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Tiny Plants, Big Fun: Exploring Dish Gardens and Terrariums
67 Plays1 month ago
Join us for another festive and fun episode of Hort Culture, as we discuss the ins and outs of dish gardens and terrariums. We will talk about the difference between the two, noting that dish gardens are open, shallow containers typically housing arid plants, while terrariums are closed, humid environments. We will share our personal experiences and preferences, from using mini plants to prevent overgrowth in terrariums, to employing fun accessories like tiny dinosaurs in displays. We also delve into the practicalities of plant selection, soil types, and even the minimal need for fertilizer, emphasizing the importance of understanding each plant's specific requirements.
Dish Gardening & Windowsill Gardening
Questions/Comments/Feedback/Suggestions for Topics: hortculturepodcast@l.uky.edu
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Transcript
Early Christmas Tree Traditions
00:00:16
Alexis
What is up peeps? Plant people in the house.
00:00:19
Plant People
Somebody has holiday spirit.
00:00:20
Jessica
Hello.
00:00:21
Plant People
Hey, hey.
00:00:21
Brett
Hello.
00:00:21
Alexis
i of My Christmas tree is glowing behind me.
00:00:24
Jessica
I know it looks so nice behind you.
00:00:24
Alexis
so
00:00:25
Plant People
It is a festive glow, very festive. We can see that on the video feed.
00:00:27
Alexis
i it the It's the earliest I've ever had it up and I'm really proud of myself. so
00:00:32
Plant People
Whoa, wait a minute. What? It's the earliest you've ever had it up, and it's December the 10th. I mean, I'm not judging. Not a lot.
00:00:38
Alexis
I well, I mean, it's been up for like a week.
00:00:38
Plant People
Well, it's a little.
00:00:41
Plant People
OK.
00:00:42
Alexis
um But and you it's not that I don't want to put it up early.
00:00:42
Plant People
OK. OK.
00:00:46
Alexis
It's that I don't manage to put it up until like the week of Christmas um or two days before.
00:00:49
Plant People
Gotcha. Okay.
00:00:50
Jessica
Well, yeah, right.
00:00:51
Plant People
Makes sense.
00:00:51
Brett
Ray, you're giving a look behind the curtain on how far ahead we will record.
00:00:54
Alexis
Yeah.
00:00:55
Plant People
Yeah. I know I dated ourselves.
00:00:59
Brett
Uh-oh.
00:00:59
Jessica
Right.
Child-Led Holiday Decorating
00:01:00
Alexis
And.
00:01:00
Jessica
Well, then how early do you put your tree up?
00:01:00
Plant People
What do we, only one week. yeah Oh, has, uh, this may or may not be relevant, dear listeners. Uh, if it's after Christmas, we're sorry. I don't think that it will be, but, uh, I don't know.
00:01:11
Plant People
It's having an 11 year old. It's whenever the mood hits him dictate, because when he has excitement, we have excitement. And this year it was the day after Thanksgiving and the year before it was like December 5th or 7th somewhere in Alexis time.
00:01:20
Jessica
Oh, nice.
00:01:24
Alexis
Thanksgiving was late this year though, so I feel like that's still...
00:01:26
Plant People
Yeah. That's what everybody said.
00:01:27
Jessica
hu
00:01:27
Plant People
I never noticed that. So yeah, maybe then, maybe that's what it was. I don't know.
00:01:30
Brett
We always do today after Thanksgiving.
00:01:30
Alexis
Yeah.
00:01:31
Jessica
Oh.
00:01:32
Plant People
Do you? Yeah. I mean, that's, a we do it fairly.
00:01:33
Brett
Yeah.
00:01:35
Plant People
I thought we did it fairly early, but there's a couple in my office that give me a hard time because they say that, Oh, that's so early. And I'm like, 94.5 is playing Christmas music here in central Kentucky.
00:01:42
Jessica
oh
00:01:46
Plant People
So it's not really early.
00:01:46
Alexis
On November 1st, they're playing Christmas music.
00:01:47
Jessica
Yeah.
00:01:48
Plant People
Yes.
00:01:48
Jessica
Day after Halloween. Yeah.
00:01:49
Plant People
Yes. Welcome
Live Tree Care and Decoration
00:01:51
Plant People
Mariah into our hearts and minds.
00:01:51
Brett
Shoot.
00:01:52
Jessica
Ours.
00:01:55
Jessica
Ours goes up when my children have ah pressured, peer pressured their dad enough to finally go out and pick up our tree since we do like a a live one every year.
00:02:02
Plant People
Yeah, you guys do a live tree. So yeah.
00:02:04
Jessica
We do. We finally have ours up.
00:02:05
Plant People
So how does that work with like, yeah, you can't, I mean, that'd be a little tough if you put yours up like super early, wouldn't it? If you had a live tree.
00:02:12
Jessica
I mean, just, you know, making sure to keep it well watered and not like a thousand degrees in the house.
00:02:16
Plant People
Yeah.
00:02:18
Jessica
And it last it'll last the whole, the whole season.
00:02:18
Plant People
know you're Yeah.
00:02:20
Jessica
So we finally have it up.
00:02:21
Plant People
Cool.
00:02:22
Jessica
And, uh, with my kiddos and their ages right now, I let them decorate. I did not, I was not OCD. I did not move things around, but I did like the top of our tree is all like special ornaments and breakable.
00:02:31
Alexis
jesus
00:02:35
Alexis
I know.
00:02:37
Jessica
And then there's kind of like a lull in the middle. And then everything on the bottom is like, if it falls off, surely it's going to be okay. Or if it gets pulled off, you know, hopefully it'll survive.
00:02:47
Plant People
That's like expensive party up top, cheap seats on the bottom.
00:02:50
Jessica
Right.
00:02:51
Alexis
yeah
00:02:51
Plant People
Yeah, yeah, I get it.
00:02:53
Plant People
I get it. There was a time when we had to do that for Reed when he was ah a little bit younger. It was like lots of ornaments, then no ornaments at all where he could reach.
00:03:02
Jessica
Mm-hmm.
00:03:03
Plant People
So yeah, yeah, I get that.
00:03:04
Alexis
Just naked for like the bottom, you know, foot and a half.
00:03:04
Plant People
I get that. Yeah, pretty much it was just garland.
00:03:07
Alexis
Or if you have a cat.
00:03:08
Plant People
Yeah, the cat will get up in there regardless and try to eat the greenery.
00:03:08
Alexis
Yeah.
00:03:10
Jessica
Yeah.
00:03:12
Plant People
I don't get that. I mean, artificial greenery, you'd think cats would have better sensibilities about them, but no.
00:03:17
Jessica
Mine just plays in the water. She's always liked water and she will get in the Christmas tree water.
00:03:22
Plant People
Maybe it's a citrusy vitamin C, like maybe the yummy vitamin C taste in the water.
00:03:22
Jessica
The dog won't, but the cat does.
00:03:27
Plant People
I don't know.
00:03:28
Jessica
Pine water
Family Stocking Traditions
00:03:29
Plant People
Yeah, pine water.
00:03:29
Brett
Are you all, are you all stock stockingers?
00:03:29
Jessica
taste.
00:03:29
Alexis
Yes.
00:03:33
Alexis
yes
00:03:33
Brett
Do you have, I got you.
00:03:33
Plant People
We are.
00:03:34
Jessica
Yeah.
00:03:34
Plant People
We are a stocking family. We are.
00:03:37
Jessica
Yes.
00:03:37
Plant People
and
00:03:37
Brett
We usually do.
00:03:38
Plant People
are
00:03:38
Brett
We have, we wear socks. So I, yeah, that's what I've heard that about big feet.
00:03:39
Plant People
We, uh, yeah. So hopefully you have big feet. That means big gifts. So I'm just word to the widespread. So, you know, you got to increase your capacity. Yeah.
00:03:48
Brett
Yeah. Big feet, big gifts.
00:03:48
Plant People
Yeah.
00:03:48
Alexis
Do you all have like did you grow up with like super personalized stockings or were they like just like uniform because they looked nice or were easy to find or.
00:03:49
Plant People
Yeah.
00:03:53
Plant People
No.
00:04:00
Plant People
said We were the pre purchased webbed stocking by webbed I mean like the little red ventilated stockings that had, you know, we were just talking about this the fruit and nuts and the traditional like tangerines in their Brazil nuts and things like that, ah which is like way far removed from that we do individual stockings now as a family and we may spend a little bit too much money on the stockings.
00:04:05
Alexis
Mm hmm. Mm hmm. Mm hmm.
00:04:23
Plant People
I mean like we go a little crazy because it's fun. I think stockking stockings are fun around our house now but yeah growing up we did not we just had like the little you know basic stockings and we were just talking like whatever.
00:04:26
Alexis
no
00:04:33
Brett
Wait, can you recap the things that you said were in the stocking? The OG one, the OG one, yeah.
