{"id":39905,"date":"2014-04-17T16:00:32","date_gmt":"2014-04-17T20:00:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/improvisedlife.com\/?p=39905"},"modified":"2014-04-17T14:55:16","modified_gmt":"2014-04-17T18:55:16","slug":"diy-carefree-garden-bottle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/improvisedlife.com\/2014\/04\/17\/diy-carefree-garden-bottle\/","title":{"rendered":"DIY: Carefree Garden in a Bottle"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Easter Sunday of 1960, David Latimer planted a seed in a glass bottle\u00a0out of pure curiosity. He had no idea that it would flourish into a mass of greenery that would thrive untouched for several decades. Over half a century later, the sealed bottle garden is a wonder of lush plant life, despite having been watered only once in all that time. Not knowing it, Latimer created a terrarium of extraordinary complexity. Depending on the bottle you choose, bottle gardens can look like living sculptures. <\/span><\/p>\n

The Daily Mail<\/a> reports how Latimer did it:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

After initially pouring some compost into the globular bottle, Latimer used a wire to carefully lower in a spiderworts seeding, and then added a pint of water to the mix. The bottle was sealed and placed in a sunny corner, and the magic of photosynthesis took over from there. Besides a single watering in 1972, the bottle garden has been completely cut off from fresh water and air, but still managed to form its own self-sufficient ecosystem. Through photosynthesis, plants acquire the energy needed to grow by absorbing sunlight. Oxygen and moisture in the air are also created in the process; the moisture builds up inside the bottle and “rains” back down on the plants. Leaves that fall to the bottom of the bottle rot and produce the carbon dioxide needed for photosynthesis and nutrition.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"dailymail.co.uk\"<\/a>
dailymail.co.uk<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Bottle gardens like Latimer’s work because their sealed space creates an entirely self-sufficient ecosystem in which plants can survive by using photosynthesis to recycle nutrients.\u00a0The Daily Mail gives basic instructions: How to Make Your Own Bottle Garden<\/a>.<\/p>\n

You can use all sorts of jars and vessels from a tiny jelly jar to a flour\/cookie jar<\/a>\"\"…<\/span><\/p>\n

\"twostraightlines.typepad.com\"<\/a>
twostraightlines.typepad.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

For us, it’s all in the shape of the bottle. We love this modern rather sculptural one from\u00a0Itty Bitty Impact<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\"sculptural<\/a><\/p>\n

We’re mulling this 16″ glass cloche bell jar<\/a>\"\"…<\/p>\n

\"bottle<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

50 years ago, David Latimer planted a seed in a glass bottle out of pure curiosity. He had no idea that it would flourish into a mass of greenery that would thrive untouched for several decades to become a wonder of lush plant life. Depending on the bottle you choose, bottle gardens can look like living sculptures.<\/p>\nRead More<\/a>","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":39907,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_FSMCFIC_featured_image_caption":"","_FSMCFIC_featured_image_nocaption":"","_FSMCFIC_featured_image_hide":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6554,206,118,127,6548,8362,8364],"tags":[7460,6637,7459],"yoast_head":"\nDIY: Carefree Garden in a Bottle - Improvised Life<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"50 years ago, David Latimer planted a seed in a glass bottle out of pure curiosity. He had no idea that it would flourish into a mass of greenery that would thrive untouched for several decades to become a wonder of lush plant life. Depending on the bottle you choose, bottle gardens can look like living sculptures.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/improvisedlife.com\/2014\/04\/17\/diy-carefree-garden-bottle\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"DIY: Carefree Garden in a Bottle - Improvised Life\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"50 years ago, David Latimer planted a seed in a glass bottle out of pure curiosity. He had no idea that it would flourish into a mass of greenery that would thrive untouched for several decades to become a wonder of lush plant life. Depending on the bottle you choose, bottle gardens can look like living sculptures.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/improvisedlife.com\/2014\/04\/17\/diy-carefree-garden-bottle\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Improvised Life\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/theimprovisedlife\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-04-17T20:00:32+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2014-04-17T18:55:16+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/improvisedlife.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/David-Latimer-Sealed-Garden-Feature.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"790\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"826\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Sally Schneider\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@improvised_life\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@improvised_life\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Sally Schneider\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/improvisedlife.com\/2014\/04\/17\/diy-carefree-garden-bottle\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/improvisedlife.com\/2014\/04\/17\/diy-carefree-garden-bottle\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Sally Schneider\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/improvisedlife.com\/#\/schema\/person\/2fa7e3722002ee0c5ff9fde7a0753bc4\"},\"headline\":\"DIY: Carefree Garden in a Bottle\",\"datePublished\":\"2014-04-17T20:00:32+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2014-04-17T18:55:16+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/improvisedlife.com\/2014\/04\/17\/diy-carefree-garden-bottle\/\"},\"wordCount\":344,\"commentCount\":1,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/improvisedlife.com\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"bottle gardens\",\"house plants\",\"terrarium\"],\"articleSection\":[\"diy\",\"garden\",\"housewares\",\"how-to\",\"material\",\"space\/home\",\"tools\/wares\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/improvisedlife.com\/2014\/04\/17\/diy-carefree-garden-bottle\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/improvisedlife.com\/2014\/04\/17\/diy-carefree-garden-bottle\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/improvisedlife.com\/2014\/04\/17\/diy-carefree-garden-bottle\/\",\"name\":\"DIY: Carefree Garden in a Bottle - Improvised Life\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/improvisedlife.com\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2014-04-17T20:00:32+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2014-04-17T18:55:16+00:00\",\"description\":\"50 years ago, David Latimer planted a seed in a glass bottle out of pure curiosity. 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