7 Best Terrarium Kits UK 2024

Picking up a terrarium kit is a great way to add a personal touch to your home, as the design and layout are completely up to you. Either opt for something calming and relaxing to create a dreamy zen atmosphere, or maybe you'd prefer to create an overgrown tropical jungle. The choice is yours, so feel free to let your creative juices run wild!

As well as being a handcrafted decoration for the home, putting together a terrarium can be a great entry point into other green hobbies, like caring for a bonsai tree or a herb garden. Even if you just want to make more terrariums, picking up a kit is a fantastic way to get creative and introduce a fun new hobby into your life.

For adult-specific terrarium kits, take a closer look at the contents. You might want a decorative, glass round container included, or perhaps you'd like something a little more complicated than placing a few pebbles here and there. Bear in mind, that adult kits tend to be a little more advanced, being a bit more time consuming than kits for children. 

Apart from acting as a calming and aesthetically pleasing influence in your home, terrariums make excellent learning projects for kids. Even if you’re thinking of starting a project with your own container, opting for a children’s kit may not be a bad way to get started if it includes all the basics you need.

When looking at kits specifically aimed at children, you’ll often find fun additions included to decorate the terrarium itself, such as glow in the dark stickers, ornaments and statues, or brightly coloured sand. Once the hours of fun have been had creating it doubles up as a bright and funky ornament to display in the children's room.

The essentials to look out for in a kit include everything you need to create a basic ecosystem. These elements can differ depending on the designed outcome but will often include soil, pebbles, and charcoal. These are especially important for enclosed terrariums as they create the building blocks for a water and drainage system, allowing the terrarium to self-nourish. 

You'll want to make sure that there's enough soil and other elements to cover the bottom of your container properly. If you have a particularly large container, you can always purchase two kits to make sure you're covered.

You may be surprised to find that many terrarium kits don't contain plants! Don't worry though, most kits will include some greenery in the form of moss as well as a few smaller ferns. 

Kits can also be designed for certain plants, like succulents, without necessarily being included. Choosing your own plants and customising the look of your terrarium is one of the best parts of creating your own ecosystem, so don't worry too much if they aren't included.

Some terrarium kits come complete with a container, while others only include the various things you need to get your ecosystem started, so it’s important to consider which type to opt for. While it may be tempting to opt for a kit that has everything ready to go, it can often make more sense to find a container you like before purchasing a kit.

You can use any glass jar or clear plastic container as long as the opening is large enough to put in the soil, pebbles, and plants/seeds inside. Fishbowls and tanks work extremely well for larger terrariums, while jars and glasses are perfect for miniature gardens. There are also specially designed terrarium containers available, so you'll easily be able to find one that fits with your home. 

You can add all sorts of decorations to your terrarium to make it unique, and many kits will include some different bits and bobs to put amongst your plants. You'll also often find some decorative rocks and pebbles, as well as some multicoloured sand. Themed sets can be especially fun, particularly when the kids are involved.

If you're looking at a beach-themed kit, for example, you may find sand, driftwood, and seashells included, but a children's set is likely to have stickers, toys, and things that glow! Your imagination is the limit, and there's no reason why you can't mix and match things from different kits or add other decorations and accessories you find along the way.

A few kits also include tools such as miniature rakes and trowel sets, or paintbrushes to decorate the glass. Check if there are any extra fun bits included - it might just tip the scale in the favour of one kit over another!

Sealed terrariums are completely self-nourishing and require very little maintenance as they recycle their water. As the water from the soil and plants evaporates, it cools on the terrarium walls and falls back down to the bottom to start the cycle again. If you remember the water cycle from your school days, it's the same principle!

These require a little more planning to ensure the enclosed ecosystem doesn’t collapse, but the result is usually stunning! The main thing you need to consider is that the plants you choose must be able to survive in a warm and humid environment. Succulents, for example, will struggle in a closed terrarium while ferns will thrive.

Open terrariums, on the other hand, aren't self-nourishing and will require the same amount of care as any other house plant as they're essentially just a plant in a very pretty pot. This means that you'll have to keep them watered to stay healthy, as it will eventually evaporate away.

As they're designed to be as aesthetically pleasing as possible, you'll want to make sure you keep your plants trimmed and tidy to prevent them from overflowing out of their container, unless, of course, that's the look you're going for!