moss terrarium for mum

I made this mini moss terrarium for my mum for her birthday.



I used a vintage moss green coloured brandy glass – green is mum’s
favourite colour. It’s stuffed with mosses, lichen and even a tiny
flowering plant – a Kenilworth Ivy or Ivy-leafed toadflax.



Cue gratuitous mini moss-scape close-ups..
To see the full beauty, click the photos to view them larger..









I love making these little miniature gardens, I cultivate mosses and lichens to grow in pots in my yard – moss and lichen are some of my favourite plants. I also love the Kenilworth Ivy plants, they grow all over the walls where we live.

I use collected beach glass as the drainage material in the bottom of a glass terrarium, carefully washed first. Then I add a layer of activated charcoal which is also used for aquarium filters. For these mini terrariums I don’t add a soil/compost layer, just a layer of re-hydrated dried sphagnum moss, which acts as a barrier to stop soil washing down to the cleansing charcoal layer. Then I add the mosses and lichen which have some soil trapped in their roots from my pots outside – they only need a little soil. They like indirect light and regular misting with a water spray.

purple blossom, pale and dark

“Purple blossom, pale and dark,
Spreading with springtime in the park..”

This is a line from Colours a story book in the Shirley Hughes Nursery Collection, some of our favourite books. We love all Shirley Hughes’ books, most are favourites from my own childhood.



Anyway – I was reminded of this line while I was admiring all the beautiful purple flowers in our little backyard .. even though it is early summer now. The gorgeous dark purple clematis flowers are starting to open, and the purple campanula bell flowers which grow all over our walls are also just opening in our backyard – others in the area which get more sun have been open for a week or two already. These are amazing in the early evening light – they literally glow! So beautiful ..

Shutter Love Tuesdays @ Trendy Treehouse – Japanese maple leaves

Today I am participating in Trendy Treehouse’s Shutter Love Tuesdays again. This week’s theme is Nature.
You can click the photo above to enlarge.

I took these photos this morning in our backyard, looking up at the beautiful blue sky through the leaves of my beautiful Japanese maple trees. You can see the seeds, called samaras or ‘maple keys’; I am quite excited as this is the first time my three favourite trees have produced seeds – nature in action!

I got a bit carried away actually and took quite a few photos! It was hard to pick one favourite, but I decided on the photo above because I love the composition – and the way the sky looks blue on the right side behind the green maple leaves, and looks white behind the red maple leaves on the left.

You can view a slideshow of my maple leaves photos on Flickr