When I informed a friend that we had found an aquarium that had been chucked out, she became momentarily confused and couldn't decide whether we were going to fill it with fish, lizards and snakes or harmless plants. I was glad to be able to inform her that we were not creating an aquarium or a vivarium, but were going the terrarium route and were going to create a mini garden inside the glass box.
We had been visiting the charming little medieval village of Les Matelles, and on returning to our car, we couldn't help but notice a man staggering down the road under the burden of an unwanted piece of equipment. He had clearly been told by his long-suffering wife to take the green slime filled smelly article and get rid of it, and not to return home until he had done so. Heaven knows how he had even managed to pick it up unless she had dumped it into his arms, but it took the two of us to rescue it and load it into the back of the car.
Once home, it took another hour to clean it, scour out the glued strips of rubber and silicone and remove the lid with its neon lamp and the dinky little pump. From there, it was just a case of consulting the never-failing Uncle Google to find out what to do next. Apparently it is all in the layering, and first we had to wash and replace the smelly coarse sand that had lined it, add another layer of fine gravel, coat this with a layer of aquatic charcoal, cover that with a layer of hessian cloth and top it off with the final layer of potting soil.
It was then time to introduce the various plants, the carefully chosen piece of vine root that we had nicked from a nearby vineyard and various pieces of stone and driftwood. We sealed the top with plastic and stood back to admire our handiwork. We had to look quickly because in no time, the humidity had coated the glass, and a number of large droplets had accumulated on the inside of the plastic top. At last, we had a garden that didn't need watering and that couldn't be attacked by snails and slugs.
I just hope that the wife of the man who lugged his aquarium down the mainstreet, didn't relent and tell him to go back and retrieve it. Sorry mate!
