Tam-Tam's Blog

I'm thinking about terrariums.
Nov 16, 2007 | 1:56 PM PST
Tag: Fish Tank Terrarium

 Actually, I'm thinking about my aquariums, which until about a year ago was my main hobby.  It became painfully clear that I could not keep up with my tanks, financially or physically.  Still holding out hope, I saved one 55 gallon complete set up and one 30 gallon complete set up, after giving away my fish.  The thing is...when you have to give up something you love, not because you are bored with it, or you are tired of dealing with it, but because you just can't do it anymore...well it makes you feel bad, almost like a failure.  Yes I know that it so completely silly, nevertheless it happens.    

 I had been trying to figure out what to do.  Do I sell all the aquarium stuff that I kept?  Do I just keep it in storage?  I just couldn't decide.  You don't really get your money out of it, that's for sure.  I even went so far as to tell my hubby that he would have to make the actual sales transaction because I would probably be crushed and break out in tears.  Pretty pathetic huh?  I could tell by the look on his face he was not going to touch that one for a while.  So I decided to follow suit and let it go.  I have a tendency to dwell on something to long and it drives my family nuts.  

So we had been having some very rainy and gloomy weather and the little stash of houseplants in the master bathtub just wasn't doing it for me so I started perusing the old gardening books that I bought when I was in school.   One of the books was about terrariums.  YES!  I suddenly got giddy as I reread the pages about the history of "Wardian Cases".  Why didn't I think of this before?  Heck! I've done this before!  I guess I completely forgot about it.  Terrariums can be very beautiful and very practical.  I've even read articles where people have used their old aquariums as mini green houses to start seedlings or over-winter cuttings till spring.  In fact, I remember reading about it in someone's blog.  I think it was Rachel, over-wintering her bonsai saplings or something.  Why it didn't click then...I dunno, maybe I still had fish on the brain, lol.  

My first thoughts turned to supplies.  When I started thinking about it, I realized that I could do this with just buying the proper soil and plants.  I have the light fixture, the bulbs, the gravel. the charcoal, even the tools that I used for the aqua-scaping would come in handy.  So it's no surprise that I got really excited about this idea.  If done properly, a terrarium is low key maintenance.  Then it hit me!  I started realizing how many really nice terrariums I could have had if I had thought about this before.  Oh Well, just got to let that go I guess.  It feels good to know that I now have an option for my favorite hobby.  It really feels good to know that I can recycle something I so dearly loved into something that will, if I can do it right, be very beautiful and very rewarding.    

So now I'm off to do more research.  Hopefully I will remember to blog as I go. TTFN...Tam :)