It all started a couple of Sundays ago, when I was watching my favorite show on TV, CBS Sunday Morning. In one of the segments, Tovah Martin was demonstrating the art of terrarium making, at Terrain At Styer's, which is located at Glen Mills, PA.
I have two books by Tovah Martin, "Tasha Tudor's Garden" and "Tasha Tudor's Heirloom Crafts". Tovah's newest book is "The New Terrarium".
Over the years, I have read and enjoyed many articles, that Tovah has written for various magazines. I used to watch her show on PBS, called "Cultivating Life"...I miss that show, she used to feature wonderful gardens, the kind of gardens that make you swoon.
For a long time I have wanted to make terrariums, using some of the glass jars, bell jars and cake plates that I have collected.
This past Saturday morning, we got in the car, plugged the Styer's address into the GPS and on to the adventure. What an adventure it turned out to be.
Our GPS took us through the center of Philadelphia, through various neighborhoods, over roads riddled with winter pot holes and streetcar tracks, through various stop lights and over and under super highways.
The first stop at the Terrain At Styer's, was there Green House Cafe. We were hungry after the long and adventurous trip. We had a delicious lunch, sitting under an Australian Tree Fern, listening to a water fall and sipping water out of jelly jars. Everywhere you looked there was something interesting.
Hanging from the ceiling was an enormous ball made from Staghorn Ferns...I have always had Staghorn Ferns, they never came close to this. All around us were wonderful plants...I was in heaven.
Ok!!! So that was lunch. Now, on to shopping for terrarium supplies and plants.
Pinch me!!! I must be dreaming. I got help from a very nice man, who assembled the basic supplies gravel, charcoal and soil. He showed me the appropriate plants for the type of terrarium that I was going to make.
Here is a photo, of the essential supplies for the terrarium project, assembled on my kitchen counter.
I put on the non latex gloves,(there is no arguing with you Tovah :), rolled up my sleeves and created terrariums. It was a fun project. Ken and I talked about which plants would be perfect for which bowl, jar, and cake plate. Here are the results.
We followed Tovah Martin's instructions, that you can see on her blog here. While you are there say Hi!! from me.
When we have our next Snow Storm...I will have my cup of hot chocolate, next to our Terrarium Garden ...and dream about future projects...
...perhaps another terrarium, a big one this time.
Or a Dish Garden...
For now, I will enjoy my lovely terrariums. I will have one on the table next to the chair where I sit and stitch...a different one each day. That way I can look at it closely and enjoy it's peaceful beauty. Could it get any better than that?
Now that you have the urge to make a Terrarium...go and look at the video where Tovah Martin, will tempt you even more.
What next? Perhaps a girl and her Monkey? We will see.
