Is it Spring yet?

Feb 18, 2012 - in Madison, WI. Crazy.

As many of you know, Cassandra and I live in Madison, Wisconsin. This is a place known for relatively brutal winters (especially for a gal who lived in Atlanta for 16 years.) However, this winter we've been blessed with the fruits of global warming and are enjoying the mildest winter since I moved here in 1996.


Let me illustrate the mildness this way... On Saturday, February 18, when there would normally been multiple feet of snow on the ground, I was outside in bare feet chasing my dog who had slipped out the front door when I wasn't looking.


When I walked out of the house on Saturday and the sun hit my face, I had an automatic response that went something like this:

1. Look at the yard.
2. Realize it needs to be cleaned up.
3. Mentally start planning the garden.


On Saturday February 18, I was thinking about doing spring yardwork. It's a mad, mad world.

I couldn't shake the need to plant something in the ground so I decided to make a couple of terrariums instead. This is a craft project I've wanted to try for a while but had never gotten around to it. So... I got to go to the garden center and buy some supplies, including plants, and get my hands dirty. Here's the step-by-step and my meager results:

Things you need include some rocks, charcoal, and potting soil.

Some nice glass containers:

Some very small, slow-growing, low-light plants:

One coffee filter per container, a pen, and a pair of scissors:

Step 1 - Add rocks to the bottom of your container.

Step 2 -  Measure and cut the coffee filter to fit on top of the rocks (the coffee filter keeps the soil from dropping down into the rocks)

Step 3 - Add a layer of charcoal (this helps keep the terrarium clean and sweet smelling)

Step 4 - Add potting soil deep enough to put your small plants in.

Step 5 - Separate your plants out into small, individual plants and plant them in your terrarium in an appealing way (this is where the process broke down for me.)

As you can see from my finished product, one container was too small for the plants I bought - but I do kind of like having them come up and out of the container - and the other isn't particularly pretty. Maybe after it's grown in a bit.

At least I got my planting jones out of my system for a bit.

 Happy "spring" everybody!

- Alex