00:04:37
Plant People
as far as the traditional, the OG, that was, and they were not personalized, we would just buy them as is, but there would be ah mostly fruit and nuts in there with some hard candy, but probably at least 75, 80% like fruit in there, like ah usually a banana, sometimes a banana, but a tangerine and then a mixture of like all kinds of nuts, like a whole walnuts that you had to crack yourself, yeah.
00:04:47
Alexis
Mm hmm.
00:04:48
Jessica
Add the hard candy.
00:05:00
Alexis
This is.
00:05:01
Brett
Yeah, I was gonna say in in the shell, in the shell still.
00:05:01
Alexis
This is. This is.
00:05:03
Jessica
Hmm.
00:05:03
Plant People
in the shell yeah the brazil nuts in the shell and there's you know various and sundry other things in there but i haven't seen stockings like that in a long long time i don't know what happened to them
00:05:12
Brett
How did you, how'd you crack them?
00:05:13
Jessica
I haven't either now that you mentioned it.
00:05:15
Brett
How'd you crack them?
00:05:16
Plant People
Uh, everybody had nutcrackers around the house. In fact, we had a special nutcracking bowl that had the little two drilled holes that held the little metal nutcracker.
00:05:25
Jessica
Yeah.
00:05:25
Plant People
And then I loved, and I, let me tell you, and that's, you know, I could crack me some nuts, uh, back in the day, I could be fast cracking walnuts and it was a point of pride to crack the walnut.
00:05:35
Brett
It's a savant.
00:05:37
Plant People
Yes. a walnu subvan Yes. But we would crack the walnuts and to get a whole half out without crack.
00:05:42
Alexis
a hole.
00:05:43
Plant People
Yeah. That was a point of pride at my house.
00:05:44
Alexis
Did you have like a little pick?
00:05:46
Jessica
Yeah, that's what I was thinking about, the little tools.
00:05:46
Alexis
Or you could like, yeah.
00:05:46
Plant People
Yes. The load and that pick. Yeah. The tools to get, depending on the top of nut, it, you know, it requires the proper tool.
00:05:48
Alexis
isn' it
00:05:53
Plant People
Yeah.
00:05:54
Jessica
Now I'm going to have to see because say i see if ah my parents still have theirs at their house.
00:05:54
Plant People
I'm glad you guys understand this.
00:05:54
Brett
I feel like if we, go ahead.
00:06:00
Jessica
Now I'm going to like go over there and ask where that is.
00:06:02
Alexis
he
00:06:02
Plant People
Yeah. The, I mean, we, we had a regular nut bowl. Did you have anything like that bread or.
00:06:07
Brett
I was just going to say, I feel like if we have any Gen Z listeners, they're like, what are you talking about?
00:06:14
Jessica
we get there They're so old.
00:06:14
Plant People
What is he? No, go to TikTok and under the 80s page, you will see that that's popular now. The stockings is a trending item.
00:06:23
Brett
Okay.
00:06:23
Plant People
You can even buy them now.
00:06:24
Brett
It's back, baby.
00:06:24
Plant People
Yeah, it's back in the TikTok shop.
00:06:25
Brett
All things are all new thing. All things are new again. You see?
00:06:29
Plant People
They are. Just give it time.
00:06:30
Jessica
oh
00:06:30
Alexis
Did you all do stockings first or last on Christmas morning?
00:06:34
Plant People
uh first probably a week or so beforehand we would uh you know and and if you went to like a little church or whatever it wasn't unusual to get a little stocking at church.
00:06:37
Alexis
Oh.
00:06:37
Jessica
Oh.
00:06:44
Plant People
Stocking just came in all forms really depending on you know what organizations you were with and you know what was going on at school and that was the like the season of bake sales. I have fond memories of like rice with crispy cakes and all shapes and sizes.
00:06:56
Alexis
o
00:06:57
Plant People
ah Yeah, the stockings were, yeah, they were not like a stocking that you would feel. We usually got the pre-filled stockings, but now we do.
00:07:05
Alexis
Okay.
00:07:06
Plant People
We do the personalized.
00:07:06
Jessica
Yeah.
00:07:07
Plant People
We have them all hung by the, you know, by the front of the, yeah, by the chimney.
00:07:09
Brett
Chimney with care.
00:07:09
Alexis
Fire with care.
00:07:10
Jessica
air Yeah. but
00:07:11
Brett
Yeah.
00:07:12
Plant People
It's the electric fireplace with care is exactly what it is. We don't have a rural fireplace now. I'm kind of sad about that, but, and we just refreshed the stockings this year. Jennifer finally found, my wife finally found,
00:07:24
Plant People
uh some uh hand ah knitted ones that are personalized and she takes she's very specific about her stockings they have to meet a certain aesthetic okay yeah so she uh she loves the stockings too and even our pets have a stocking at our house we're pretty serious about it so um
00:07:27
Jessica
Cool.
00:07:33
Alexis
isn
00:07:33
Jessica
Ah.
00:07:41
Brett
Well, I'll be the, I'll be the wild card. So we actually did stockings for St. Nicholas day, which is December 6th. So fully separate, but we did tend to, it would always be a tangerine in the toe of the stocking and then some like small toys and candy and you know, uh, but yeah, we, do we always did it early.
00:07:49
Jessica
Oh.
00:07:49
Alexis
Interesting.
00:07:54
Plant People
Oh, nice.
00:07:54
Alexis
Uh-huh.
00:07:59
Alexis
Peppermint sticks, yeah.
00:08:01
Plant People
Is that a family tradition bread or where did that come from, St.
00:08:03
Brett
It was, yeah.
00:08:04
Plant People
Nicholas? Yeah.
00:08:04
Brett
um So I grew up Catholic, you know, a lot of saint worship going on in the Catholic church.
00:08:07
Plant People
the
00:08:10
Brett
um And so ah the, it was always, I think it was a way for all of us to, all of us, including my parents and Anson, to, to like stretch out the holiday fun a little bit more
00:08:10
Plant People
Yeah.
00:08:25
Plant People
Yeah.
St. Nicholas Day Celebrations
00:08:26
Brett
across a wider range of time.
00:08:26
Jessica
yeah
00:08:28
Brett
um
00:08:28
Plant People
And were these, these were not pre-made, these were field individually kind of thing, Brett?
00:08:32
Brett
they were yeah They were retained. Each year, the stocking would be collected and put away in storage and then brought out and refilled with some you know mixture of items.
00:08:34
Plant People
Yeah.
00:08:41
Brett
and it It would be I mean, obviously it was, it was really nice and put together. There wouldn't be, it wouldn't be like anything super expensive in there. So it wouldn't be, it would be like little games, you know, those games where you move around the puzzle pieces to try to, or, or, uh, maybe like a paper airplane kit or something like that, or, uh, you know, one of those wooden airplane kits or something like that.
00:08:49
Jessica
Yeah.
00:08:51
Alexis
Mmhmm.
00:08:52
Jessica
Mmhmm.
00:08:54
Plant People
Yeah.
00:09:00
Plant People
Yeah.
00:09:00
Jessica
Yeah.
00:09:02
Brett
But, and then a candy and there'd be, there would be some, some, uh, in shell nuts in there as well.
00:09:08
Alexis
Uh-huh.
00:09:09
Brett
It's funny how those. those traditions kind of filter through and get disseminated in different ways. But yeah, I guess the tangerine was like probably from an era where that was like the one time of year that that ah citrus was available in.
00:09:27
Brett
I'm guessing these traditions probably came from either started in the US or came from Europe, that it was like this kind of special, you know, wow, citrus, this is crazy.
00:09:36
Jessica
Mm-hmm Yep
00:09:36
Plant People
Yeah, back before we took for granted like the modern day shipping.
00:09:38
Alexis
It was a splurge.
00:09:40
Plant People
Yeah, I could see that would be kind of cool. But yeah, that's kind of a cool tradition at the end of the whole nuts. I mean, I hadn't thought about that in years. But ah yeah, that used to be much more commonplace in almost every aunt and uncle we would visit during the Christmas season would have one of those nutcracker bowl things out.
00:09:57
Brett
Well, you need to see you need to see if ah if cracking walnuts is like riding a bike see if it just comes right back to you or
00:10:03
Plant People
I mean, I would be a little sad now if I couldn't take two walnuts in my hand and squeeze them at just the right amount of pressure and crack and get whole halves out of there.
00:10:12
Brett
Oh my gosh.
00:10:13
Plant People
I mean, I used to be able to do that, you know, as a kid.
00:10:15
Alexis
He doesn't need the tool.
00:10:15
Jessica
Wow.
00:10:16
Plant People
And yeah, now I would, I wouldn't, I would need a little assistance now, I'm afraid.
00:10:17
Alexis
His hands don't have the tool.
00:10:21
Plant People
And it would hurt me a little bit if that was the case. But yeah, Brad, I do need to see if it's a a skill that my hand has remembered.
