plants.
If necessarythe garden in the jar can be wateredIf the jar is tightly closed, water the plants once a month or even less often. It is enough to spray them several times with soft water and close the jar again.It is better not to fertilize the plants, so as not to accelerate their growth.
MSc Eng. Anna Błaszczak
