Every hobby gardener dreams of a garden that requires little or no maintenance. The bottle garden is basically just that: a little world in itself. Once pickled, it can last for decades and requires little or no gardening at all. What goes into the bottle garden depends primarily on the container and your own wishes. Sometimes succulents are planted in an open terrarium, sometimes comeOrchids in a glass jar. Bonsai trees and carnivorous plants are also often found in large jars. We will give you an overview of the variants and explain how you can create a bottle garden.
Creating a bottle garden: the basic principles
The original concept of the bottle garden is basically thisof a greenhousevery similar. Plants are planted in a glass container called a hermetosphere. The container is sealed airtight and placed in a sunny place. The sunlight warms the vessel and causes the water to evaporate and various nutrients to form. In the evening, after sunset, the water condenses on the walls of the vessel and drips back onto the plants. This creates a cycle that can supply the mini garden with water and nutrients for years to come.
Nowadays, a bottle garden is not necessarily understood as a closed ecological system. The term is increasingly used to describe plants in open terrariums. But the basic principles are the same: The bottle garden needs very little water and the plants thrive best in a warm location. It is very important that no direct sunlight should fall on the vessel. The perfect location is therefore a window sill with a north or east orientation or a chest of drawers or a side table that is close to the window.
Which container for the bottle garden?
If you want to make a bottle garden yourself, you should first choose a suitable container. In stores you can find bulbous models that are perfect forGarden in mini formatsuitable. But you don't have to spend a lot of money on a glass jar. You probably have old bottles with cork lids or jam jars in your household that can be sealed airtight. They are also good for this. Here are several criteria you should consider when choosing the right bottle:
- The vessel should have a wide neck.
- It should be able to be sealed airtight.
- It should be made of clear glass. Frosted glass, glass with engravings, stickers, etc. are not suitable.
- The more plants you want to have in the bottle garden, the larger the container should be.
If you have already selected a glass jar, you should clean it thoroughly and then rinse it with hot water. In this way, potentially harmful germs and bacteria are killed and you prevent mold from forming afterwards.
If you want to make a bottle garden yourself, the first thing you should do is choose the plants. Get advice about this at the garden center. Below we will give you an overview of which plants are most commonly considered. After you have decided on the planting mix, you can also choose the right substrate. Houseplant soil is well suited. If youPlant orchidsIf you want to, you need a special substrate made from bark. Bonsai trees also have special requirements and require special coarse-grained soil. No matter which plants you choose, be sure to cover the bottom of the bottle with a drainage layer. Expanded clay, brick chips and splintered porous lava stones are suitable. Planting itself can prove to be a difficult task. Above all, skill and patience are required here.
Make your own bottle garden: the right soil
Below are instructions on how you can make a bottle garden yourself. You need the following materials:
- a glass bottle with a cork lid
- Expanded clay, brick chips or lava stones for the drainage layer
- 1 tbsp charcoal (crushed, you can mix the charcoal with the substrate)
- Substrate for houseplants
- Plants of your choice (plan for a maximum of 2 small plants per 1 liter capacity)
- Tools: a narrow ladle, a funnel and a fork
- a tree branch or 40 cm long chopsticks (in Asian cuisine they are used for cooking)
- tape
- Moos
Proceed as follows: First spread a finger-thick drainage layer of expanded clay on the bottom of the glass vessel. Cover this layer with soil. You can use a funnel if the neck of the glass bottle is not wide enough.
Which plants for the bottle garden?
Exotic plants that can withstand heat and high humidity thrive best. These include, for example, small ferns such as maidenhair fern, goldspot fern and white hare's foot fern. The Bubikopf and the Indian pennywort also love the warm and humid climate in the bottle. Orchids also feel at home in the bottle garden. Also some varietiescarnivorous plantsand succulents and cacti can thrive as long as you leave the container open.
In order for the plants to fit through the bottle opening, you can first shape them into the desired shape. Tie the trowel to the tree branch with tape and dig a hole for each plant. Then you can put the plants into the bottle one by one and plant them with the trowel. Take your time, as this can prove to be a difficult task, especially with vessels with a narrow neck. To create a harmonious overall picture, try to position the smaller plants at the edge and the larger ones in the middle.
Bottle garden with bonsai
A harmonious landscape in a small format: This is how the bottle garden with bonsai can be described. Bonsai trees of the Ficus Ginseng or Ficus Microcarpa genera are particularly suitable for the terrarium. To create a beautiful mini garden, you still need the special soil for bonsai trees, moss and about half a handful of pozzolans (a decorative mix of various small stones). You will also need a container with a wide neck so that you can plant the bonsai trees. Proceed similarly to planting ferns: first spread a drainage layer on the ground, then a layer of soil and then place the trees in the middle of the glass. Decorate with the stones and then place the moss balls around the tree. Now water the small garden and place it in a sunny location. But don't close the jar.
Bonsai trees thrive best in the sun and cannot tolerate waterlogging well. That's why you should definitely avoid putting the lid on.
Create a bottle garden with orchids
Orchids are also perfect for the bottle garden. The plants thrive best in a bright but sunny location and can survive on very few nutrients. By the way, orchids need special soil. This is how you can create the bottle garden with orchids step by step:
1. You need a clean and dry glass jar with a wide neck and a capacity of at least 3 liters.
2. Place the drainage layer of lava stones into the glass; it should cover the bottom of the vessel and be finger-thick. Try to distribute the stones as evenly as possible.
3. Fill a coarse-grained orchid substrate made from pine bark into the glass jar. If necessary, you can make a funnel out of cardboard so that you can distribute the substrate evenly.
4. Take the plants out of their flowerpot, remove the soil and trim the roots a bit. Using a narrow trowel, dig a small hole and place first the orchid and then moss in the bottle garden.
5. Water the bottle garden with rainwater and leave the lid open so that the water can evaporate and waterlogging does not form. Orchids can only tolerate moisture for a short time and prefer dry soil.
6. Two-three days after you have created the bottle garden, you can close the lid and place the bottle in a sunny place.
Make your own bottle garden with carnivorous plants
Exotic plants such as carnivorous plants can also thrive in the bottle garden. Unlike bonsai trees and orchids, you can close the lid and not have to worry about waterlogging as long as you use a terrarium substrate. It can be found commercially under the name vermiculite. The following plants are particularly suitable for this:
- Pitcher plants
- Plants (mimosas)
- Venus flytrap
First put the lava stones in the glass jar, spread the substrate for carnivorous plants over it, mixed with 2 tablespoons of substrate for terrariums, dig out small holes, place the plants and cover their roots with soil. Spread moss over it and water the plants. You can put the lid on and open the container every two weeks and ventilate it briefly.
Bottle garden care: This is what you should pay attention to
Creating a low-maintenance mini garden is very easy. But so that you can enjoy it for a long time, you should take a few things into account when caring for it. Here is an overview of the most common errors:
- Fill too much substrate into the glass. The more substrate, the more nutrients the plants receive and the faster and more lush they grow. Mini orchids and bonsai trees are often given special growth inhibitors in garden centers. The same applies to fertilizer.
- Water too much and too often. Plants in a closed container need significantly less water than those in flower pots. To avoid waterlogging, you should only give water when the soil is completely dry, and then only a third of what the plant would normally need.
- The right location plays a crucial role. The bottle garden should not be placed too close to the heater.
- Dead plants, wilted flowers and leaves should be removed from the bottle garden as quickly as possible.
