Spring has arrived and along with it - garden fever. If you and your kiddo have the urge to get your hands dirty but live in an apartment and lack a backyard plot, a terrarium project might be perfect way to exercise your green thumbs.

As a kid I remember watching Land of the Lost on Saturday mornings and then attempting to recreate the tropical landscape in terrarium form - complete with plastic dinosaurs. They’re brilliantly simple to assemble and can be assembled in all manner of containers. KidsGardening.com (an offshoot of the National Gardening Association) has a clear how-to, including instructions that utilize recycled 2 liter soda bottles as a container. Cookie Magazine offers inspiration for themed terrariums, along with easy 4 step assembly directions. And below the lovely terrarium images from Flickr, you’ll find a video how-to from the smarty-pants over at e-how.

1. Terrarium Centerpiece, 2. Terrarium, 3. Mark’s first terrarium, 4. Looking in, 5. Actually this one is my first, 6. Terrarium from Pistils, 7. Asian Terrarium view, 8. Succulent terrarium, 9. Succulent terrarium, 10. Terrarium

If your browser doesn’t support the following YouTube video, you can see the instructional here.

Want to try something more advanced? Here’s a step-by-step instructional to create a paludarium - a cross between an aquarium and a terrarium.

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