If you can’t go into a garden, bring the garden into your home, says Vincy Eaphen, a 25-year-old entrepreneur who creates terrariums and teaches conducts workshops on making them. “Terrariums are easy maintenance mini-gardens in a glass bottle,” she says.
Eaphen — who started Earthy Patio, an online store for terrariums — uses old pickle jars, bottles or even a bulb to create a terrarium. A passionate gardener, she found it difficult to cope without greenery when she moved into an apartment from a home with a big garden. So she began to look for options to bring greenery indoors. “I read and searched online. I found the process easy and gifted a few to friends.” It was a success and people began requesting her to make more. The price range begins from ₹200 and can be customised.
Themed terrariums are a trend for parties both as décor and as a return gift. Once made, you can keep it anywhere inside your home. All it needs is a sprinkling of water once in three days. They thrive on a little water and indirect sunlight. Eaphen says, “It can die only of over watering or if completely neglected”.
Terrariums are a growing trend especially in cities where people do not have adequate space for a garden. They are proven to remove harmful contamination in the air, balance humidity levels, absorb CO2 and emit oxygen. Terrariums bring good health, peace, and joy of nature to the home or workspace.
The possibilities are infinite. It is a great gifting option for almost all occasions. “Gifts that are alive and spice up one’s living habitat is all one needs. They will think of you each passing day,” she says.
Terrariums are also a beautiful way of recycling. “Why throw out old jars and bottles when we can give life to it?” she asks. This young entrepreneur has a definite mission in life, and that is to live eco-friendly. “ I wanted to be that girl who wants to give something unique to the people and that is what I am doing”, she says with an unmistakable twinkle in her eyes.
How to do it
There are three kinds of terrariums: a basic one with sand, soil and pebbles; another with multiple layers and the water terrarium with plants and fishes
It is all about layering. First, comes a layer of pebbles, then sand, three layers of potting soil and a pinch of fertilizer
For those who want an additional twist, coloured sand and pebbles will do the trick
Selection of plants is important. Choose from succulents like Echeveria Blue Heron, Mahogany Rose, Crassula, Jupiter’s Beard, Aeonium Sedifolium, and Silver Dollar or cactii like Golden ball Cactus, Hedge Cactus, Thumb Cactus and Aloe Vera
What you need
A clean glass bowl like a fish bowl, used pickle jar, flower vase, jug, old bulbs, wine glasses
Potting soil, which is available in nurseries
Fertilizer, which you can make if you compost or buy from the local nursery
Building sand
Succulents or Cactii
Decorative material like coloured sand/pebbles, shells, beads, gravel and pieces of coloured glass
For more info, contact her at vincy16eaphan@gmail.com or 98431-77422
Spaced out
Astronauts onboard the International Space Station ate the first space-grown salad (red romaine lettuce) on August 10, 2015, grown in a a special container named ‘Veggie’, which was specifically designed by NASA astronauts Rick Mastracchio and Steve Swanson
