Home for a bunny.

What shall we do, indeed?



I bought this cute little guy at the Bluberry Festival in Ely, MN this summer.  He had been living an unappreciated life in my top dresser drawer for too long.  He needed a home.

A home in a terrarium.  Where all ceramic bunnies wish they could live.



I ordered the biggest glass jar I could find, which coincidentally turned out to be the exact same one in the book.  I almost bought a slightly cheaper one at Wal-Mart, but it was smaller . . . and had a dark plastic lid, not a clear glass one . . . it just wasn't doing it for me.  We all agreed the bigger one was much better.



So, now that we are terrarium experts, we will walk you through this step by step.

First, after you acquire a suitable jar and cute children to help you, the directions in the book said to get clay pebbles.

Where can one find clay pebbles, I asked myself.  I went online, and found there was much controversy about what clay pebbles are the best clay pebbles for terrariums.  The purpose of the clay pebbles is to absorb extra water and then the soil in the terrarium would absorb it when need be.

I decided to side-step the pebble drama.  We broke up an old terracotta pot instead, which would meet the absorbtion need just as well.  We went shopping in the shed for the old pot, which kind of felt like it was free (more or less).

Everyone took turns pounding it with the meat tenderizer.



Then we carefully laid the broken pieces, overlapping them, on the bottom of the jar.

Next, we put in activated charcoal (find this by the fish section or a pet store).



Svea wanted to know what the charcoal does.  The best way I could come up with explaining it is that basically it's like deodorant for dirt.  It keeps the dirt fresh and happy.

Next came the dirt.  We used potting soil.  If you want critters (real ones) to live in your terrarium, it's best to use soil from your garden.

So I bought two plants, which turned out to be one plant too many.  A 5-liter jar is not as big as it sounds.



Then the book said to fill up 1/3 of the jar with dirt.  I did, and it felt like way too much, so I ended up taking some out.  I'd say 1/4 is perfectly fine.

I put one of the plants in, it is a Rainbow plant, and the dirt looked pretty naked.  So I went to the front yard where we have some moss growing by a brick border and harvested some of that.  It really helped the terrarium look cozy - a must for a bunny.

The bunny seems pretty happy in his new home.  So far he hasn't complained.

The terrarium steams up when the lid is closed and the water vapor condenses.  So I leave it cracked open.  So far, it's been a few weeks since we potted this (I wanted to make sure it would survive before I blogged about it!) and I haven't even had to water it yet.  The broken terra cotta pot seems to be doing it's job!