A Little Forest in a Jar. My Story, My Terrariums, and Why This Site Exists.
Hey, I’m Eamin Hosen.
I’m a content writer by profession. Most of my day goes into staring at a laptop screen, writing for other people’s brands. I live in Dhaka, Bangladesh, in a small apartment where the balcony is barely big enough for a drying rack. Forget about a garden.
But if you walked into my room, the first thing you’d notice isn’t the desk or the books. It’s the glass. Jars on the windowsill. Vessels on the bookshelf. A small dome sitting right next to my monitor. Each one has moss creeping over miniature stones, ferns unfurling in humid stillness, condensation tracing slow rivers down the walls.
This post is about Eamin Hosen, the person behind this site. Those are my terrariums. That’s how I fit nature into a 10-by-12-foot room.
How Terrariums Found Me
Late 2021. I was deep into freelance content writing, pulling 12 to 14-hour days at my desk. Barely left the apartment. At some point I started noticing what it was doing to me. Burning eyes, constant headaches, and this feeling that my room was shrinking around me. The walls felt closer every day.
One night I was scrolling through YouTube instead of sleeping, and I stumbled on an 8-minute video of someone building a terrarium. Just a glass jar, some moss, a few small ferns, and pebbles, all arranged into something that looked like a forest floor in miniature. I watched it three times. Couldn’t get it out of my head. “I could do this. And it barely takes any space.”
Next day I went to a plant nursery in Katabon, which is one of the few places in Dhaka where you can find unusual indoor plants, and came back with two Fittonia seedlings and an old mason jar. Found an English tutorial online, followed it step by step, and built my first terrarium.
…It didn’t survive.
Two weeks in, fungus spread across the soil. The leaves yellowed, then rotted. I had no idea what went wrong. Turns out, Dhaka’s humid tropical heat makes sealed jars a breeding ground for mold if you don’t manage ventilation. The tutorial never mentioned that because it was made for England’s cool, dry climate.
That failure didn’t stop me though. If anything, it made me more curious. So I kept experimenting. Different soils, different plants, different containers, different layering techniques. Some worked beautifully. Others ended up in the trash, soil and all.
Now, in 2026, I have over 25 terrariums in my apartment. Small coffee jars, big 10-liter demijohns, and everything in between. Some are sealed ecosystems where I haven’t added water in months. Others are open arrangements with succulents and cacti. My oldest one is nearly three years old, a closed moss terrarium that runs its own water cycle inside the glass. I still stop and stare at it sometimes.
What I Actually Know About Terrariums
Five years of building with my own hands has taught me a lot, but let me be specific about what I actually know well.
Substrate Layering: This is the foundation of every terrarium. How to layer pebbles, activated charcoal, sphagnum moss, and soil so the system actually works. Get this wrong and everything falls apart. I know which materials are available locally in Dhaka, what they cost, and what substitutes work when you can’t find the “proper” supplies.
Closed vs. Open Terrarium Design: Which plants belong in which system, how to balance humidity, when a sealed jar needs venting, how to read the signs before things go south. I learned all of this through trial and error. Mostly error.
Sourcing Terrarium Plants Locally: Fittonia, Pilea, Selaginella, miniature ferns. I know which Dhaka nurseries carry them, what they charge, and more importantly, which plants actually survive in a terrarium in this climate versus which ones die within a month. That list came from my own kills, not from any book.
Moss Culture: This is my favorite area. Which types of moss do well in Bangladesh’s climate, how to collect and cultivate them, how to use moss as the main attraction in a terrarium rather than just filler. More than half of my builds are moss-dominant.
Troubleshooting: Mold outbreaks, excess condensation, leaf rot, soil pests. I’ve dealt with all of them and figured out solutions that work in tropical conditions, not just on paper.
Budget Builds: Old kitchen jars, broken aquariums, even plastic bottles. You can make beautiful terrariums from things most people throw away. I care about this a lot because not everyone can afford specialty glassware.
