Terrarium

nice to have a garden in the house

looks good! I've tried a fishtank garden, but maybe it wasn't big enough or more likely, I didn't know what I was doing. your pic makes me want to think about trying again

Thank you, I enjoy making them and watching the plants as they grow.
The trick to making a fishtank garden is using gravel and activated charcoal. You have to use the right types of plants too, plants that thrive in humidity. There have been times when I have had to use fungicides to prevent mold from spreading inside of them. Once it is watered, you almost never have to water again and after the initial watering, you have to make sure that you didn't get it too wet or it's a huge mess! Aside from that, put it somewhere bright but no direct sun or it gets too hot inside. If the glass gets covered in condensation, you have to open the top a bit. Try to pick plants that won't grow in the drier air inside the house, it makes it more interesting. It might sound a bit complicated but it's really very easy, the plants take care of themselves.

lol I think I'll stick to admiring others' efforts! I've seen bottle gardens, but trying to work through the nck would be even harder. I have an old book, "indoor gardens", that uses boxes with cut-dpwn fronts to make rising tiers; think I'll try those first, they sound "easier" for a beginner - the only prob being that they'd lose moisture more than a closed environemnt, and so would need watering more often.

have yiou tried your local Freecycle, if there is one in your area? Online swop shop, it's amazing what people give away (i could hae had four pianos if I'd anywhere to put them!!)

I searched for "make a terrarium", too many links to post any here! but mabe you could get, or maybe already have, some of the materials to DIY

Maybe you could try making a terrarium/bottle garden with a smaller glass container and just put one small plant inside to try. It might sound complicated but it's really not anywhere near as difficult as it sounds. You could always make one with an open top and then cover it later if you wanted to. Sometimes having an open top is nice since you know you won't have to worry about growing mold inside.

solo gardens sounds good - you can adapt the environment to exactly suit what that plant needs, rather than have to do a general compromose for several at once. At the very least, it'd be practice for when you do do your own

a lot of the pics showed open tops, with plants growing up beyoind the glass rim - being slightly bowl shape, the rim was smaller than the body, so there was still some element of cover for the smaller plants at teh base