00:10:23
Brett
Wow.
00:10:27
Plant People
So.
00:10:27
Brett
Have you guys ever seen me tear an apple in half?
00:10:30
Plant People
Hmm.
00:10:30
Alexis
No.
00:10:31
Jessica
No, I have not.
00:10:32
Plant People
No.
00:10:32
Brett
Okay. Well, you can do it.
00:10:33
Plant People
Okay.
00:10:34
Brett
It can be done. Just FYI have to get one.
00:10:36
Plant People
I want to see this.
00:10:37
Alexis
So he says, so he says.
00:10:37
Jessica
i I will bring an apple with me the next time I see you in person.
00:10:37
Plant People
This'll be the podcast that we do add video to the audio will be Brett.
00:10:42
Brett
Perfect.
00:10:43
Alexis
Yeah, maybe next week we get this for the social media.
00:10:45
Plant People
Yes, this'll be the social feed.
00:10:46
Brett
Do you guys have any you guys have any feats of uh feats of strength or will that you guys perform at all?
00:10:52
Alexis
Feeds of strength or will.
00:10:55
Jessica
Are we talking about Festivus now?
00:10:56
Plant People
No pressure. ah No, the test of us for the rest of us.
00:10:58
Brett
just any you know
00:10:58
Jessica
We moved on to that.
00:11:01
Jessica
Yeah.
00:11:04
Alexis
but That's such a good one, a Festivus for the rest of us.
00:11:05
Plant People
Bread did not throw a softball with that one.
00:11:06
Alexis
Maybe we should do an episode in the future of like the Festivus of plant world, airing our grievances with horticulture.
00:11:06
Jessica
Yeah, that's good.
00:11:08
Brett
like
00:11:11
Jessica
Of airing our grievances towards certain plants.
00:11:16
Plant People
This special Krampus episode brought to you by...
Dish Gardens vs. Terrariums: What's the Difference?
00:11:21
Alexis
Well, today we are talking about something ah indoors since it is a cold for a good portion of the US.
00:11:21
Jessica
ah
00:11:31
Alexis
It certainly is ah for us, but we're talking about dish gardens and terrariums. and Yes, they are different despite the fact that people will use them interchangeably.
00:11:44
Alexis
so
00:11:44
Jessica
Very much so, yeah.
00:11:45
Alexis
Yeah, we've we've seen that we've seen them a lot, but they are technically different.
00:11:46
Plant People
yeah
00:11:49
Alexis
Jessica, would you like to explain a dish garden?
00:11:52
Jessica
Sure. ah There is lots of confusion that comes along with these, as Alexis has already mentioned, because I know Ray and I have experienced this over the years at the the Kentucky State Fair, ah where dish gardens is a huge category.
00:12:01
Alexis
just
00:12:03
Plant People
Yes, it's always a fair.
00:12:08
Jessica
There are probably close, over 50 or more that are entered.
00:12:08
Plant People
Yes, very popular.
00:12:13
Jessica
But a dish garden is where you're growing, most likely plants that are going to stay inside a lot of times when we think about them. But they're going to be planted in a shallow dish that does not have a drainage hole or a lid. Is that that correct?
00:12:28
Alexis
Yes.
00:12:30
Plant People
I'm not real strict on the drainage hole, even though traditionally, you know, I you know i think years and years ago they used to actually be somewhere in there. But now I'm not as strict about the drainage hole because, you know, it's common for dish gardens to have those, which is fine because the plants may actually, you know, stand a better chance if you overwater just a little bit.
00:12:46
Alexis
this is
00:12:47
Jessica
Yes, they'll have a better chance of survival with Adriana Tola.
00:12:49
Plant People
Yeah. and i know i think the
00:12:51
Brett
Jessica have you laxed have you have you relaxed your policies on drainage holes?
00:12:55
Jessica
Have I? yeah Well, yes, those are the straight the state fair rules, right?
00:13:00
Brett
Okay, so you just have a drainage hole and it's not it does not comply is that what you're saying if it has one Yeah
00:13:06
Jessica
is it's not, ah at the for the state fair-wise, they they say that is like not a dish garden if it has one for the 4-H like rules.
00:13:14
Plant People
Yeah.
00:13:16
Jessica
But I think sometimes we go either way for it, right depending on if it's like a really nice dish garden with healthy plants and everything else is 100% in that little dish garden, we can you know overlook that.
00:13:28
Jessica
And that's probably why they're healthy, because they're not drowning.
00:13:28
Plant People
it's interesting.
00:13:30
Alexis
yeah
00:13:30
Plant People
I was looking, yeah, that's probably why, and I was looking up some information just to kind of brush up because and to get it straight in my mind, I know we look at a bunch of those every year, but the first thing that comes up when I was doing the search was like county fair rules and then state fair rules differentiating a dish garden, exactly what Jessica's telling you, differentiating a dish garden with a terrarium because the two, I guess, Jessica, they're not the same, are they?
00:13:57
Jessica
No, they're not. And that terrarium, that's what we think of like when you see those containers with the lids on them. And so those are going to be a more ah moist, humid you know environment, a little micro climate that you're having inside those containers and versus we see more, I would say, like arid plants right in those dish gardens.
00:14:19
Jessica
You're going to have like more of your ferns and things in those ah terrarium settings.
00:14:23
Alexis
So think, yeah, so think dish garden is open environment and terrarium is closed environment. So in theory, ah
00:14:30
Brett
Are both of those fair, like state fair categories?
00:14:35
Alexis
yes.
00:14:35
Brett
like is that Is that kind of what we're basing this on?
00:14:35
Jessica
Yes.
00:14:35
Plant People
Yeah.
00:14:36
Brett
Is both both of them, are there two different categories when you go to the fair, you'll be able to see one or the other?
00:14:37
Plant People
And they're differentiated. Yeah. Yeah.
00:14:39
Jessica
Yeah.
00:14:42
Brett
and
Teaching Youth About Plant Projects
00:14:43
Alexis
Mm-hmm.
00:14:43
Jessica
Right. And sometimes they accidentally get entered in, you know, dish gardens get entered in terrariums and vice versa.
00:14:48
Alexis
Myth, they get mixed up.
00:14:51
Jessica
So we always try to ah place them in the correct category to the best that we can. Right. Depending on their, their vessel they are brought in.
00:15:01
Plant People
Yeah, if you don't think a lot about it, it's easy to exchange one concept for the other because people are thinking a container with smaller type plants, even though ah you know a terrarium can have larger plants that you just prune more often.
00:15:13
Alexis
Mm hmm.
00:15:13
Plant People
but And I hear the terms ah a lot of times with youth projects used interchangeably. um So we try to stress that upfront because ah you know if you're into youth development projects, specifically 4-H, in our case that we work with an extension,
00:15:30
Plant People
ah We try to differentiate that as we're establishing like project days or working with youth, if we have a chance to work with youth and say, this is a dish garden, the qualifications, and this is the qualifications for a terrarium. Be very explicit about that because like Jessica said, the two are very, very different. And with these two projects in particular, it's probably good, Jessica. I know when we see those in Alexis, you looked at a lot of those too when you were a field agent.
00:15:57
Alexis
Mm hmm.
00:15:57
Plant People
um it's It's pretty obvious when you see these projects that were just put together like the week before and you can see which ones the plants are well established.
00:16:04
Jessica
Right.
00:16:07
Plant People
I mean, it's pretty easy. I know, Jessica, you look at more of that and some of the others at State Fair look at more of that particular section than I do, but it's pretty obvious when you when you bring those in and we all look at them, we're in we're taking entries and we're like, oh, you know, you can just kind of pick it up, kind of look over it and tell which ones are well established.
00:16:26
Plant People
My point here being start well in advance and give your plants in the dish garden or terrarium time to get established and you'll have a much better display if you're into displaying and going into things like 4-H contests with these things.
00:16:26
Jessica
Yeah.
00:16:40
Jessica
Yeah, we've seen, we've seen all types and like Ray said, like very easily when you can tell when plants have just kind of been stuck in there. Cause we've had, we've had some, you know, some cactus fall out of dish gardens before and Velcro themselves to the carpet.
00:16:51
Alexis
citizen
00:16:54
Jessica
So, um, yes.
00:16:55
Alexis
And they smell real bad because they've been sitting in water.
00:16:59
Jessica
And we've seen cactuses in terrariums and we've watched them kind of melt over the two weeks of, of, of fair.
00:16:59
Brett
Cactus Fallout.
00:16:59
Plant People
Yeah.
00:17:02
Alexis
I disintegrate over a week.
