Teabag Seed Packets and a Teapot Terrarium

I say it's high time that we gardeners had a tea party, Rainforest Garden style. Serving your friends some tea and cookies is always great, but why not let them gaze at a teapot terrarium as a centerpiece, or send them home with DIY seed packets disguised as tea bags? If entertaining friends isn't your thing, skip shopping this year and give your friends and family homemade seedbags for the holidays! They're cheap, easy and very, very fun. Here's how to make your own:

These seed packets are more than just that; they're seed bombs too! A large seedbag (I like that name) contains just enough soil to get a few seeds started, and the coffee filter envelope is permeable enough to let water inside, and bio-degradable enough to let growing plants out. Plant the seedbag just as you would plant a small container, but leave the whole bag intact.

All you need is a coffee filter, seeds, soil and string, and the labels can be hand drawn on any piece of scrap paper and stapled to the end of the string. Any coffee filter will do, but I used the flat kind that's already folded at the bottom. It you're using one of the bowl shaped coffee filters, just fold it in half before step one. The label can be stapled on the end of the string.

If the instructions are a bit vague, that's because it's in beta testing (so to speak) and everyone will find their own ideal dimensions and technique. You will go through a couple before getting it right, but you'll get the hang of it! If you're still having troubles, leave a comment if you have any questions. I'll do another post after I've heard more feedback and arrived at the perfect dimensions, and maybe even design a cut-out template to use as a stencil!

Teapot Terrarium

This glass pitcher makes an ideal terrarium and it even comes with a lid to keep in moisture. I bought it at Books-A-Million with a terrarium in mind, but then the gears in my head started creaking to life and a typical terrarium just wouldn't cut it anymore. How could I make this terrarium even more like a tea pot? With a tea bag, of course!

For the 'tea bag' I just wrapped some Hatiora (drunkards dream) in sphagnum moss with twine. I placed a layer of glass pebbles inside so that I could water the 'tea bag' without it sitting in water, and I let the twine and label hang over the edge of the teapot. That's it! Think of it as a miniature 'Rainforest Drop.'