Even if you live in a small apartment with poor lighting, you can bring the joy of gardening into your home with a terrarium garden. Because these delightful gardens are entirely enclosed in glass, you can control everything from moisture to lighting with relative ease. Depending on the container and plants that you choose, you can start a miniature indoor garden at little or no cost.

Selecting a Container

You can grow a terrarium garden in any type of glass container, from a small glass tumbler to a tropical fish aquarium. As long as the container allows light to pass through the sides and doesn't leak, you should be able to use it for this purpose. Visit neighborhood auctions or flea markets and you'll all kinds of plastic and glass containers in interesting shapes and different sizes. It's also helpful to have some kind of lid for the terrarium – if you need to close the container to preserve moisture, a glass dish or lid will work well.

Suitable Plants

When planting your terrarium, you'll want to find plants that are tolerant of living indoors and small enough to fit comfortably in your terrarium. Before purchasing plants or seeds, it's very important to learn about soil drainage requirements and optimal lighting conditions for each potential plant. In particular, if you decide to have more than one type of plant in your terrarium, it's important to make sure that they are compatible in these areas.

If you start your plants from seeds, you'll be able to prune them back and keep them growing with relative ease. Depending on how you landscape your terrarium, you may even be able to combine water loving plants like bamboo with moss roses, alyssums, or miniature African violets. You may also want to look around and see if you can find some ultra mini roses. If your terrarium is large enough, you can try growing smaller herb plants like parsley or miniature strawberries.

Landscaping and Decorations

Aside from adding plants, you may also want to add small pieces of driftwood, colorful stones, sea shells or other objects for decoration. With a little bit of care and attention to detail, you may even be able to construct a small stream or create beautiful lawns of green moss. Landscaping your terrarium garden will provide you with hours of entertainment as you decide on its theme and work to build it. However, if you're going to construct a complicated landscape, make sure that any built up surfaces or other design elements will retain their form as the plants grow.

If you love gardening but don't have a lot of time or the space for an outdoor garden, a terrarium garden may be an ideal option. Aside from giving you an opportunity to have a garden in a very small amount of space, you'll also enjoy preparing the terrarium and planning every aspect of how it will look. You may even find that you want to have several of these gardens based on all different kinds of themes.