00:17:07
Jessica
So, um,
00:17:09
Plant People
and We do both and ah depending on, I mean, not, and we shouldn't like to lean too heavily on contest, but just speaking in real general terms, like if you're just. you know, at home and you're interested in dish gardens and terrariums. I don't know, I don't have as much experience with terrariums for one reason. I don't have a lot of patience sometimes. And it always seems like when I've tried to do terrariums in the past,
00:17:35
Plant People
um They take more time to get settled in, to get the environment going, and they call it a rain cycle. If it's truly a closed terrarium, it'll develop an environmental cycle of moisture recycling inside of that unit. But i like I would get to the point where the glass would start to fog up, which is completely normal when you first started a terrarium. I'd get to that point, get frustrated, and then lose interest and go do something else, but I think the history of terrariums, a Dr. Ward, like when these things first came about, it was on accident.
00:18:04
Plant People
They were actually doing something with an insect project, and I wish I'd have looked that up, but this person that came up with the concept of a closed plant system, a terrarium, was actually ah um
00:18:08
Jessica
Hmm.
The Accidental Invention of Terrariums
00:18:14
Plant People
some kind of moth project but there's a firm that had germinated he tried to grow these firms for years and they did fantastic in this closed system and that's sort of the story of how terrariums got started because it was a human environment it was in england i think and this ah person was you know observing some insect life cycles and here comes these beautiful plants he's been trying to grow in this totally closed system that started to grow and do well. And that's sort of how they got started. But they, to to me, trends take a little bit more patience, a little bit more care for plant selection, um especially if you're not using like a wide open
00:18:50
Plant People
container um Because I've seen terrariums you guys I mean chime in here But in all sorts of containers and it amazes me some of these large containers with tiny Openings, I mean, how does that even I mean, it's amazing to me.
00:19:04
Plant People
I'm gonna have to watch some videos again Yes, yes Yeah
00:19:05
Jessica
It almost makes you think of like the pirate ship in the bottle, like kind of thing. Like when you think like about how they build that with some of those, like you're describing, like how did they, you know, with their little chopstick tools, how did they get those plants in there, right?
00:19:19
Plant People
ah
00:19:20
Alexis
ah hu
00:19:20
Jessica
And planted perfectly and then maintain it.
00:19:21
Plant People
Yeah and they have to have specialized tools and I've seen like wire loop tools at you know large like nursery supply houses and stuff the the bigger ones and I'm like what is that and I got to looking it was terrarium plant placement wire loop tools I'm like wow but it's for gently you know putting
00:19:23
Jessica
and
00:19:40
Plant People
plants into place in these large clear containers which it needs to be a clear container that's pretty obvious let sunlight in but these large containers with tiny openings uh that's just one of the I guess points of pride ah for people that love to work with terrariums uh is uh they're specialized tools so it does take a little bit more patience I think and of course dish gardens and terrariums take careful choice of plants and soil medium and all the stuff we're going to talk about so
00:20:08
Alexis
i've had ah I've had terrariums, I've not done dish gardens. um
00:20:12
Plant People
What kind of terrier and like what kind of container? I'm really super interested like in all the containers people use.
00:20:16
Alexis
Yeah, I've done a couple different ones. The one I had that lived the longest, ah and i it would still be alive, but I got ah Annoyed with it and I had one plant species that that took over but I had it for several years and it was in an old aquarium that had like a fully glass um like lid top that I could put on it ah and it was probably one of the more successful ones as far as
00:20:34
Plant People
Oh, yeah. Mm-hmm.
00:20:43
Alexis
long-term And I think one of the biggest things I found making terrariums, we used to do them a lot with the Horticulture Club at UK. So when I was in that an undergrad, we would make terrariums. And one of the things I learned was, I think a lot of people just want to put any old, you know, usually their tropical plants in a terrarium and they're tropical because you're basically recreating like a jungle type environment in there with the humidity and it's indoor, it's kept warm.
00:21:10
Alexis
So ah they want to put any old plant in there, but actually the most successful terrariums are usually ones And the smaller ones, let's put it that way, like something, a milk jug or smaller, uh, the most successful plants are actually like mini plants.
00:21:26
Alexis
They're dwarf. So they might still be a nice Ivy or, uh, a fern, but they are a dwarf of that.
00:21:27
Plant People
Yeah.
00:21:33
Alexis
And so, uh, and that keeps things from going rampant and taking over your terrarium, which is what, yeah.
00:21:38
Jessica
Mmhmm.
00:21:39
Plant People
I've had that trouble too, Alexis, where, and to come to find out people.
Maintaining Terrariums with Minimal Effort
00:21:44
Plant People
have, you know, if they're using a plant like an English ivy, I'm like, how in the world do you have like that dwarf, you know, St.
00:21:49
Plant People
Francis English ivy in a terrarium will come to find out they they're actually working it a lot and pruning it almost with bonsai type principles.
00:21:51
Alexis
Mm-hmm.
00:21:55
Alexis
Mm-hmm.
00:21:58
Plant People
And they're just constantly clipping back.
00:21:58
Alexis
Mm-hmm.
00:22:00
Plant People
I mean, it's amazing to me ah that it's ah ah that that amount of work went into it. But now your terrarium, did you water that very often, the one that you see?
00:22:05
Alexis
isn
00:22:08
Alexis
No, I think I probably watered it like and because there was some, you know, cracks around the, you know, there it wasn't a complete seal, even though it had a lid.
00:22:16
Plant People
Mm-hmm.
00:22:17
Alexis
So it did you know air out eventually. But I probably watered it maybe four times a year. um So really, really rare that I went in there and did that. And it probably and it's not.
00:22:28
Jessica
And what?
00:22:28
Plant People
And you didn't have to worry about air exchange or anything because it had some cracks to get natural air.
00:22:31
Alexis
Yeah, it had a little bit of ventilation, just tiny little holes in the corners and stuff.
00:22:32
Plant People
OK.
00:22:35
Jessica
And what about light for terrariums? Because that's something like I, I've done a dish garden before, but I haven't really done a train and I think, you know, if it's, you know, you're putting in a full sun, right?
00:22:39
Plant People
Yeah.
00:22:48
Alexis
nick It can cook it.
00:22:48
Jessica
Like what, like you're cooking things, right?
00:22:48
Plant People
Which it can be dangerous. Yeah.
00:22:50
Alexis
Yeah. Yeah.
00:22:51
Jessica
So, um,
00:22:51
Plant People
Yeah. That's a great point, Jessica.
00:22:52
Alexis
It becomes your plants are the the ants in the under the magnifying glass.
00:22:53
Plant People
Yes.
00:22:55
Jessica
right.
00:22:56
Alexis
Yeah.
00:22:56
Jessica
Exactly.
00:22:57
Alexis
Yeah.
00:22:57
Plant People
Yeah.
00:22:57
Alexis
So, um you know, if you're using, especially if you're using a terrarium, a lot of people think fern, right? When they go to terrarium, well, fern is
00:23:04
Plant People
Yeah.
00:23:05
Alexis
ah like a low tends to be a lower light plant. So as long as you can put it in a room where, I always say, if you can like read a newspaper or read a book for majority hours of the day, then it's probably a good spot. you know We might call it like a full full light, full sun area for a house plant. It doesn't necessarily have to be like right in a window unless that window is you know maybe north facing or something like that, where it's not getting a ton of light exposure.
00:23:34
Alexis
So that's an option as well. And I think also kind ah coming from experience stocking plants, people tend to want to pack a lot of plants in a terrarium. Number one, just like with any plant, whether it's outside and it's a tree or a flower bed or whatever, you need to think about that the overall size of that, how big you want it to get. If you're going to do what Ray says and you're going to continually clip it back and you're going to keep it really small.
00:24:01
Alexis
then that's fine. But if you want something that's a little bit more hands off and you're going to let this grow, you don't want to put too many plants in there. And I think some of the most successful ones are all similar species and very few plants, I think are some of the more successful long lived terrariums is, you know, one or two ferns and that's it ah type situation.
00:24:08
Plant People
Yeah. Mm hmm.
00:24:23
Plant People
yeah ah Yeah, you know, um I think my very first terrarium I actually used a native plant. It's what we call the the common name is Indian strawberry. But it was one of those that someone at school said, Oh, yeah, you can use that it works well in terrariums and it did work well it was a medium to low light plant there and they stressed which what you guys are saying makes perfect sense now i've never thought about it that way but if you put like a glass you know fish tank in front of a strong light direct light source it's going to just fry everything but i've noticed on all of my terrarium plant list and there's some excellent guides out there in extension and we'll post some of those resources in the show notes
00:24:51
Alexis
this
00:24:59
Plant People
But all of the ones that are suitable for terrariums I've noticed ah over the years, they're all low to medium light plants.
00:25:06
Jessica
Mm hmm.
00:25:06
Plant People
um there's There's no plants that take like a lot of light that's recommended for both terrariums that I've seen and dish
Plant Selection for Terrariums vs. Dish Gardens
00:25:13
Plant People
gardens. the The plants that take a lot of direct sunlight are the ones reserved for dish gardens.
