Like buying a house, buying a terrarium can boil down to a basic choice. The choices are whether to build your own or buy a unit that is already complete. Regardless of which way you decide to go, the experience can prove to be rewarding and a source of satisfaction for years to come.
As with building a home, building a terrarium is not a project for the novice. Creating a proper habitat for living plants from scratch requires a body of knowledge that takes a good bit of time to accumulate. Like a house, selecting the proper building materials for a terrarium is a crucial decision. The selection of materials is largely dependent on what you intend the terrarium to do.
Most home terrariums are used to create a microenvironment for certain types of plants. Others are used to house not only plants but, as in the case of a riparium, are used to create a home for various types small land creatures such as frogs and lizards. Ripariums can be much more complicated to establish and maintain the average plant terrarium. If plants are what you fancy then there are simple designs for the person who is adept …
