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Gardening Under Glass

It may be winter outside, but it’s spring under your favorite cloche

Written by Tovah Martin
Photographed by Kindra Clineff

Terrariums come in all shapes and sizes, from apothecary jars to mini-conservatories, and can serve many functions. For example, spring bulbs are elevated to a whole new plateau of importance when they’re displayed under glass.

Terrariums come in all shapes and sizes, from apothecary jars to mini-conservatories, and can serve many functions. For example, spring bulbs are elevated to a whole new plateau of importance when they’re displayed under glass.

A fern frond is slowly, gracefully unfurling. And a club moss has broken out of its little bun to carpet the soil below the ivy that’s wending its leisurely way up the glass. A begonia is in bud, an orchid has just popped, and an African violet recently finished its performance. Yes, there’s snow on the ground. No, you’re not in a greenhouse. Instead, you’re sinking drowsily into a fluffy, overstuffed sofa while a terrarium is doing stunts at your elbow.

Before you conjure up visions of aquariums filled with scientific experiments, or cut-off soda bottles holding something slimy inside, update your notion of a terrarium. The terrariums of today are the polar opposites of those versions perched beside the lava lamp and macramé of your past. Think of an exquisitely curved jar or a gently arched cloche showcasing some divinely poetic plant within its confines. Let your imagination roam to a mini garden clapped safely inside a tall, sleek, tabletop dome. Twenty-first-century terrariums are now focal points, more about beauty and nature than about stuffing every known plant and the salamander into a small space. They’re the daughters of design and the sons of art.

And let’s face it; whether you are a ski bunny or a snowboard hound, you desperately crave a little nature right about now. Terrariums soak the stress out of daily life; they’re little doses of therapy in a jar. And not only can terrariums make your home awash in greenery, they serve as enabling tools of the trade in your workspace as well. Think about it: where do you need a small nugget of calming, cooling and collecting nature most? In your office cubicle. Due to their preference for low light (terrariums do best in an east- or west-facing window pulled away and protected from direct sunlight) and their ability to chug along on autopilot without any fuss, terrariums are custom-made for the job. Sold? I thought so.

So, what is a terrarium? Think of a terrarium as a sterling invitation to create art by using plants and bits of nature and to display your handiwork in a glass frame. When you plant in glass, you create a mini-ecosystem with high humidity that keeps everything inside moist and growing. If the glass container is closed—such as an apothecary jar with a lid—almost no care is needed. Water lightly when the terrarium is planted, and the moisture continues to circulate within the container. In other words, your terrarium acts like a biosphere. That translates into a virtually maintenance-free garden performing its poetry by your side. The benefits are immeasurable; the bother is nil.

There is no need to hunt arcane or expensive houseplants; a terrarium puts a shine on the most common supermarket standby. Look for plants that stay small, tolerate low light and bask in high humidity. Botanicals that loiter in the supermarket floral section have exactly those characteristics. If what you see in the aisles hasn’t registered on your radar before, just think how it will look in glass. Terrariums don’t necessarily coddle finicky plants in their recesses, but they cosset them in a favorable environment; terrariums put a sparkle on any plant.

Terrariums also elevate the beauty of anything within them, including bits of nature. In addition to plants, tuck in some lichen-covered sticks, a little stone that spoke to you on a hike, a seedpod, seashell, faux bird’s nest or whatever you fancy to create different textures and color dialogues.

A terrarium is a garden drastically downsized, but the ramifications are significant. It can be a speck of acreage all your own, poised and ready to provide solace for you at home or for your family or coworkers when the world goes viral. And it all started with a jar. And a dream. And a cold, dismal day. Go ahead: create your own garden under glass. It could change your life.

Garden Terrarium

Turning Everyday Glass into a Garden

In most cases, today’s terrariums aren’t those pricey little units that look like somebody shrank the conservatory. Nowadays, savvy indoor gardeners are using what’s on hand, filling a salvaged glass flea market find with plants and calling it a terrarium. Here’s a sterling opportunity to exercise your inner scavenger.

Basically, anything that can hold plants is apropos. Why not use an apothecary jar? Or enlist a compote bowl with a glass lid? Canning jars, lemonade dispensers and cookie jars are also fair game. Rummage in the attic for recycled fishbowls. Repurpose glass flour canisters. Use whatever’s available.

For beginners, it is wise to find a container with a base that is at least four inches wide for easy planting. About six inches of headroom also allows plenty of space to add an inch of pebbles or charcoal that forms a drainage base on the bottom and the next two-to-three-inch layer of “soil” (a typical houseplant mix, preferably organic, works best) in which the little plants sink their roots. Another cardinal rule: find a container with an opening large enough to fit your hand for easy access.

Clear glass works best, but lightly tinted glass also works if you place it slightly closer to a window or light source. Besides that, the sky is the limit. Almost any glass container can display a little snippet of spring no matter the season, and serve it up with sparkle and shine.