00:25:18
Jessica
That's a good point. Yeah, right. That's exactly what I was just thinking. I was like, it's completely opposite. Then when you look at dish gardens, cause that's going to be a lot of the succulents that you see and everybody like for a while, I don't know if it's still a thing, but like Pinterest and every thing would be like, place your succulents like in your bathroom, place them like in the middle of your house.
00:25:36
Alexis
No.
00:25:37
Jessica
And those things need a lot of light. Like think about like where they grow naturally, like where they're happy at. They like a lot of sunlight. So I know people who are like like I have a dish garden on my desk back here And it's like the plants are kind of stretched out.
00:25:51
Alexis
ah Kind of?
00:25:51
Jessica
It's still thriving. Yeah, kind of Alexis. Don't give me away um But you're perfect About a dish garden Anyways
00:25:56
Plant People
They're perfect, Alexis.
00:25:57
Brett
That was so much so much shade just thrown in that in that in that two syllables, kind of.
00:26:00
Plant People
Literally, not well played, Brad. Well, Brad, well played. Shade thrown. You kind of. Wow.
00:26:08
Brett
Stop, stop, she's already dead.
00:26:08
Alexis
I love, I've never seen cacti in the shape that Jessica like as far as like physically like the shape they create because it's beautiful.
00:26:15
Jessica
It is, it is my example to people. It's my teaching moment of like this cute little, this cute little like cacti, like that was all short and squat when you got it.
00:26:19
Plant People
It's called Etoliation, Alexis.
00:26:19
Alexis
Exactly. You meant to do that.
00:26:27
Jessica
If you do not provide supplemental lighting in the winter, this is what yours could look like.
00:26:30
Alexis
It will go find it.
00:26:32
Plant People
I thought it's hard to grow those. I mean, without like a a grow lot, now I have some under small grow lights.
00:26:37
Jessica
Right.
00:26:38
Alexis
Mm hmm.
00:26:39
Plant People
Because they want to stretch so much like the ash of areas and all that they want to like, you know, the bottom leaves and naturally drop off and then they get leg year. They stretch the cactus stretch it, but now it's grow lights for that 12 hour cycle. And they do. It's amazing how they've responded and because I was like you.
00:26:56
Plant People
ah Jessica, what you're saying is everything was stretching out and I and i had a nice window that got a lot of sunlight, but it was crazy.
00:27:02
Jessica
Mm hmm.
00:27:03
Plant People
It only got a direct morning sun. and It was a dish garden. we We do a lot of youth project dish gardens, but that's exactly what was happening. So I begrudgingly put a put a supplemental light on that and they've done a lot better.
00:27:14
Jessica
Right, like.
00:27:15
Alexis
this is This is your annual reminder that if you say that you have a black thumb and you can't grow anything because you've killed a cactus in your house, that is not a good representation of you killing things because cactus, yeah, are native to desert environments.
00:27:15
Plant People
Yeah.
00:27:26
Jessica
No, if you kill, yeah, go ahead.
Succulents and Plant Availability
00:27:33
Alexis
What is your house? Not a desert. So give yourself some slack here.
00:27:37
Jessica
It's more if you like kill like as easy plant or a piece slowly, then your plant care is, yeah, is questionable.
00:27:43
Alexis
A snake plant? I've killed a peace lily, so.
00:27:48
Plant People
You know, we were but we were talking about, um and which I've actually seen spaths, peace lilies, like in terrariums, which is pretty amazing, but it's one of those aggressively pruned kind of plants.
00:27:59
Plant People
Uh, but the exciting thing about dish gardens, I remember seven years ago, if you went to a box store, you were not going to get a good selection of succulents at your local, you know, big box store. But now it seems like there's whole kiosk.
00:28:10
Jessica
yeah
00:28:12
Plant People
And I don't know, I don't recall the specific year that I'd happened, but it's been several years that you can go to almost any big department or box store. And now you have a large selection and amazing selection of, you know, sedums, all of the different amazing aloes and the Echeverias.
00:28:25
Alexis
Mm-hmm.
00:28:26
Jessica
Yeah.
00:28:27
Plant People
and all the other like string of pearl type plants, you have this great selection.
00:28:30
Jessica
Mm-hmm.
00:28:32
Plant People
And when did that become a thing for all the plants that are just perfectly suited for dish gardens? I mean, and oh yeah, I guess that that does make sense.
00:28:38
Brett
There was a huge, there was a huge boom for houseplants and succulents during COVID.
00:28:38
Jessica
i
00:28:43
Brett
um Just like there was for a lot of it like gardening or for but sourdough bread baking or other things that you can, other things that I had already been doing because I was already spending a lot of time by myself.
00:28:43
Jessica
Mm-hmm.
00:28:49
Plant People
Oh yeah.
00:28:56
Alexis
Yep.
00:28:57
Plant People
yeah
00:28:57
Jessica
Yes, exactly.
00:28:59
Plant People
ah ba Yeah.
00:29:01
Alexis
I was already nerdy now about these things.
00:29:03
Jessica
Yeah.
00:29:04
Alexis
um
00:29:04
Brett
I think one of the like ah this is reminding me of just some crossovers to other stuff. There's there's a ton of YouTube content about terraria and vivarium like a vivarium vivaria, which is it has an animal or something in it along with an aquarium.
00:29:20
Jessica
Hmm.
00:29:21
Brett
So and there's a whole ah this whole subset of vivaria, which are considered bioactive enclosures.
00:29:30
Alexis
Mm-hmm.
00:29:32
Brett
meaning that they can actually release these different, some very small insects into the cage as well, like isopods and other kinds of um ah insects that are that are good at breaking down organic matter.
00:29:49
Brett
and And it kind of helps to even further create that nutrient cycling in addition to the water cycling. It's ah it's a whole thing, but there's like all these clickbaity videos that are like,
00:29:57
Jessica
Very cool.
00:29:59
Brett
I made this terrarium and sealed it up for 14 years. but What happened next shocked me and it's like, well, I will watch this for 28 minutes.
00:30:07
Alexis
I'm going to click it. I'm going to watch it.
00:30:08
Jessica
Gotta watch it. Yeah.
00:30:10
Alexis
ah My friend Sherry, who works at the ah greenhouse and has taught me a lot of stuff. Her, she gets into, you know, plant nerds always, you know, are all into like the next weird plant thing that they can start doing. And ah hers has been aquatic plants and like a fish tank. And so it's sort of like the sort of that that terrarium. But there's something living in there. But these are like fully underwater.
00:30:34
Alexis
And the different plants that is crazy, the plants that can grow fully submerged in water, but they can also grow outside of the water. and And I was like, wait, what?
00:30:44
Jessica
That's really cool.
00:30:47
Alexis
You put what in there? And that has been really cool. And her tanks look really, really nice because there's just live plants down in there hanging out. um
00:30:55
Brett
Does she have fish in it?
00:30:56
Alexis
and Yeah, she's got one in her office down by the greenhouse.
00:30:57
Brett
Just for some...
00:31:00
Alexis
unless she Sometimes she takes it home in the winter because it'll get cold in there, but ah she did have a nice one in her her little office, just like a cute little corner tank with little guppies in it, and it was awesome.
00:31:11
Brett
Yeah. but she's And she's like the opposite of... You know, she, she's like, just has the fish in there to feed the plants.
00:31:19
Alexis
Yeah, she's the plant person.
00:31:19
Brett
She's like, you guys can stay here.
00:31:20
Alexis
Yeah, she's like, oh, I guess I need to add some fish.
00:31:21
Brett
Uh, just as long as you keep.
Exploring Aquatic and Woodland Plants
00:31:23
Brett
Yeah, that's pretty cool.
00:31:23
Alexis
That's exactly right.
00:31:24
Brett
My my uncle owned a, owned a independent pet store that I worked at and in most of high school. And we had a bunch of fish and reptiles and stuff. And so, yeah, we had a lot, but this sold a lot of live, live plants.
00:31:35
Brett
And it's a cool, it was like, it's like a whole separate thing from having fish, a whole separate thing from having our more, you know, uh, terrestrial plants.
00:31:37
Alexis
Mm hmm.
00:31:44
Brett
It's pretty cool.
00:31:46
Plant People
So many different ways you can go with this. And I've seen some incredible examples of things. And like you're saying, Alexis, I mean, they take a lot of different forms and it's amazing how adaptable some plants are. And some of these plants that we're talking about today can be used, you know, we kind of already alluded to it for dish gardens and terrariums. But I mean, it's amazing some of the scenarios. I've seen terrariums that you'll see them like at a state fair or something, or as you're traveling around, you notice things.
00:32:11
Plant People
that it'll just there'll be a label on there you know a closed system for the last 25 years and there's this just this ecological system in a jaw some big you know glass container typically that had just hasn't been opened up it's been corked up and no air exchange and that's amazing to me pretty cool
00:32:27
Brett
Well, I want to come back to that, but I have ah just a quick kind of nuts and bolts question. So as far as the types of plants that you would select to go into a terrarium versus a dish garden, you kind of have summarized it as you know moist tropicals versus arid ah you know arid plants.
