Terrarium Photos
A chronological timeline of the Highland cabinet, from foil-wrapped build stage to mature cloud-forest ecosystem.
A chronological record of the cabinet — not curated for composition, just the accumulating evidence that the plants, the hardware, and the three-way collaboration between grower, mother-in-law, and machine are all still working.
Each image is CC BY-SA 4.0, watermarked accordingly. Click any photo to open it full-resolution in a new tab.
May 2022. The build-stage interior — foil insulation still exposed, first wave of plants installed. The second (smaller) cabinet next to it is visible through the glass on the right.
January 2023. Eight months in. The upper shelf has filled, a pair of hanging Nepenthes, moss starting to establish in the lower trays.
March 2023. The first Heliamphora pitchers starting to catch the light — upper-right shelf. The radiator is visible on the left (room at ~22 °C during the night cycle).
April 2023. Phalaenopsis in bloom on the right (outside the cabinet) for scale.
April 2023. Top-down shot of the lower shelf — pump-and-plumbing visible on the left, mist nozzle at centre-top, epiphytes scattered across the grid.
June 2023. Heliamphora pitchers under the LED puck — the shot that became the homepage hero. Thirteen months in and the colouration is the full red-to-yellow gradient you'd want from a tepui plant.
January 2024. Twenty months in. Christmas garland still up, bookshelf on top packed solid — the cabinet has become a piece of the apartment rather than an intrusion into it.
February 2025. Night view, room lights off. The two shelves are now full top-to-bottom; mosses have migrated onto the inside of the glass; the Heliamphora on the right have pitcher stems pushing through the neighbours. Thirty-three months in.
Photographs are not chronologically exhaustive — these are the eight shots I happened to take that survived the filter of “still tells the story”. More regular documentation planned once the Pi-side webcam goes live.