About Ecosphere

What this site is

Ecosphere is a build log for closed and open terrariums. Each plate documents one vessel: its form and measurements, the substrate stack in the order you pour it, the species list, and what the thing actually needed over its first months on a shelf.

We cover three families of container. Closed vessels — sealed jars, stoppered bottles, corked orbs — where the water cycle closes and the planting runs on its own. Open vessels — bowls, cylinders and troughs — where you keep the water cycle in your own hands. And the jar-and-case family: bell jars, Wardian cases, culture jars and narrow-necked bottles, which trade easy access for a large air volume and a deep root run.

How we work

Every plate starts as a physical build. We pour the layers, photograph the cross-section, note the grain sizes and the exact depths, and then keep the vessel for at least one full season before writing it up. Where a build failed, we say so and say why — a plate that records a collapse is more useful than one that only reports a success.

The measurements on each plate are ours, taken with a ruler against the glass, not transcribed from a supplier datasheet. Where a figure is an estimate we round it down rather than up.

Corrections and contact

Horticulture moves. Species get reclassified, substrates get reformulated, and a technique that worked in a cool room behaves differently in a heated one. If you find an error, or if a build behaved differently for you, write to [email protected] and we will check it against our own notes and amend the plate.

Corrections are noted on the plate itself, and the "last updated" date at the top of each legal page changes whenever the site as a whole is revised.

Independence

We do not accept sponsored builds or paid placements inside the plates. Where a specific product matters — a lime-free sand for a bog jar, for instance — we describe the property that matters rather than the brand, so you can substitute whatever is available locally.