- Hi, thanks for joining us for The Family Plot: Gardening in Mid-South.

I'm Chris Cooper.

Terrariums are a low maintenance way to grow plants indoors.

Today, we're going to see how to build one.

That's just ahead on The Family Plot: Gardening in Mid-South.

- (female announcer) Production funding for The Family Plot: Gardening in Mid-South is provided by The WKNO Production Fund, The WKNO Endowment Fund, and by viewers like you, thank you.

[upbeat country music] - Welcome to The Family Plot.

I'm Chris Cooper.

Joining me today is Nancy Morrow.

Ms. Nancy is our terrarium expert.

And, Mr. D. is here today.

- Howdy.

- How y'all doing?

- Good.

- Alright, Ms. Nancy, it's good to have you.

- I'm really glad to be here, Chris.

- Let's start with this.

- Alrighty.

- What are terrariums?

- Terrariums are glass containers that are enclosed with a glass top 'cause you want to be able to get your light in from the top and the sides.

Sometimes people will put a solid top here, and then their plants grow weird.

- Okay, grow weird, okay.

- Grow weird, yeah, cause they're growing towards the sun.

Another thing, and this is really my pet peeve in life, is that people put succulents in a terrarium.

Succulents are desert plants, they're a low moisture plant.

That's a plant in a glass bowl.

It's not a terrarium.

So, we got that out of the way.

- So tell me, what's so special about terrariums anyway?

- Well, they really changed botany and agriculture in our world.

People don't realize it, but before they figured out how to do this, when you would try to get something from Asia to Europe, sugar cane or whatever it is you're trying to grow, tea, you know the tea plant, you couldn't get them there because it was a two- or three-month journey.

They're on a ship, nobody's taking care of it.

It gets dried out, blah, blah, blah.

When they figured out how to do this, it was like this whole new world 'cause it's a mini greenhouse.

If you build it right, and seal the top, it's gonna stay moist until you unpack it.

- Okay.

So, let's build one.

- Alrighty.

- Let's see how you do this.

- Okay, well, a big part of what I've seen about people who build terrariums and then fail is they don't do it exactly right.

If you do it exactly right, with the right ingredients, at the beginning, then you just sail on.

Otherwise, you're in big trouble.

So, first you want to start with some kind of gravel or rock bottom.

It's kind of your choice, depends on your container.

It's a design thing.

What's important about this, is you make a layer down here that any extra water will drain down here and be held so that you don't get soggy up here.

- (Chris) That makes sense.

- You want to be moist but not soggy.

So then, you use a horticultural charcoal, which is basically a water filter.

You have activated carbon, same thing.

You can get this pretty much anywhere that sells gardening supplies.

You just kind of mix it in down here.

It keeps it sweet.

Then, and this is the biggest, biggest thing that people don't do right.

This is called sphagnum moss.

- Yeah, that's pretty dry.

- Yeah, it's very dry.

I wanted you to be able to see the difference in it, okay.

So, you put it in here.

It's like a sponge, and it holds the water.

It also has kind of some anti bacterial products to it, properties to it, so that it helps keep it clean and stable.

You want to get it totally soaking, soaking wet, and then you make a little layer, and put it on top of your gravel.

You want to cover the whole thing because it holds moisture, and it stops your soil from falling down here.

The last thing is the soil, and I make a special soil mix.

Two important things about it is you don't want it to be, you know a lot of soil mixes have a lot of food in it.

You don't want a lot of food in it.

It'll... you limit your resources in a terrarium.

It's kind of like bonsai.

They don't grow out of control.

It's just too much for it.

- Okay, so no extra fertilizers and things like that in there.

- Right.

- I got you.

- You want it to be real wet.

See how wet this is?

- (Chris) Yeah, that's wet.

- In comparison to that, which is what it looks like when you mix it.

Usually, you just kind of ponder your container, look at your plants, and you kind of plan in your mind how it's gonna come out before you start planting.

- So, you have to have the design up here.

- It helps.

- It helps.

- It really helps.

Usually, I start with something that'll be a good anchor, and be really pretty.

- (Chris) That's pretty.

- Yeah, so I want to put it kind of close to the edge so you can see it.

I want to anchor it a little bit 'cause I sure don't want it rolling around later, smacking my glass.

You always want to have contours.

You don't want it just to be flat.

Nothing in nature is flat, so yo ur eye's pleased by contours.

- Are we mounding it up?

- Yeah.

The first plant I'm gonna put in is what they call a running plant, kind of like a strawberry, how they send out little shoots.

It's not exactly a vine, but kind of like a vine.

It's inclining that way.

That's how it's growing.

I want it to come up this hill, so I'm gonna put it down here, and let it come up and kind of crawl over this.

