hey guys welcome back today on the untidy artist we're making a desert terrarium a terrarium is basically an indoor garden in a glass container by placing the plants in the glass these miniature little gardens create their own ecosystem there are different types of terrariums that you can make and today I'll be showing you how to make one that uses cactuses and succulents there are very low-maintenance and perfect for someone that doesn't have a green thumb like me let's grab some supplies and get started the first thing you'll need is a glass container mine measures 8 inches tall by 7 inches around in diameter next you'll need some small rocks or aquarium gravel I found mine at my local gardening store and you can also check pet stores for aquarium gravel then you'll need some activated charcoal or activated carbon this is actually charcoal that has been heated at a very high temperature which makes it become very absorbent and it's going to help to keep our terrarium very fresh and clean smelling you can find activated carbon at specialty gardening centers or I found mine at the pet store you'll need some potting soil you'll want to make sure that you get some that's especially for cactuses and succulents this drains really well and it's the best thing to plant your cactus and succulent desert garden in then you'll need some plants this is the fun part I found mine at the local hardware store and there was a nice variety in their gardening center these are just different types of succulents and cactuses you want to make sure when you're reading the sides of the containers that they all need the same light and water requirements you want to make sure all the plants in your terrarium have the same needs then you'll need some things to decorate your terrarium with this is just some fun colored sand that I found I also found this really pretty crushed glass that I'll be sprinkling along the top of the terrarium alright let's get started the first step is to line the bottom of your glass container with your gravel now work slowly as you put them in eat about an inch to two inches of gravel at the bottom of your glass container and be careful as you're putting them in you don't want to break the glass so do it gently and make sure that they're in a nice even smooth layer and so when you look at the side of the glass it should come up one to two inches the next step is to put in a nice even layer of our charcoal so using a spoon just evenly sprinkle a layer of the charcoal over your rocks it's good to make sure that your rocks aren't so big that the charcoal falls right to the bottom that's why I like using the smaller rocks and just get a nice even layer over the top of the rocks and this is gonna help to filter the water and keep our terrarium nice and fresh and clean smell now once you put the charcoal in it's time to add your soil now you want to add enough soil to be able to cover the roots so a good rule of thumb is to look at the size of the containers of the plants that you got and that's kind of what I use to gauge the amount of dirt that on them because obviously you want enough space for the weeds to be able to grow so I just worked slowly and put the dirt in and then I kind of take a look at it and see if it's enough and if not I keep adding a little bit more you'll have several inches of the dirt in your terrarium so you can see the different layers as you hold it up to the side we have our gravel at the bottom then our charcoal and then our soil okay now it's time to start adding our plants so decide which plant you want to be your main focal point and then you're going to slide them out of their containers gently and gently kind of pull apart the roots and loosen up some of the soil that came with the plant we're just kind of loosening up those roots there and getting rid of some of that soil that was already in the pot with it and then to plant to your plants you can either I'm just using my fingers but you can also use spoon or some people even use tongs or chopsticks and you just make a little indentation in the dirt and then add your plant in and make sure that the dirt is nicely packed around it and then I'd like to decide ahead of time how to put my plants in this one was a little spiky and definitely poked me a few times but you want to kind of decide how you want to arrange your plants ahead of time so that when you go to put them in you have a good idea of where you're going to place them in your terrarium you can see I'm just loosening up the dirt on this one also and I'm going to place it in this behind the succulent I put in when you're planning out where to put your plants kind of keep in mind the heights of the different plants and which side will be the front of your terrarium and you can see I'm just kind of using a spoon to get into those hard-to-reach places and this is what it looks like so far now this next one you'll notice some of the succulents actually break apart and you can get more than one plant out of each one so you can see this one the roots just gently came apart there and I was able to use this succulent in a couple different spots in my terrarium or you can even use them in another tree so I just ended up using a small piece of this plant I liked that little burst of green color to the sidebar and once you have all of your plants planted it's time to add our sand so I found the easiest way to add the sample is to use a funnel and a spoon so I'm just using the funnel to get down exactly where I want to sound to go and then I just pour the sound through the funnel and it allows me to get the sound really in those hard-to-reach tight places and work slowly you don't want to end up getting sand all over your plants and just get a nice even layer of the sand around all of your plants and I use my spoon and even a little paintbrush to kind of smooth everything out and make sure that everything is nice nice and covered and nice and even then I grab my spoon and my little glass pieces and I'm just going to sprinkle them in a few different places to add a few highlights in my terrarium and this really is the fun part it really starts to look like its own miniature little garden and is crazy how just professional and beautiful these turn out this is the fun part where you really get to be creative and you can really do anything you like in fact if you just want to put rocks on the top you can and then the last thing that I'm going to do is add this cute little shell that my mom gave me a little sentimental piece and to my little terrarium to make it more personalized and just its own little unique garden that's it guys you're all set these are so fun to make you can do them in small containers big containers and because they're cactuses they're very easy to upkeep you just water them every couple weeks you don't want to overwater them and make sure you don't put them in direct sunlight thank you so much for watching if you 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