Day 158 / Light Bulb Terrarium

I’d been looking forward to doing this project for a while.  I initially found this tutorial on the net detailing how to make the light bulb terrarium.  I thought it was such a cool idea to use a light bulb, and I mean, it just so happens that one of my best friends is a cactus fanatic and I knew I could just raid his backyard for the clippings.  I found a much bigger light bulb than the usual size.  At its largest point the diameter is probably about 4 inches, but the hole to get the stuff in there is exactly the same size as any other bulb.

This wasn’t as easy as I thought it was going to be.  It wasn’t getting the plants in there and arranging them that was so hard.  It was keeping the glass of the light bulb clean.  My big mistake was that I didn’t dry out the sand.  I pulled it right out of the bag that I picked up from Home Depot.  The sand felt a little moist and in turn it got stuck all over the glass inside.  Cleaning the inside is a bit of a pain because you have to use a paper towel attached to a wire and the towel get soiled pretty quick so you have to replace it often.

For the stand, I bought a cheap square frame from Marshalls and a package of rubber feet from Lowes to rise it off the ground.  Emptying the contents of the lightbulb was not too hard and you can watch a tutorial how to do it yourself here.

Anyways, I know what I’d do differently if I were to do it again and it’s not like I don’t like the way it turned out.  I still think it looks pretty cool.  Now, I just have to ask Jeff how to keep these guys alive in there.