- (Chris) Okay.

- I soaked it in water first just to make sure it was good and ready before it went in.

What I'm gonna do is I'm gonna place it here.

Instead of trying to dig a hole and stick it in, I'm filling in around it.

- What kind of plant was it?

- It's some kind of pilea.

Several of these plants are pileas.

You want to really be sure to firm the plants in.

- (Chris) And not just cram it in, right?

- You don't want to cram it in, but you don't want to leave any air pockets either.

You want to make sure it's firmly placed.

So, I brought a couple of little figurines here.

I got her little face dirty.

You always kind of want to think about proportion.

I brought this bicycle to kind of show you about proportion.

You want everything to be in proportion.

This is a grown fairy, and this is a baby fairy.

- (Chris) Alright.

- You know, so that works, but if you try to put a little bicycle with it, it's a cool bicycle, but it doesn't fit with any of these.

That would really bother your head.

I kind of thought maybe she would be up here.

Again, you really have to place things so they don't fall over on you later.

Then I wanted something tall behind her.

Ultimately, as this grows in, she's gonna be a little hidden, 'cause fairies hide.

- (Chris) Fairies hide.

- They get up in the wood.

- (Mr. D.) They do.

- So, this is a pilea, they call it an aluminum plant.

It's something I keep and grow from cuttings.

- Okay.

- You can see the roots in there.

See all these roots here.

He really likes to grow and sprawl.

This will grow as tall as this container.

Then it'll fall over.

It's pretty aggressive.

I'll have to ultimately trim it back a good bit.

- (Mr. D.) A little pruning, huh?

- (Nancy) Do what?

- Pruning.

- Pruning, yes.

With this plant, I'm gonna try and bring these stems down and cover them, too.

That's why I showed you the roots on it earlier.

Kind of like with a tomato plant, you know how you plant as much of the stem as possible 'cause then it'll root.

That's what this guy will do.

When you first plant them, plants get shocked by being moved.

They're not built to travel.

The first week or two, they don't look like much.

They're just, I'm not sure, but then they get to know each other, and make a little microcosm there.

- They realize they've got to deal with it.

- Yeah, I'm here, I'm staying.

- It's coming together.

- Yeah, you want to look at it right here.

I thought I would put some moss here just to kind of hold her space, and make a little carpet there.

Again, it's a mini greenhouse, you know, it's pretty cool.

This is a moss you can get from around here.

This came from southeast Shelby County.

The Collierville area.

- Shelby County, alright.

- Then I'll order it actually from around the country 'cause different mosses come from different places.

When I buy this moss, it doesn't look like this.

It gets shocked.

Again, you really want to firm it down.

You don't want it having any air up under it.

Moss doesn't have roots, which is a fabulous thing.

This is a Primula.

- Primula.

- It's a primrose.

It's a tropical primrose.

It's kind of tricky to get plants out.

This is a brittle plant.

If your not careful, these leaves will break on you.

I like this plant because it blooms in a low light condition.

But I have to be sure to put it in something tall enough that when the bloom stalk comes up, it has room to come up.

- Okay, I got you.

- It's just a pretty little plant, a nice little rosette.

Let's turn it around this way, 'cause when you have a circle like this, you really want it to have interest from all sides.

Speaking of interest from all sides, you need to put your terrarium where it gets good light.

You don't want it in direct sunlight 'cause it'll get too hot.

A lot of times, I'll put mine on a table that's kind of below the window.

If it's an east or south window, only that much of it is in the window.

Then the light kind of drops down on it.

- (Chris) Gotcha.

- Like filtered, 'cause these all grow in the jungle in filtered light.

- Good information.

I'm glad you mentioned it.

- Yeah, so people want to put them in bookshelves.

Don't do that unless you put a plant light in there.

You can get a little plant strip light and put it in there, but you can't just put it over there and say well, there's a window three feet away.

That's not gonna cut it.

This is petrified wood.

Again, everywhere I go, what's over there.

I kind of put it at an angle so we have a little up to your design.

This is interesting.

I told you this is a pilea.

- Okay.

- This is also a pilea.

- Okay.

- It's cute, huh?

- It is.

- So, this grows kind of in a mat.

It'll... [sighs].

I thought it'd be pretty to put it back here and kind of let it kind of grow out around this.

I think I'll put it here.

What's kind of cool about putting it here is it'll start creeping up the glass.

- (Chris) Okay.

- You get the roots.

You know, it's kind of cool.

This'll be pretty aggressive.

Once it starts growing, it'll end up being something-- - (Chris) It'll just take off.

- Yeah, you'll have to trim back.

It's always better to keep it trimmed back than to let it get out of control, and then try and take it back.

