Downsizing your Garden?
As people downsize – often to an apartment or condominium - or as others grow older and are unable to garden on the scale they used to, they concentrate on growing plants indoors, or on patios, verandas, terraces.
Consider a Terrarium
I’ve been thinking about something my mother became very interested in as she grew beyond heavy gardening tasks: terrariums. These are glass containers into which you put soil, enough water to make it quite moist, perhaps a drop or two of liquid fertilizer, and a few plants. They are then made airtight and condensation takes care of the rest.
Interesting History
This style of gardening came about quite by accident around 1830 when a British surgeon, and ardent natural historian, Dr. Nathaniel Bagshaw Ward, noticed that a fern and some grass had begun to grow in a bottle in which he had sealed the chrysalis of a sphinx moth. He had bedded it in some moist earth without realising the soil contained any seeds.
Dr. Ward was a thoughtful and enterprising man and it occurred to him that, not only might it be possible to grow plants which his garden conditions prevented, it might also be possible to transport them in this fashion. He therefore packed two glass cases with ferns and grasses and sent them off by sea on an eight-month journey to Australia. The plants thrived, in spite of the fact that they had weathered extreme temperatures ranging from freezing cold to intense heat, and the fact that no water had been added during the entire period.
Indian Tea Anyone?
The portable greenhouses became known as Wardian cases and it is interesting to know that, due to their success, tea plants were shipped from Shanghai to the Himalayas, thereby launching the Indian tea industry. Rubber trees from Brazil were taken to Ceylon, now Sri Lanka; exotic flowers, shrubs and trees were transported to Europe and the United States, and quinine was first introduced to India from South America by this method.
Make Your Own...Just for Fun
Part of the fun of planting a terrarium is in the selection of a container. It can be as large as a normal-sized fish tank or as small as a goblet. There are beautiful old bottles and apothecary jars to be appraised, fish bowls, candle lamps, and that ornate candy jar which was your grandmother’s. I had an old, large apothecary jar some decades ago with some very pretty ferns and African violets happily settled in. It was a warming delight during a cold, bleak winter. African violets look particularly lovely in brandy snifters. I gave one as a birthday gift once and it became my friend’s favorite present that year. As you start to look around you will be astonished at the number of containers which can be used for these miniature gardens. It is obviously better to begin with something which has a wide neck, rather than the usual narrow one of a bottle, but once you’ve mastered the art, even that is possible with the help of long-handled tweezers. You might have kept the odd top from a broken jar, or have a small glass plate which can be used to make the container airtight, or your local glasscutter will provide the necessary size glass to close the aperture. Watch the level of condensation; depending upon the efficacy of the seal, you may have to add a little water at times or, if there is too much moisture on the inside of the container, you would have to open the seal for a while to allow some of it to escape, thus drying out the conditions slightly.
Add pebbles, a piece of driftwood, or a pretty figurine. The latter can be changed, of course, for different seasons or festive occasions and might be particularly attractive as a table center for special days. Create a tiny desert, a seascape, a tropical forest scene or a meadow with simulated stream.
There are also vivariums wherein small pets like newts, salamanders and toads are kept. Of course, one would need to do quite a bit of study in order to produce the correct atmosphere for these tiny creatures, but they are fascinating to watch in this intimate garden setting. Once the correct conditions are established, building a vivarium would be a wonderful pastime for children, and an ongoing and absorbing delight. There are usually some good, informational books in libraries, or a local pet shop might be able to give some good tips. Probably, craft shops sell instructional books on this sort of hobby as well.
Think how many things you could add to your birthday and Christmas wish lists! But don’t wait until then; be good to yourself and start making plans now.
Miscellaneous Tips
You probably know that one should cut flowers under water, but deeper water provides more pressure and thus your flowers will last longer.
Leaves immersed in water for a while with some tobacco juice will stay fresher. And a little gin, or a penny, will help tulips to last longer. Amazingly, if you barbecue some bamboo (!) the charred wood will help to keep the water fresh.
