My very first assembly terrarium with moss. Will it survive?
Wood bark found by the road side while heading to work
Harvested a roadside "weed" that I know my chickens used to love.
Dealing with nature is never easy. There's a lot of patience added into the mix.
Sue we can use money to speed things up, like acquiring ingredients; but once it is done, and letting nature take over can be a challenge to many people who have been used to micro managing, or "in control"
“As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts." thus said the LORD
(Isaiah 55:9)
Learning to respect that nature will take its course is also a practice of "letting go". Especially when battling recent depression and traumas, the flesh (aka ego) will try to take whole of everything.
But to even assembling a terrarium requires patience, delicacy, and respect of nature by using the right soil to create the ideal need to survive.
Moreover, these are not just all bought items. There are some repurposing items that was added to this very first feature.
For instance, the glass bottle, which is no longer accepted as part of the recycling return process, can only head to the landfill, unless used as containers. But glass is delicate and it has its unique role as preservation and ecofriendly because it was made out of sand, and just "returning to dust" doesn't jive well for me either.
Becoming a new home for the 2 Fittonias cuttings and moss would serve a meaningful repurpose of a second chance
Another "ingredient" that was not purchased was the tree bark's skin. it caught my eye on the parking roadside, as if it was waiting to just decay itself away... and as I picked it up, I was wondering will it fit to the bottle I was intending to make. Turned out it was a perfect fit!
To some, it may be decaying, not today, this piece of "dying" skin had a new feature in an ecosystem, which I am not certain are there any bacteria inside the skin though I did dip in filtered water for a while and made sure it was washed and properly dried up before using.
Once all the assembly is done, now nature will take its course.
My first takeaway making my very first terrarium with the glass that was supposed to be thrown to the landfill and a roadside piece of wood lying around decaying...
These items, just like people, tell me that every masterpiece requires participation of individuals; even individuals that are deemed beyond help in one season of life, can play a significant role in another season of life. No one knows what the future holds but when we are suddenly picked to participate in a season (even sometimes "against our will" when we feel the worse in our lives), there's always an unseen story behind that may play out wonderfully for another great season ahead.
Now for propagation
I have used a cookie container and laid with some small stones layer at the bottom and some peatmoss mix at the top, in hope that some of the moss that are transferred over will be able to eventually find new life and start propagating. I dare not put too much inside in hope it will have room to spread its pores, but along the way I also found a fern / weed like bush by the roadside that the chickens in my ancestors' home in the village used to love to eat them, and I decided to just pull some of these with a bit of its roots, wash it clean and add into it, in hope that it will learn to settle in a terrarium like environment. I do hope that I am not over watering otherwise I might just try airing it tomorrow and then move them around to avoid total direct sunlight, but still in a bright environment with the hope it will start to have a new life there.
In the mean time, I will keep re-using the glass bottles that are deemed to be thrown away, large or small, and see how much I can create. this is going to be quite fun and challenging, and I am excited to see how they will behave in time to come.
Fingers crossed that the re-transferred Fittonias cuttings that I cut out will not have a "shock" and will settle into the terrarium nicely.
Stay tuned for my daily log for their progress!