- (Mr. D.) That's true about anything.

- (Chris) Yeah, I was about to say I was just thinking that, anything in the garden for sure.

- It'd be real hard to get lopping shears, big lopping shears in there.

- Yeah, yeah.

- I don't think that'll work down here.

- Or a chainsaw.

- (Chris) It's filling up.

- Yeah, and again, you really have to not fill it.

There's a temptation to want to fill it.

- Throw a lot of plants in there.

- Fill it, and have it look like the final product, but you have to have room to grow.

This is sphagnum moss.

This is live moss.

That's this, live.

I get this from people down by Chattanooga, big bags of it.

It's a pretty aggressive grower, too.

It's hard to resist.

You've seen it all your life like that, and then to see it so beautiful like this.

See, now I'm thinking do I really want to put anything else in, or do I want to maybe let it grow and move around.

I brought various kinds of little doodads that are the finishing touch.

I was gonna show you basically how I do it.

Again, this is not how it's gonna look when it's done, done.

- Sure, sure.

- This is a mix of kind of aquarium gravel, and then these beautiful stones.

- That's nice.

- These are all kinds of semi-precious stones that have been tumbled.

- Nice color.

- I learned in nature, nothing is homogenous.

- (Chris) This is true.

- If you would just put one color there, it would look so manmade it's not funny.

You do better to mix it first, then put it down.

You think oh, well I put a little of this and a little of that.

Nature's random.

So, when you make a design, you want to have as much random to it as you can.

I always like to say that this is kind of like framing a picture.

- (Chris) I could see that.

- Like I said, I just kind of want to give you the idea of how it looks because all of this is gonna kind of settle around.

I'm not really sure, ultimately, how I want it to look.

We have these two little girls here, another little fairy.

See, she's a little girl.

I thought what would be funny would be to put her over here where she doesn't even know there's fairies behind her.

- (Chris) Okay.

- Then, this little one looks like it's kind of thinking.

I thought I'd kind of sit it up here, where it's kind of-- - (Chris) Well, yeah, alright.

- You know, not everybody likes fairies and things like that.

They're a little sweet thing.

I guess what else I would say is over here you know we have this space right here.

If I go ahead and put this here, it's similar to the one on the other side, but not the same.

So, it's kind of a balance.

Let me wipe it down a little bit, and we'll take a look at it.

It's a good idea to keep washing the glass as you go, 'cause the more you put into it, the harder it's gonna be to get to your glass.

If you see that you made a mess, go ahead and get it before you go on.

- Alright, Ms. Nancy, so it looks good.

- Well, thank you.

- How do we seal it?

- When you first finish it, I recommend sealing it with this plastic wrap, which never wants to cooperate.

It makes a really, really good seal, and you can close it and open it over the next month without having to worry about breaking your glass top.

Glass tops are hard to come by, and you don't want to break them.

I do have a glass top that I thought I would show you what that looks like.

- Here you go.

- I had this cut.

A lot of times I just use a clear glass plate, but this looks a lot more elegant.

What's tricky about this is glass is not necessarily uniform.

You see how this is tilted like that.

This isn't a perfect seal.

So, one or twice a year, you might have to add water.

- Okay, once or twice a year.

- Once or twice a year, yeah.

If you have one that's a true seal, where it fits tight, like a mason jar or something, you never have to water it.

- You hear that?

You never have to water it.

- Own little water cycle.

- So, thank you, again, Ms. Nancy.

We appreciate it.

- Thank you, Chris.

[upbeat country music] - I had a good corn crop this year.

This is the first time that I've grown corn this thick.

This was actually The University of Tennessee recommendation for a small garden.

It really turned out well.

We had very few problems.

I think the only insect problem that I've been able to spot is maybe some borer damage, probably the European corn borer.

Right there, clearly bored into the stalk of the plant, and it fell over.

It was probably after the corn was ready.

We had a few problems with poor pollination.

When you see a kernel missing, like you have right here, then that means, for some reason, that kernel didn't get pollinated.

To understand how that happens, to understand the corn plant, the tassel is the male structure of the plant.

It produces pollen.

Each one of these silks travels to a kernel, and forms a kernel.

Once piece of pollen has to get into this silk.

Anything that disrupts that can result in poor pollination.

We had some really high temperatures a few weeks ago.

When the temperatures are up, approaching 100, upper 90s and things like that, that sometimes interferes a little bit with pollination.

And that's probably what happened here.

Now, we're pretty much through with this corn crop.

You can compost the corn stalks if you like.

If you have goats or cows, they love them.

You can feed them to goats or cattle.

Prepare the soil.

You can plant peas, butter beans, or just kind of hold off and get it ready for some of your fall vegetables if you like.

