Cabinet · collection one
Every plate here maps to a vessel we actually built: what went in the bottom, what went in the middle, how thick the moss cap was pressed, and what the thing genuinely needed in its first months on a shelf. Three families — closed, open, and the jar-and-case group — each running on a different water logic.
closed · 32 cm · 75 days
A narrow-necked demijohn is the classic Victorian bottle garden and still the most demanding closed build you can attempt. The neck is your only access point, which means every layer must be…
closed · 20 cm · 90 days
This build takes four species normally grown submerged in an aquarium and grows them emersed, on a wet sand floor inside a sealed jar. It is the slowest build in the collection — 90 days bef…
jar · 14 cm · 28 days
Flat glass changes the rules. A cube gives you four clear viewing faces and a flat substrate surface, which means you can design the planting as a plan view rather than a slope — and it mean…
jar · 26 cm · 35 days
A teardrop hanging vessel solves the single biggest constraint in terrarium growing — floor space. It also introduces a new one: every time you water it, gravity is working against you. This…
open · 18 cm · 18 days
A narrow 18 cm cylinder is the hardest open shape to keep humid, and that makes it the right home for plants that collapse in dry air. Nerve plant and Selaginella both throw dramatic wilting…
closed · 20 cm · 60 days
Every sealed terrarium eventually accumulates dead plant matter, and in a sealed vessel that matter has nowhere to go. This build solves it biologically: a culture of springtails turns the j…
open · 22 cm · 21 days
This is the terrarium for people who overwater. Everything about the build is designed to make water leave fast — grit instead of soil, a shallow unglazed coupe, and a decorative top dressin…
closed · 24 cm · 45 days
A tall apothecary jar with a glass stopper gives you something a mason jar cannot: vertical room. That changes the plant list entirely — you can build a stratified woodland floor rather than…
open · 20 cm · 14 days
An open bowl trades the sealed jar's self-sufficiency for two things you actually want on a desk: easy access and no condensation hiding the plants. The cost is that you now own the water cy…
closed · 17 cm · 30 days
A screw-band mason jar is the cheapest reliable closed terrarium on earth, and it is unforgiving in exactly one way: you cannot reach inside it. That single constraint drives every decision …
Every plate below is a vessel we have actually built and kept. The rail shows the most recent additions; the ledger underneath lists the whole cabinet with its measured specs.
These notes describe cultivation practice only. They are informational and are not horticultural, medical or investment advice; results depend on your own light, water and climate.
