Posts by Alexander Whaley

I’ve set up enough terrariums to know the first month feels like babysitting a tiny weather system. You see fog one day, bone-dry glass the next, and you wonder if you messed it up. Once I started...

My first few terrariums looked perfect for two weeks, then collapsed into yellow mush and fungus. I was swapping plants like socks when the problem was never the species — it was the conditions...

I built my first moss terrarium for a dim city shelf where every other plant went crispy. The surprise wasn’t that the moss lived — it thrived without me watering for months. Once I understood...

I loved the look of a glass cloche on my coffee table — until my fittonia wilted overnight under it. I’d trapped heat and humidity without understanding how fast a sunny window can turn glass...

When I moved my plants into “premium” mix and they still sulked, I cut open a bag to see what I was actually paying for. The ingredients looked like trail mix: bits that held water, bits that...

I’ve cooked through more than one summer of sad, crispy basil and mystery-drooping mint on a balcony. The pattern was the same every time: great for two weeks, then a slow decline I couldn’t...