Hello my Wildlings! I’m so happy you joined me today! Today, we’re going to make a jar of dirt!

Now, don’t give me that look! Everyone loved it when a certain pirate had a jar of dirt!

See, what happened was, I was clicking around youtube. Since every algorithm of every site I frequent knows I like jars, and I like dirt, YouTube said, “Lets give her a video about a jar of dirt” and WHOA! My mind was blown.

The video, from a YouTube channel called Homemade Ecosystems, was showing what one of their terrariums looked like after 200 days. The M. Night Shyamalan twist on this terrarium was that it literally started out as….a jar of dirt.

What you might not believe about my Goblinesque self if that…I’m not very good at growing things. Well, green things. Fauna I’ve got covered, but Flora seems to die under my care. Since I kill green things I, of course, long to grow green things.

Once upon a time I tried to grow a closed “moss” terrarium. I watched TONS of videos of how to do it right, then I followed them step by step. Do you know how hard it is to find moss when you live in a suburban neighborhood. It was kind of cute, but didn’t thrive. I guess I needed some of that super healthy forest moss instead of growth stunted city moss.

Anyway, I still go down the moss terrarium rabbit hole from time to time which is probably why YouTube thinks I have a thing for jars and dirt.

Which brings us back to…well…jars of dirt.

At the end of the video they told you how to make your own jar of dirt, and it was fairly simple.

1. You need a jar.
2. You need some stones.
3. You need some dirt.

My goblin brain went, “Aha! I have all of those things!”

HOW TO MAKE A “NOTHING BUT DIRT” TERRARIUM

STEP 1: Get a Jar

This turned out to be trickier than I thought it was gonna be. I absolutely have a lot of jars. But it turns out I don’t really have the RIGHT jar.

I found plastic jars and glass jars, mason jars and favor jars, clear jars and colored jars, and the biggest problem is that most of my jars already have something in them. Like paper shred for paper making, paper beads, odd coins, wax drippings and organically collected empty snail shells.

The jar I absolutely could not find was the one I made my failed moss terrarium in, which would have been perfect. I swear I remember where I left it. The garden Gnomes must have stolen it.

Anyway, despite my jar hoard, I had to buy a jar for this.

STEP 2: Get Some Stones

This one was easy. I have rocks for my aquariums, and rocks from my failed terrarium and rocks because my combination goblin/crow brain often goes, “Ohh, shiny, must keep forever!” even if the rock is just a normal rock.

What I COULDN’T use are the pet rocks my kids have.

STEP 3: Get Some Dirt

Rocks was easy, but this was 100% by far the EASIEST step.

The dirt needs to be “living” dirt, not store bought dirt from the garden center. If you use the dirt in a bag from home depot it will be lifeless and nothing will happen. You will literally just have dirt in a jar.

Dirt from a forest or a garden would be the best dirt, but I don’t have a forest or a garden, so I just got some dirt from the back fence close to the overgrown area behind our yard. Closest thing to forest dirt I could get my hands on.

It doesn’t really matter though, because it will still have the things in it needed to start its own ecosystem. There will be plant seeds in the soil, probably bug eggs, possibly actual bugs. It will also be full of other natural elements that are not found in processed soil.

In theory anyway. It worked for the guy in the youtube video anyway.

So, now we just wait and see.

Who is eager for the first update? How long do you think it will take for the first plant to pop its head up? Do you think there will be any living worms or insects in there?

So right after I got my mini tree I was browsing amazon for goblincore ornaments. I saw a Retro Fawn Bottle-brush wreath ornament that I thought was super cute. Only, it was 4 inches (too bit for my tiny tree) and $26 which isn’t unreasonable but is more than my post present buying budget would allow me to spend on ONE ornament.

I don’t know if I have mentioned yet, but I just happen to work at a craft store. And while the place I work generally carries all the craft supplies EXCEPT the one I need at any given moment, we did have some tiny craft wreaths in stock. And I already had some tiny deer leftover from a tinket box craft I did.

This is also probably the EASIEST dupe I’ve ever made.

(I am an amazon associate. Making a purchase after clicking one of my links will earn me a small commission at not extra charge to you. This will help me bring more crafts in the future!)

For this craft you will need:

• mini craft wreaths (amazon)
• miniature animal of your choice (I used a deer, but it would be cute with any forest animal or even tiny trees)
• hot glue gun
• tiny plastic beads (optional)
• glitter or white flocking (optional)

The instructions are also short and sweet.

1. Put hot glue on the feet of the animal figure.
2. Stick animal figure into the center of the wreath.
3. Dust remaining hot glue with glitter or flocking to hide it. (optional. I didn’t need to with the two I made)

As you can see the tiny wreath bases I found already had a the tiny bow and tiny ornaments on them. The ones I linked to on amazon have the bow, but no ornaments. You can add small plastic beads to the blank wreaths for ornaments if you wish.

What do you think about my results? Here is a link to the original if you want to compare.

I think they are absolutely adorable and I have put one on my mini tree and the other on the main tree in the living room.

I was thinking about making the 3rd one and hosting a small giveaway, but figured I probably need to wait until I have more than 3 followers before I do something like that. (and I also maybe might have accidentally destroyed the bow on the last mini-wreath I had.)

Coming up in 2023, I hope to share more of my crafts with you. I’m going to be part of a group on youtube called “Crafting with Friends” where we each share the crafts we’ve made each week, and Monday’s are going to be my day. I’ll share the crafts here and, if I can figure out how, the video too!

If you make this, or any other Feral Coziness craft, I’d love to see it! Use the tag #feralcrafting on insta!