Now let me be honest about what I “don’t” know. I’m not a botanist. I don’t have a degree in plant science. I’ve never worked with large-scale greenhouses or commercial vivarium setups. My knowledge is entirely practical, learned by doing, in a small room, on a tight budget, in Dhaka’s heat. And that’s exactly what I share here.
The Gap That Frustrated Me
When I started out, finding good terrarium content was rough. Almost everything worthwhile was in English, written for Western audiences. The sphagnum moss they recommended? Not available at my local nursery. The temperature ranges they assumed? Didn’t account for our 38°C summers. The containers they linked to were all on Amazon, which isn’t much help when you’re shopping in Katabon or Mirpur.
And content written for this part of the world? Practically nothing. What little existed was either a surface-level “What is a terrarium?” piece that you couldn’t actually learn from, or a direct translation of Western guides with zero local context, still telling you to buy supplies that don’t exist here.
All I wanted was a straightforward answer to a straightforward question: “How do I build my first terrarium with materials I can actually buy here, in this climate, on this budget?” That answer didn’t exist anywhere. Not for tropical climates. Not for people starting from scratch. Not with real photos from someone who’d actually done it in these conditions.
How I’m Filling That Gap
So I decided to build the resource I wish I’d found five years ago.
Every piece of content on this site follows a few rules I don’t bend on:
I do it first, then I write about it. I won’t publish a guide for something I haven’t built with my own hands. Every tutorial comes with my own photos, the step-by-step process, and real results. That includes how the terrarium looks weeks and months later, not just on day one.
Local context comes first. Where to buy the materials, how much they cost, what alternatives exist when the “ideal” supply isn’t available. This information is in every guide. You should be able to read my article and go build a terrarium the same day.
I write about failures too. What didn’t work, why it failed, and what I did instead. Honestly, that’s often more useful than the success story. If you’re a beginner, you’re going to make the same mistakes I did. Knowing about them in advance saves you time and money.
Costs are transparent. Every project includes a clear breakdown of what I spent. Budget is a real constraint, and pretending it isn’t makes a guide incomplete.
What You’ll Find on This Site
Plant Interactive is for anyone who wants to bring a piece of nature into a small space but doesn’t know where to start. You don’t need a garden, a rooftop, or even a balcony. A windowsill or a corner of a desk is enough room for a terrarium.
The site covers four main areas:
1. Step-by-Step Terrarium Building Guides. From choosing your container to placing your last plant, with every step photographed and explained. Built for complete beginners, still useful if you’ve built a few before.
2. Terrarium Plant and Moss Profiles. Which plants work in closed terrariums, which work in open ones, where to find them, what they cost, and how to care for them. Based on what I’ve grown successfully, and what I’ve killed.
3. Maintenance and Troubleshooting. Mold, fogging, dying plants, pests. The problems that actually come up and how to fix them. No generic advice. Real solutions from real situations.
4. Budget Terrariums and DIY Ideas. How to build beautiful terrariums from repurposed jars, recycled containers, and inexpensive materials. This hobby doesn’t have to be expensive.
I’m aiming to publish at least one detailed guide every week. The kind of guide you can read and act on right away, without guessing or searching around for the missing pieces.
Let’s Build a Tiny Forest Together
Five years ago I was sitting in front of a moldy jar, frustrated and clueless, because nobody told me what happens when you seal a glass container in Dhaka’s heat. The answers I couldn’t find then, I’m putting together now. For you.
If you’re thinking about creating your very first terrarium, start here: I Killed My First Terrarium in Two Weeks. Here’s What Nobody Told Me...
Got questions about terrariums? Drop them in the comments. I read every one and do my best to reply personally. You can also reach me directly at eamin@plantinteractive.com or my Facebook profile.
A tiny forest inside a jar. It sounds small, but it’s enough to give your screen-tired eyes a moment of rest. Let’s build that forest together.
*Everything on this site is based on my personal, hands-on experience. If I recommend a product, it’s one I’ve used myself. Transparency matters to me.*