[upbeat country music] - Alright, so here's our Q & A segment.

Ms. Nancy, you have something to say, you jump in there with us, alright.

- Alright.

- We need all the help we can get.

- So, here's our first viewer email.

"Something's eating my basil and leaving black poop.

What is it?"

And this is from Ms. Linda.

Eating the basil, black poop.

I mean, it has to be some type of caterpillar, right?

- That's what I'd say.

That's the only thing I can think of.

I know there's several caterpillars that will feed on basil.

There are several I think.

I found a little info.

Let's see what kind of caterpillar types.

Cabbage looper and the beet armyworm.

So, armyworms could be on there.

Sometimes they're kind of hard to see.

Cutworms will also cut 'em off close to the ground.

It's easy to, it's not feeding on the leaves, it's just cuttin' them down.

Pretty much all of these you can take care of with Bt, Bacillus thuringiensis.

- Something that's safe.

- On the beet armyworm and the cabbage looper.

Bt will take care of it, or some of the other harder insecticides if you feel so inclined.

- Use the Bt's, though, they're a lot safer and they work.

- I'd definitely start with that.

- Yeah, I would start with the Bt's.

Obviously yeah, it's a caterpillar.

Anything that's eating leaves, and leaving black poop.

It's the caterpillar.

- (Mr. D.) Gotta be the caterpillar.

- Alright, so there you have it, Ms. Linda.

Here's our next viewer email.

"I have what looks like phenoxy herbicide damage "happening again and again on my tomatoes.

"They're in a raised bed made of horse manure "and other soil mixes.

"Are there herbicides in the soil, and will it ever be any good?"

Thanks.

", and this is from Angela.

Alright, Mr. D., phenoxy herbicide.

I know what you're gonna say.

Raised bed, horse manure, soil mixes.

Alright, is it in the soil?

- I don't think so.

I don't think so.

You know, phenoxy herbicides do have some pre-emergent activity, but they're primarily post-emergent herbicides.

I guess my first question would be-- - Yeah, I got a couple.

- My first question would be Angela, do you happen to spray your lawn with Trimec?

Or, some product that contains 2,4-D, dicamba, or does your neighbor?

If you or your neighbor, especially during hot weather, if they routinely go out there and spray their lawn with one of these broad-leaf herbicides that are labeled for use on home lawns, then that's where your problem is coming from.

It could be, especially if they're upwind from you, and the wind blows it on there.

If they do it late in the afternoon, there's inversions that can take place, and these things volitize, and the ones that, especially the products that are in these home remedies that are out there.

I think the label probably tells you not to do it if the temperature is above a certain-- - It does, above 85 degrees.

- Yeah, if temperature's above 85, I'm not sure you're supposed to use it.

You gotta sort of make sure you read the label.

That's the first thing I would think of.

I just don't think that sure, the horses could've eaten in a pasture that was treated with a phenoxy herbicide, but I just don't think it's gonna go through because the phenoxy herbicides are oxins.

They're naturally occurring anyway in the plants.

Phenoxy herbicides, actually they don't kill the plant.

They cause the plant to grow so fast it grows itself to death.

- Right, it grows itself to death.

- That's why the tomatoes are probably growing like, you know.

- Twisting and curliing.

- Yeah, and the leaves are stretching out there.

And, that's what phenoxy herbicide looks like on tomatoes.

I just don't think it's in the soil.

I would look around.

I would make sure that I'm not spraying those tomatoes with fungicide with a spray tank that I also used to control weeds in my lawn because it's very easy to get tank contamination like that.

If you're spraying fungicides on tomatoes, make sure you have a dedicated sprayer.

You can wash a spray tank out, but don't do it.

Get yourself a dedicated sprayer that you use to spray fungicides and insecticides.

You can spray both of those in that tank, but anything you use to kill weeds, don't put a fungicide and insecticide in that and expect not to have some damage.

- I would agree.

Yeah, there you have it, Ms. Angela.

We appreciate that question.

Alright, so Ms. Nancy, Mr. D., we're out of time.

It's been fun, thank you.

- Thank you.

- Remember, we love to hear from you.

Send us an email or letter.

The email address is FamilyPlot@wkno.org, and the mailing address is Family Plot, 7151 Cherry Farms Road, Cordova, Tennessee, 38016.

Or, you can go online to FamilyPlotGarden.com.

That's all we have time for today.

Thanks for joining us.

If you want more information about terrariums, or want to watch the segment again while you build one, head on over to FamilyPlotGarden.com.

While you're there, you can ask us your gardening question.

I'm Chris Cooper.

Be sure to join us next week for The Family Plot: Gardening in the Mid-South.

Be safe.

[upbeat country music] [acoustic guitar chords]