00:32:40
Plant People
jeica Yeah,
00:32:47
Alexis
Mm hmm.
00:32:47
Brett
any is You have a short list of like names in case someone's looking to get started, like here's a couple that you might look at or things that we've typically included in the dish gardens that we do.
00:32:54
Plant People
but I'm a boring woodland theme guy. I know you can do a desert theme in a terrarium. I've seen those and they're pretty interesting. I'm more of a, I love moss and ferns. That's my two tops is, uh, and you know, some kind of like driftwood kind of thing in there, but I love the wood, anything that looks, you know, woodland theme to me, that's like my two tops is moss and ferns. Do you guys have anything else you work with, Alexis, Jessica?
00:33:20
Alexis
um I really like ah little small leaf begonias in a terrarium and there's just because there's a lot of, remember how I said ah some of the most successful terrariums have very few like you know species in there there?
00:33:24
Plant People
Oh yeah.
00:33:25
Jessica
Those are cute.
00:33:34
Alexis
You can get a lot of different begonias that all like the same thing but all look really different and so I think that's like if you can pull something like that off it can really boost your chances of success.
00:33:44
Alexis
And so I like the small leaf begonias. African violets do well in terrariums.
00:33:49
Plant People
Yeah.
00:33:49
Alexis
If you're having trouble for the longest time, I couldn't grow African violets. So I finally have one now that seems to like me. I bought it when I had a bad day several years ago and I was like, I'm gonna buy a plant.
00:34:03
Alexis
ah
00:34:04
Jessica
Because that's what you do, duh.
00:34:05
Alexis
That's what you do when you have a bad day.
00:34:06
Plant People
Yeah.
00:34:08
Alexis
Uh, if I text Jessica and say, I just bought so a plant, she goes, are you okay? Do you need to talk about it?
00:34:13
Jessica
What's going on?
00:34:14
Alexis
And I'm like, no, I just bought a plan about it. But, uh, so African violence do, uh, really well, uh, in there, but yeah, or like little English IVs. And that one is going to be the one that's important to make sure you're getting a true dwarf because it will take over your terrarium very quickly.
00:34:27
Plant People
Yeah. I've seen some oxalis that's really good, but it's the dwarfing type of oxalis and beautiful.
00:34:31
Alexis
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
00:34:35
Plant People
And it was, it it had been in a terrarium for many years. And what is it nerve plant? I forget the scientific name, but like the nerve plants and the oxalis, I've seen both of those in terrariums before.
00:34:44
Alexis
Salaginella is, um there's a kind called resurrection plant. I think a lot of people have heard of, but Salaginella is one that you can pretty much only grow in a terrarium.
00:34:49
Plant People
Oh yeah. Mm-hmm.
00:34:55
Alexis
And so that that one can be cool. And not all of them are, quote unquote, the resurrection plant. Most of them stay green, but they're real soft, ah real pretty looking. So highly recommend that one if you're going to have a terrarium, because it's pretty much the only way you can have it.
00:35:09
Plant People
There's one with the common name aluminum plant and I see it in a lot of terrariums, but I don't see it much outside of terrariums.
00:35:10
Jessica
um
00:35:12
Alexis
Mmhmm. Mmhmm.
00:35:16
Jessica
I'm glad Brett brought up like the nuts and bolts of things because I think a big question we get about ah dish gardens versus terrariums too is like the soil right like what do you put what do you put in them um so with more experience with dish gardens you know usually recommending like
00:35:26
Alexis
Mmhmm.
00:35:27
Plant People
ah Yeah.
00:35:28
Alexis
Mmhmm. Mmhmm. Good boy.
00:35:35
Jessica
ah Soilless media, hopefully like you're getting like a sandy and like the cactus one because like I said You can grow all sorts of other plants in as a dish garden as well but most of the time we're seeing and like mentions like the box stores carrying all the different kinds of Succulents now or they are already like pre-selling dish gardens put together by having like a sandy really well-drained soil is what you're putting there and
00:35:38
Alexis
Mmhmm.
00:35:54
Plant People
Yeah.
00:35:58
Plant People
and A lot of times that'll be sold on it, Jessica. Like I noticed ah that that there was actually smaller bags, like three pound bags.
00:36:03
Jessica
Yeah. Yeah. You can get small bags of it.
00:36:04
Plant People
It's it's called Succulent and Cactus Soil. I think that was how it was labeled.
00:36:08
Jessica
Yeah. Yeah.
00:36:09
Plant People
I don't know the brand or anything, but I thought that was interesting. Like you're saying, it was just available. I was really surprised.
00:36:14
Jessica
Yeah. And then, I don't know, Alexis, you might be able to elaborate more on terrariums because there's a lot of like, uh, do you put in charcoal, right? Like you see that advertised or, um, does it depend like more on the plants since, you know, this is just going to be at a closed environment.
00:36:33
Alexis
Yeah, i've I've done both with the charcoal versus not and not really seen much of a difference. I think ah the traditionalists do not use charcoal. They just make sure that they have well draining media and they water appropriately. So that's really the biggest thing. Charcoal is almost like to hedge your bets in case, you know, you mess up and that's just to absorb any smells.
00:36:58
Alexis
ah primarily is what it's for, but it does kind of create a little bit of a drainage layer as well. So I don't think it's 100% necessary, but if it's something like you already had, it's fine to put in as well.
00:37:06
Jessica
you can
00:37:09
Alexis
um And you're just wanting to use just like a normal potting soil for something like that, whatever you would use for a house plant.
00:37:16
Plant People
something high on organic matter kind of thing for terrariums.
00:37:18
Alexis
Yeah, yeah, um like a soil-less media. So the biggest thing is like, don't go outside and grab, you know, soil from your backyard and put it because that environment is not the same and that soil will not function the same in your terrarium as it does in your in
Soil and Fertilization Preferences
00:37:36
Alexis
your backyard. So soil is media. one like One thing that I have been doing even with some of my houseplants, but like my succulents, if you can't find a cactus media, and I don't always love a cactus media, some of those three pound bags, sometimes they're
00:37:52
Alexis
too barky, like they just have these big chunks of bark in them, which it's like, again, if you're dealing with a, a lot of these succulents are native to sandy areas, so why do we have pieces of bark in our cactus media?
00:37:54
Jessica
Mmhmm.
00:38:05
Alexis
And so I prefer a lot of the time to, if I, um you know, you can have the sand, but adding more perlite, which is that white substance in your, in your soilless media, like if you get potting soil, the little white crunchy thing,
00:38:21
Alexis
And I'll add a lot more perlite to just regular potting soil and that creates those air pockets and that good drainage that we like. ah So that's just an option to throw out there if you're having issues with like root rot or something.
00:38:35
Plant People
um And have we talked about fertilizer yet? We get that question a lot, Jessica.
00:38:39
Brett
before we move Before we move on to any other plants for dish gardens that are just kind of on the short list of, I know we said succulents and cactus.
00:38:39
Plant People
As far as, yeah, go ahead, Brent.
00:38:48
Brett
Is that a cacti? Is that kind of the the gist or?
00:38:53
Plant People
there's
00:38:53
Alexis
Yeah, um, any...
00:38:54
Plant People
There's an entire list, reference list, and and really it's a problem of availability to to me because some of these are hard to find or or hard to find locally.
00:38:59
Alexis
Yeah. yeah
00:39:03
Plant People
You can order them, but it seems like if you go beyond the normal things that we've just mentioned, there might be some other random ones that you can adapt to ah depending on the size of your container, but you're going to have to place some orders.
00:39:12
Jessica
Thank you.
00:39:14
Alexis
you And you can, so yeah, the succulents, so those are like your hands and chicks style of things, any any type of succulent, but there are dish gardens that, ah the technically they're dish gardens, like you see coming from like a florist shop, um where they'll have lots of different flower um ah foliage plants, like in one.
00:39:20
Jessica
Mm hmm.
00:39:35
Alexis
dish. And so like we, I often think of them more as like a potted plant, but when you've got a bunch of different ones in there, it's kind of technically a dish garden. And so those could be any tropical, uh, plants that you like.
00:39:45
Plant People
Yeah.
00:39:47
Alexis
But I think the general scheme, when I say dish garden, I think of like a shallow lips, you know, literally like a big, you know, bowl basically, uh, sitting out, uh,
00:39:53
Plant People
Yeah.
00:39:59
Plant People
It's like, a i I don't know, it's not it's not a large volume of soil. It's um an inch and a half, two inches, you even three inches.
00:40:03
Alexis
No, it's real thin, short.
00:40:06
Plant People
um And a lot of times I love, like I get a little bit more specific when we're talking about dish gardens to make it more forgiving. That's when I actually like the terracotta and i will go to the extra expensive terracotta because you know that will buffer out the water a little bit better i love terracotta dishes and there's a reason for that if they're unglazed they have that nice quality of you know kind of breathing out some of the water
00:40:17
Alexis
It breathes.
