Build a Terrarium - Adding Decorative Features

Kacy Paide: Hi, my name is Kacy Paide of Small World Terrarium. You are watching how to make a Terrarium. This clip is going to explain how to use decorative objects as finishing touches on your terrarium. Now I usually only use two elements, I use stones, we have stones of different sizes, I like to make small stones, river rocks with large ones and recently I have started adding driftwood pieces as well. So, basically just use your own discretion, sometimes I like to start with the larger ones first. One little technique that I like -- I don't know if anybody notices -- is to take some tall stones and actually stand them on end, so they are not sitting flat. It's more of a -- you can outdoor a garden feature if you do that. Now the importance of stones isn't just decorative especially in an open terrarium, you are going to want stones because it keeps the soil moist. It reduces the amount of soil surface area, so the moisture stays inside, close to the roots instead of evaporating, then you don't have to water as much. So, just drop them in, kind of want to nestle them under, low lying plants like this. I like to take a big flat stone and stick it right there under the rabbit's foot fern leg so it shows up and so overtime it doesn't get buried. Plants will still shoot off of this even if it's not touching the soil. And again in a lidded terrarium, this is more for aesthetic purposes, so let us kind of -- like to get a good mix of light and dark, big and small, that about does it for the stones, so now the finishing touch is going to be a couple of pieces of driftwood. Now, in most terrariums I choose two pieces, one small piece, one long piece. So I just go through a box like this, kind of select a couple of pieces. Now, one trick of the trade that I learned the hard way again is to make sure if you are using driftwood, sit it on top of the stones, don't sit it on top of the soil, because if you sit it on the soil, the wood is going to stay moist. It's actually going to get fuzzy and start to mildew. But if it's resting on top of the stones it always stays relatively dry and you can, just kind of nestle these end, lay them on top however you want. Just be sure to place it so it's not pushing on the stems of any of your plants and see that there is stone under here. So, it's never going to stay wet. It will be wet when you water them but that's okay. After putting in that last piece of driftwood, once you are happy with the arrangement of the plants, the stones, the wood, we are just going to gently spray every single plant, since they have been through a little bit of trauma at this point, not too much since the soil of course is already wet. In doing this you can also rinse down some of the stones since a lot of them are going to be a little bit dirty too. Now once everything has been sprayed, the rocks are shining and clean, you are finished building your terrarium. You can put the lid on the terrarium, stand back and admire your living work of art.