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The Evolution Of Edibles

Designing Ornamental Gardens with Herbs, Fruits and Vegetables

Written and Photographed by Kerry Michaels

Crabapple blossoms Every garden, no matter how modest, is filled with small wonders and essential truths about the order of the world, but a truly great garden can overwhelm and surprise you—challenging your assumptions about what is possible and what is beautiful. Integrating edible plants into a landscape challenges just those assumptions.

Jacquelyn Nooney, owner and lead designer of Jacquelyn Nooney Landscape, Inc. in Eliot, Maine, has been combining edible and ornamental plants for years. “Seeing recognizable things in an unexpected place can be really interesting and surprising. When you take an edible out of an agricultural setting, it becomes more memorable and engaging.”

Creating beautiful compositions of edible and ornamental plants is the foundation of a potager garden. Potager, translated from French, means edible. Potagers originated in the walled gardens of monasteries in medieval France, where meditation, beauty and order were married to food production—flowers, herbs, trees, shrubs and vegetables were grown in the same space.

Jennifer R. Bartley, author of Designing the New Kitchen Garden, and the upcoming, The Kitchen Gardener’s Handbook, said in a recent conversation, “What makes a potager different from a typical vegetable garden is not just its history, but its design: the potager is a landscape feature that does not have to be hidden in a corner of the backyard, but can be the central feature of an ornamental, all-season landscape—even in the front yard of a home in the most exclusive neighborhood.”

Potagers complement any landscape, from extremely formal gardens to cottage gardens. According to Jennifer, “While a potager is a structured garden space—a design based on repetitive geometric patterns—potagers don’t have to be large and complicated, but they are special places, and the design should call that out.”

Integrating Edibles Into Existing Gardens
There are countless ways to include vegetables and fruits in your existing landscape. For Nan K. Chase, author of Eat Your Yard!, fruit trees are one of her favorite ways to combine ornamental and edible plants.

“A Callaway crabapple is a great choice. The blossoms are amazing and eating the fruit is like tasting liquid Sweet Tarts candy. There are also columnar apples that are bred for the fruit to grow up the stem. They’re great looking and are perfect if you have size constraints. Quince is marvelous and dates back to antiquity. The contorted quince is out-of-this-world gorgeous. Quinces have amazing springtime flowers, and they’re a shrub, so they are a manageable size and the fruit will stay on well into fall.”

Nan is a fan of tucking vegetables and herbs into existing flower and perennial beds. “You don't have to tear up your lawn to grow edibles, you can work them into your flower beds. I use fennel as filler, and put leeks and onions in the blank spots in my garden beds where they throw up lovely green stalks. Once you’ve had an onion fresh from the garden, you'll never go back to store-bought.”

Ivette Soler, author of the upcoming book, Front Yard Food, and the popular blog, The Germinatrix, believes that integrating edibles and ornamentals simply makes sense. “Sometimes edibles are the best plant choice—even in a strictly ornamental garden. Using thyme or oregano as a ground cover can be luscious. They crawl and scramble, and can magically knit together a collection of plants into a real garden. The fact that they are edible is just a bonus.”

Ivette added that some edibles are also a thrill to use. “Take golden oregano—it’s a diva that gets all up in your face. It’s as ornamental as a plant gets. And there is a basil for every garden. Basil has fragrance, flowers and spectacular colors. It goes from a somber moody purple to a sparkly lemon.”

Growing Edibles In Containers
Growing edibles in containers can add a great design element and structural interest to any garden. No one knows this better than Jacquelyn Nooney.

Although Jackie, designer of the gardens at the flagship Stonewall Kitchen store in York, Maine, has been integrating edibles into landscapes and containers for years, she is still excited about creating new combinations. She has developed a list of plants that are not only edible, but that are beautiful and will endure throughout the entire growing season.

“There are many stunning edibles. There are all kinds of chards: yellow-stemmed, rainbow and a gorgeous red. There are four or five kales—my favorite is dinosaur kale, which is not only spectacular to look at, but also wonderful to eat and as the season goes on it gets sweeter and sweeter. I also love using curly parsley; it is a super green and makes a tidy mound. It looks amazing with red kale.”

Jackie also loves the spectacular foliage of beets. And this year, for vertical interest, she is using new variegated varieties of corn in both landscapes and containers.

Gardening with edibles, however you choose to grow them—by creating a formal potager or a pair of white window boxes dripping with tiny red fraises du bois strawberries; by tucking herbs, vegetables and edible flowers into perennial beds; or by fashioning a container of fairytale eggplants dangling like earrings—can make gardening more of an adventure.

On any given day you can find truth and beauty in the garden. On a truly great day you can find truth, beauty and a perfectly ripe tomato.

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