You need: A sturdy glass jar with a lid, clean stones, activated carbon, garden soil, some kind of prodding stick (chopsticks work nicely), mist bottle, sandwich bag, tons of moss
-Collect moss from the woods, scrape just below the roots and try to get it in one large piece. Shake off excess dirt and check for anything freakish like fat worm babies.
-Gently layer the moss flat into a sandwich bag and spray with water to keep it fresh until you start your terrarium.
-Clean out your jar, add in about an inch of scrubbed stones and pebbles (the soil is rocky here, some out of the garden is good enough)
-It's suggested that you add a layer of dry sphagnum moss but skip this step if you want (it just keeps the soil from falling into the water basin)
-Add about a half inch layer of activated carbon (cleans the water)-
get it at a pet store for $4
-Add an inch of soil and mist until moist
-Try to use larger pieces of moss and lay it down however you'd like, if you have different kinds of moss it may be easier to lay down flatter kinds before you put in taller ones.
-Poke at the damn thing, especially tuck the moss into the sides of the jar (you can add hills of moss by packing more soil in some areas). Just make sure everything is in place.
-Add little clay, plastic or glass charms... nothing that will get moldy. If you want to add pieces of bark or sticks then just change them if they start to rot.
That's about it...
