Each of my terrariums is like a laboratory each an ongoing experiment. I have created this page to document some of these ongoing experiments.
Bowl Terrarium 2009
I created this terrarium using mosses and ferns, but I found growing in an aquarium the spores of which must have drifted in on the wind. It is a sealed ecosystem that never needs opening.
Para-lab Terrarium Sept 2020
A small bottle garden I created from liverworts and moss collected on pavements and walls around Manchester City centre. It looks like it needs some maintenance, a liverwort is almost popping the cork off the top.
Electrified Cats-tail May 2021
This one is created with no substrate, just moss from the lawn placed in the bottle. Has done well with the lid sealed the moss has grown stretching to the top quite rapidly.
Unidentified Lawn Moss
Two bottles h mosses found in my garden, the taller one in the last image is possibly a species of moss ‘Plagiomnium’. Both have grown several millimetres over the last months. Look at how the moss has created a moisture-holding mat above the sand substrate. I noticed this with my large 2009 terrarium – over the years all the moisture from the gravel was drawn into the moss mat.
Spear-moss/Oldham May 2021
I found this moss growing in an overgrown car park. Birds love to pull this up for making nests. I’m not sure yet if it prefers having the lid off. the spear have reached the top – seems to need a larger bottle.
Petridish moss garden May 2021
Foudn a few mossy twigs that had fallen from the trees. These are probably Bristle or pincushion moss. I keep this on the window cill and spray and water the dish every week letting it dry up completely on occasion. Its great o see the moss revitalise. Just recently this mushroom emerged.
Planted Gutter
I wanted to simulate a gutter in this long plant pot [I think of it as an open-top terrarium]. I have just added random moss and a fern I have found on the street which was washed off a rooftop. These are beautiful ferns you often see growing on rocks or trees, but it also grows on walls and in gutters. So you can find them washed out on the pavement after heavy rainfall.