00:40:32
Plant People
So for for new dish garden growers, that can be a little bit more forgiving. But I found that that locally, the dish garden selection of plants, not talking about terrariums anymore, but just dish gardens is a great selection almost year round.
00:40:46
Alexis
Yeah, sedums, hens and chicks, aloe vera.
00:40:48
Plant People
Yeah. ah And those ah the aloe is really amazing.
00:40:50
Alexis
ah
00:40:53
Plant People
I mean, don't think of just your standard house aloe. If you go and look, and there's just some that don't even look of this earth, the aloes that are red and spiny, the spined reds and things, and they're all different colors.
00:41:00
Alexis
Mm hmm.
00:41:06
Plant People
And it's amazing what they've done with breeding for the aloes. And dish gardens are amazing.
00:41:09
Alexis
Yeah, your jades too. That's another one that can be easy to find jades.
00:41:12
Plant People
Yeah, curly leaf jade is one that I have growing right now ah upstairs.
00:41:16
Alexis
Yeah, even like a Christmas cactus, um like a small, like if you get a cutting of a Christmas cactus, they'll do well.
00:41:20
Plant People
Yeah.
00:41:22
Jessica
Mmhmm.
00:41:22
Plant People
Air plants.
00:41:22
Alexis
um
00:41:23
Plant People
I mean, I use air plants in dish gardens because they technically don't have to have that soil medium, but ah you can put them in there as long as you don't overwater them.
00:41:24
Jessica
Mmhmm.
00:41:32
Alexis
Yeah.
00:41:33
Plant People
Yeah, there's there's ah so many plants that that do pretty well, but it's really important that we just mentioned a bunch of different plants, okay? But not all of them have the same growing requirements, even though they're all suitable for dish gardens.
00:41:48
Alexis
Mm-hm.
00:41:50
Plant People
Curly leaf jade, I was mixing it with mashivaria, but the curly leaf jade took a little bit more moisture.
00:41:56
Alexis
Mm-hm.
00:41:56
Plant People
ah It could actually go without a lot of moisture, but it basically had a dwarfing effect on it. But to do the best, it needed a little bit more moisture. But that's very, I think, a good way to kill those is to just water a little bit too much.
00:42:07
Alexis
Mm-hm.
00:42:08
Plant People
And they do not like that. So check your growing requirements and your moisture requirements. And it was amazing. Once I got my curly leaf jade out, it had basically not grown in three to four years. I was like, oh, this is so awesome. It's working great for a dish garden.
00:42:19
Plant People
I actually pulled it from a terrarium, put it in a dish garden. but once I pulled it out and I could treat it by itself the way that it needed, it's just tripled in size in one year. And it's amazing because it was not doing, yeah, it was happy. So I guess the moral of that story is pay attention to the different requirements of what these things need because not all succulents, even though that's the most popular ah grouping of plants for dish gardens, not all of them have the exact same growing requirements. So make sure to pay attention to that. and
00:42:49
Brett
Did you want to talk about fertilizer? Because I have one. I have a final question after that.
00:42:53
Plant People
ah Fertilizer is ah basically the moral of that story is not much, even for dish gardens, which takes more fertilizer than a terrarium. Terrariums take little to know fertilizer from my experience either that or I've just not been successful and had terrariums long enough.
00:43:05
Alexis
You want things to stay small, so.
00:43:07
Plant People
Yeah.
00:43:08
Jessica
You're not encouraging growth there.
00:43:08
Plant People
and
00:43:09
Alexis
and
00:43:09
Jessica
Yeah.
00:43:10
Plant People
it's For dish gardens, just like for me, I've found a good formula of what, unless I'm using a succulent pre-made fertilizer, and I don't always buy that, I do just an off-the-shelf indoor plant fertilizer at about half strength, maybe once a year when active growth typically takes place during longer days. That is, and I've had good luck with that, if that's ah meaning I don't fertilize much at all.
00:43:33
Plant People
uh not typically and the rule of thumb is if you do have a dish garden that takes more water the more you water the more that's going to wash out the salts and fertilizer in the soil that so adjust your fertilizer schedule accordingly but overall they take a lot less fertilizer than typical house plants because like alexa said you want them to stay small and now that i have fertilized twice a year my little j plant and it is going to be a big j plant some days but uh yeah
00:43:34
Alexis
Yeah.
00:44:01
Jessica
Yeah.
00:44:01
Brett
and I think think sometimes people, just because of the nature of gardening and like we're trying to encourage people to take a soil test and then fertilize according to that. and In general, you know plants aren't going to die if you don't fertilize them, especially in this kind of context. and so like If people are worried, oh if i don't fertil like they think that fertilizer is a thing that plants have to have in order to survive.
00:44:28
Brett
You'd be pretty surprised. I mean, you'd be pretty surprised how little nutrient is available in the desert. Um, and these things grow slowly.
00:44:33
Plant People
Yeah.
00:44:35
Brett
We have, sometimes we have a patient's issue with things growing faster, but yeah, I think that's, that's a really great way of, of describing it. Well, to reprise my role of the person who asks people the how to people, why questions instead of just how questions.
00:44:49
Alexis
Yes!
00:44:53
Brett
Why is it that you think these things are so are so have such staying power?
The Joy of Miniature Ecosystems
00:45:00
Brett
Why do you think it is that people do that? Because it's, I mean, to be to be the ah the unimaginative grumpy uncle, ah they they don't serve any purpose.
00:45:09
Brett
They don't do anything. You can't eat it. You can't live in it. You can't blah, blah, blah, blah. But like, why is it that that you think these things, what is it about them that attracts you? Or you think it attracts people? Or what what are you teaching kids with it?
00:45:21
Jessica
What?
00:45:21
Brett
what What's the deal?
00:45:23
Plant People
I like tiny things. I like tiny little... I think it started with me with micro machines, Brett, when I was younger. Little, tiny, matchbox-style cars, but I thought, this is so cool. And I ask Reid the same thing, and he's one of the things on his wish list slat last year for Christmas was a tiny zen garden about the size of a dish garden.
00:45:40
Plant People
He's got a tiny rake that he rakes his patterns in it every week.
00:45:43
Brett
the
00:45:44
Plant People
But and I said, why do you enjoy that so much? He says, I don't know. I just like small things. But I like the joy of having the ver joy and versatility of having a little tiny plant garden next to me, you know, growing.
00:45:55
Plant People
I think it's just one of those bringing one of the four elements in, you know, bringing some of the elements in.
00:46:00
Jessica
Right, that's what I was gonna say. I was just like the joy of growing something, having something green inside. I mean, you can say that about just house plants in general too, but you know, and I think um we've talked a lot about like, especially dish gardens, the accessibility to them now, like whether you can just like buy them already pre-made, ready to go, and then you hope you keep them alive, right?
00:46:18
Plant People
yeah Yeah. Eating.
00:46:24
Jessica
um But I think there's just, you know, the joy and like, Kind of like, is it fashionable, right? Is that like kind of trendy, like kind of thing where people like love them so much.
00:46:36
Plant People
I don't know.
00:46:37
Jessica
You see them used in decoration all the time.
00:46:39
Plant People
I just saw him in the background of all the influencers and I thought it must be cool.
00:46:39
Jessica
So so that's why you did it.
00:46:43
Plant People
You know, to have hanging baskets and succulent guard. Yes, exactly. That's exactly why.
00:46:46
Brett
I come to you for my fashion advice, Jessica. So sure you should be telling me if it's fashionable or not.
00:46:49
Jessica
Oh, thank you. All right. Yes. And you might want to rethink that, but thank you, Brett.
00:46:51
Plant People
Is it fashionable?
00:46:52
Alexis
says
00:46:54
Brett
Okay. Like my outfit or rethinking coming to you.
00:46:57
Plant People
Oh, okay.
00:46:57
Alexis
yeah
00:46:58
Plant People
Okay.
00:46:58
Alexis
think of mean to you or just like myself in general yeah
00:46:59
Brett
Oh, gotcha.
00:47:00
Plant People
Yeah. I just, dish gardens are fun. I don't know why that's a great question, Brett. And, you know, anytime we have a class on dish cutting, it tends to be pretty popular. and I don't, I don't exactly know, but when I do a dish garden, yeah.
00:47:13
Alexis
I think because it's an art it's an art form like it's a design factor so like it's
00:47:15
Plant People
um Yeah. Yeah. I could see that.
00:47:18
Alexis
living plants so different from floral design, which are cuts. This is a living plant design. um And, you know, I think bonsai probably kind of fit in there too, where it's like a living plant that you're creating and so an artistic style on. And I think terrariums and dish gardens are just almost like another canvas, you're just using live plants and caring for them that way. So like,
00:47:42
Alexis
For me, it's like the benefit of having all these live plants, which I obviously love and have a bunch of, but I get to design with them, which is another experience.
