Garden in a bottle: Seedling sealed in its own ecosystem and watered just once in 53 years! Whoooooaaahh!!

David Latimer, 81, first planted his bottle garden in 1960 and last watered it in 1972 before tightly sealing it shut 'as an experiment'. For the last 53 years it has been completely sealed from the outside world. But the indoor variety of spiderworts ( Tradescantia ) within has thrived, filling its globular bottle home with healthy foliage.
He said, “It’s 6ft from a window so gets a bit of sunlight. It grows towards the light so it gets turned round every so often so it grows evenly. Otherwise, it’s the definition of low-maintenance. I’ve never pruned it, it just seems to have grown to the limits of the bottle.”

The bottle garden created its own miniature ecosystem. Although being cut off from the outside world, because it is still absorbing light it can photosynthesis, the process by which plants convert sunlight into the energy they need to grow. 

 

Photosynthesis would creates oxygen and puts more moisture in the air. The moisture builds up in the bottle and ‘rains’ back down on the plant. The leaves it drops rot at the bottom, creating the carbon dioxide also needed for photosynthesis and nutrients which it absorbs through its roots. 

The bottle stands under the stairs in the hallway of his home in Cranleigh, Surrey, for 27 years after he and his wife Gretchen moved from Lancashire when he retired as an electrical engineer. 

Gardening system in bottle ( like this ) is long known, just not many people know about these system, including me. People called it, Terrariums. See how to make it :

   

Source : dailymail.co.uk.