Designing A Vibrant Aquascape ¦ Great Home Ideas

Sure, I'm a landscaper. So what am I doing at an aquarium shop? Well, did you know that because so many of us have been stuck at home over the last couple of years, we've taken a deep dive, not just into gardening, but gardening underwater. This is called aquascaping, and the best part is, you don't need a snorkel to give it a go. Hey, David, how are you? Oh, hi, Charlie, how are you? I'm awesome, now I'm here. This place is incredible, look at all these fish. Yeah, it's awesome. I love all the plant life growing in here. Tell me about aquascaping. Yeah, so aquascaping has been around for a very, very long, long time. There is a lot of different styles of aquascaping, and during the pandemic, it's really taken off, and such a relaxing hobby to get into as well. And for those that don't have a garden, this is a great way to add a bit of greenery into your life, isn't it? That's right, that's right, and it's also great for your mental health as well. David, this is pretty incredible. It's so simple with the wood and planting, but there's so much contrast in it. How long did this take to do? So this one took about three hours to do. Wow, and tell me about the plants. Yeah, so this is java fern. There's bovidus at the back, and the wood is hollow wood. Now, this looks pretty advanced and large. Have you got something a bit smaller I could have a go at? Yes, we do. Now, when you're underwater gardening, you can't just dig a hole in the garden and put it into your fish tank, because it's going to go all cloudy, and it's just not going to work. This, however, it is garden soil, but it's been worked, as you can see, into these round prills that hold it together, and it gives a really nice designer touch to the soil. When it comes to mounding your soil up, try and mimic a natural landscape with some soft, rolling earth, and you need to have focal points. And for my tank, I'm using wood, and then to balance my wood, I'm having rocks in the other corner. Now, I'm going to use probably two or three of those, so I'm working in the rule of three, and with the rocks in, it's really important to head around to the angle that you're going to be viewing the tank to take a really good look at it. But before we get onto the planting, we need to give the soil a mist, because if I was to plant in this, it would suck all the moisture out of the plants and do them damage. Aquatic plants come in various shapes and sizes, all the way down from tiny little mosses, all the way up to things that are going to pop up out of the water as well. What you've got to remember when you're planning your tank is smaller stuff at the front and bigger stuff at the back. What I'm going to do is do a bit of a dry placement with all of these plants before I plant them, again, just to make sure it looks right, and then I'll work on getting them into that soil. You might notice I've left out all my tall plants, and that's because they come like this. Now, you might not recognize this now, but this is a really common plant that you can get from many aquariums called cabomba. Now, normally you get this in quite a long strand, but you can chop it up like I've done here to plant it, and you'll get more plants. You just use these rather fancy-looking tweezers, put a little bit of a hole in, and stick it straight into the ground. Now, that's just going to flop over, but when the water goes in, it'll stand up and give us that vertical height we're after. Now, on top of my log, I'm using this Anubias cofferfolia, and I really like this plant. The leaves, as the name says, looks just like a coffee leaf. It's going to look great perched on top of our driftwood. Now, we've got a bit of a hole in there, so I'm just going to take the roots and pop it through the hole to secure it. If you don't have something like that, you can use this specialist superglue to stick it onto the log. Now, aquatic plants are much more delicate than your garden plants. It's not like just chucking a couple of aggies in a garden bed. You do have to take your time with them, but that's part of the joy. And the final piece to our planting puzzle are the ground covers. They come in these fancy little tubs. You can see this cute little moss. Then you can actually separate this out and spread it over the tank to try and make it look as natural as possible. Just finishing off with a filter and heater, and now it's gladly on to filling it up with some water. But what you don't want to do is rush this process because if you fill it too quickly, all your plants are going to float to the surface. So just a slow, steady stream. When it gets past your soil, you want to add in some water ager. That's going to take the chlorine out and also make this a healthy environment for your plants to thrive. For my first attempt of aquascaping, I'm pretty happy with this. Okay, it does look a little bit foggy and mysterious, but that's because we've just filled it with water. I love the look of just the plants, but if you wanted to add some fish as a supporting role, you want to wait four to six weeks because the water has to get through all these plants before introducing any wildlife. This is so beautiful and so relaxing. I can see why many people are taking the plunge. I can look at this all day. It's great to have houseplants indoors for the look and for the fresh air, but I'm about to show you how to bring an entire landscape inside with a terrarium. You know, there are no real rules in creating a terrarium, but with a few basic pointers, you can let your imagination run wild. For example, in this large bowl, I'm going to recreate a beach scene. We're going to use some stained blue sand. It's non-toxic and it won't bleed, so it's just a great look. The next layer is some blue gravel, and it really stabilises the whole thing for our plants to grow on, and then something for our plants to actually grow into, some propagating sand. Now, this is when you can have a lot of fun. It's the selection of the plants. Now, my collection includes some aloes, some beautiful sedum, nice, bright lime green. Go for contrasting colours. Oh, and how about this beaut, little euphorbia? You see, what I'm trying to look for are plants that give me the marine look of maybe a sea anemone or some seaweed. Now, you'll notice I'm actually taking off quite a bit of soil. Succulents are really very accommodating, so remove at least 50%. Now, you don't need any special equipment for this. That's why you can do it around the home. A pair of chopsticks is really handy because they're nice and narrow, and you can get in there and spread the sand around the roots. Now, the other one is that when you have cacti like this fellow, covered in spines, get yourself a pair of kitchen tongs and just wrap it with some foam, and then it goes over the outside, protects the plant, and you don't get spiked. Right, well, that's our plants in, but now we can really landscape it and create a fantastic vista. And to do that, you need a whole lot of sort of real bits. This is a piece of sponge. It's been dried, and you can buy it at your local florist. And down at the beach, you always find a bit of driftwood lying around. I love this little piece of bromeliad. Just, I like the shape. And then finally, I nearly forgot. Nemo. Got to put him in for the kids. Right, now, our propagation sand's looking a little bit damp and dull there, so I'm going to brighten it up with some dried river sand. If you use beach sand, it's got too much salt in it. And the funnel is terrific for just directing the sand exactly where you want it to go and not on your plants. And if you do happen to get any on the plants, a little paintbrush is just the thing to clean the sand off. And as simple as that, you've created your very own indoor landscape. And there's no end to the themes you can work with, like creating a carnivorous landscape, a fairground, or going totally Jurassic for the kids' room. It's time to let your imagination run wild. And there you go. See, you can bring dinosaurs back to life at your place. Instead of giving them a drink with a watering can, it's much better to apply the moisture with a mister. It supports the natural water cycle more efficiently. And if you have carnivorous plants in your terrarium, take the lid off occasionally so they can catch the odd fly or mosquito. So why not create a whole new world and bring the outdoor landscape inside with a terrarium? It'll bring life to your place in more ways than one.