00:47:52
Plant People
Now, when you guys do your dish gardens, I'm going to ask you to tell them yourself, did you guys use like fun rocks? Because um ah there's I've never had a dish garden where you can see any soil.
00:47:59
Alexis
What kind of question is that?
00:48:04
Plant People
You see little dried fern that I put everywhere. is he you know Sometimes some little petrified wood, but mostly just fun aquarium gravel across the top that I've done underlayment under, and then some fun, larger rocks.
00:48:11
Alexis
Yeah.
00:48:14
Jessica
Yeah.
00:48:18
Plant People
It's all about the rocks for me with terrariums.
00:48:19
Alexis
or or the little tiny dinosaurs.
00:48:20
Plant People
I would admit it.
00:48:21
Jessica
Little dinosaurs.
00:48:23
Plant People
yeah Yes.
00:48:23
Alexis
Yeah.
00:48:23
Jessica
Yeah.
00:48:25
Plant People
Yeah. Now I think it's see now we're getting to a bread.
00:48:26
Jessica
We're thinking the same thing.
00:48:27
Alexis
yeah
00:48:28
Plant People
It's really the accessories that we're after. Okay. And, and when I see those entries at the state fair, I'm always amazed like at some of the themes that I see that are just so creative.
00:48:40
Plant People
Yes, the plants are wonderful, but it's those accessories they put in there.
00:48:42
Jessica
Yes.
00:48:43
Plant People
Yeah. Yeah.
00:48:44
Jessica
Um, we have to share a fun one.
00:48:44
Plant People
Fun stuff.
00:48:47
Jessica
Ray was there with it for it this year with me.
00:48:49
Plant People
Oh, I didn't do anything embarrassing.
00:48:50
Jessica
Um, no, I cannot remember the county and I wouldn't share it anyways. Uh, but we had a, uh, dish garden coming in, was it a dish garden terrarium? And we were all like, Oh my gosh, that is the most beautiful dish garden I've ever seen.
00:49:03
Alexis
Someone in the skull?
00:49:04
Plant People
Oh my gosh.
00:49:04
Jessica
Those plants look amazing. And there was like different, yeah, it was like a desert and, and, and Ray, Ray took it, like Ray had it in his hands.
00:49:08
Plant People
The theming was amazing.
00:49:09
Alexis
Yeah.
00:49:10
Plant People
Yeah.
00:49:13
Jessica
And we're like, wow, then we just look closer and we're like, are those real plants? And then Ray reached in there and was like, this is fishing line on this cactus.
00:49:18
Plant People
no No, no, they weren't. Nope.
00:49:23
Jessica
And they were completely all fake plants that were entered.
00:49:23
Plant People
Yeah. Yeah. Nope. Not real.
00:49:26
Jessica
And that's why it looked so pristine. And from a distance, yes,
00:49:29
Plant People
But it was a very nice display, though. From an artistic perspective, people, it was it was an A+. plus From a but biological perspective, it was not an A+.
00:49:34
Jessica
they hit all the elements from the artistic rise. Yeah, from a distance we were like, that is best in show.
00:49:38
Alexis
It was...
00:49:41
Jessica
And then when you got closer, not so much.
00:49:43
Alexis
This is not real.
00:49:44
Plant People
I'm glad we didn't get it. Yeah.
00:49:46
Brett
why i have I have two theories for for why I think these types of things capture the imagination or or are popular or whatever.
00:49:46
Plant People
Yeah.
00:49:51
Plant People
What do you have?
00:49:53
Brett
I think one of them is, and it makes me wonder how many of these things are started in like the winter because you're just clamoring to grow something and you can grow these inside and it you know gives you something to kind of, I think it allows you to basically in in places where there is a winter season to grow year round or take care of things year round, kind of like what Jessica was saying earlier.
Creative Indoor Gardening for Adults
00:50:15
Brett
My other theory based on what you're saying and based on Ray's love of small things, um, is that it, it allows us to like to play in a way that is foreign to like a lot of adult life where it's, you know, you're adding fun dinosaurs and you're doing these things and it's small and it's, it's almost like that distance from productivity.
00:50:22
Plant People
all the small things.
00:50:37
Alexis
little Tamagotchi.
00:50:38
Brett
Yeah.
00:50:39
Plant People
I was thinking Tamagotchi scale and yeah, yeah, breath or something there.
00:50:41
Brett
That, that distance from productivity, the fact that it's not really in any way practical is actually what makes it so powerful is that because it's there's, you know, no pressure, there's no.
00:50:45
Jessica
Mm hmm.
00:50:45
Plant People
Mm hmm. And it's a system, isn't it? I mean, if you're successful and get all that put together, like Brett's saying, it's kind of like this living system kind of thing.
00:50:58
Plant People
And it's so cool.
00:51:00
Brett
Yeah.
00:51:01
Plant People
And it doesn't, it's not like it's growing lemons, Alexis, or something tasty or productive.
00:51:06
Alexis
It could.
00:51:07
Plant People
But yeah, that's not the point of it, is it? Typically, it's not the point.
00:51:09
Alexis
census
00:51:10
Brett
Yeah, it's making this is making me talking with you always making me realize that I am a different Uh type of plant person from all of you Uh I I have very very little interest in in any in like tropical plants or arid, you know cactus or
00:51:11
Plant People
no
00:51:19
Alexis
Okay.
00:51:19
Jessica
Oh,
00:51:21
Plant People
He's like, we're going to need to unpack that a little bit on the next.
00:51:22
Jessica
how so?
00:51:26
Plant People
ah Yeah. ah
00:51:35
Alexis
again
00:51:36
Jessica
ah
00:51:38
Brett
It's not like if it's a plant, I love it or it intrigues me in the way that seemingly for you all it does.
00:51:45
Jessica
You don't buy plants when you get sad.
00:51:46
Brett
that That's totally great. I'm not i'm not i i'm a little i'm a little jealous you know to to not have that.
00:51:49
Alexis
but
00:51:52
Jessica
It's how I got a new lemon tree.
00:51:54
Alexis
Yeah.
00:51:54
Brett
yeah
00:51:55
Alexis
Yeah.
00:51:55
Plant People
Are you more about the locals plants to your zip code Brett kind of person or what?
00:51:59
Brett
Not necessarily, no, it's not like a fixation on native.
00:52:01
Plant People
Oh, yeah, I appreciate some hardiness too.
00:52:03
Brett
um i think I think I'm like a hardiness guy more so than a native versus non-native. Yeah, but anyway.
00:52:09
Plant People
But there's a lot to be said about plants that, uh, yeah, go through the seasons and do it in such a way. Sometimes it's known and sometimes it's a mystery. So.
00:52:19
Brett
But maybe, maybe I need to, need to try a little dish garden, give it a try. See what, see if it, if it hooks me, but I'm hoping some people out there who have their cabin fever, uh, start a dish garden or a terrarium and with the inspiration they've gathered from this episode.
00:52:34
Alexis
Yeah, and check out the show notes for some additional information, this plant list, things like that, you know, what to look for the full checklist that can be super helpful if you've never done one before.
00:52:34
Plant People
Yeah.
00:52:47
Alexis
Or if you just saw like a really cool piece of glass at one of the stores, you're like, that would be cool to put plants in. Do it. You can. I promise you can do it.
00:52:58
Alexis
It's fun and you can put tiny dinosaurs in it and if that's not a win in life, I don't know what is. ah So yeah you can find us on social media, on Instagram, specifically at Hort Culture Pod. You can also shoot us an email if you've got any questions and we've had some come in lately with some great ideas for our future episodes. So we'll be working those in ah when, you know, as the as the season makes sense for us to start talking about that.
00:53:24
Alexis
And so feel free to ask any questions or give us a shout out. You can leave us a review and that helps other people find us and makes the algorithm happy. And ah you know, tell us about your, what what do you like to put in your dish garden or terrarium? Is it tiny dinosaurs? Are you more into, you know, NASCAR's cars or something? I don't know, whatever you're into, we're not gonna judge you for it. As long as you have the appropriate plans paired together, we will judge you for that. And if you have questions, you know how to contact us.
00:53:54
Brett
if you have a legy If you have a leggy cactus, we're going to judge you for that too.
00:53:54
Alexis
but we think
00:53:58
Jessica
Yeah, apparently
00:54:00
Plant People
That's going to be the picture for the this episode.
00:54:00
Alexis
Well, no, you just say for demonstration purposes and then everything is fine. Education is key here, people. That's what we're about. So, well, we hope and learning from our mistakes.
00:54:09
Jessica
That's right.
00:54:11
Plant People
We learn more from our mistakes, yeah.
00:54:13
Alexis
Yeah. Learn from our mistakes that you don't make them. That's our job. Well, we, uh, we're glad to have you all here with us today. And we hope that as we grow this podcast, you will grow with us and that you'll join us next time.
00:54:25
Alexis
Have a great one.