Awwww...! It's amazing, though, that it lived for 8 years! Thanks for sharing the article! Marcia

(1) Create a Drainage Layer: You need to create a drainage Layer for your plants. If the plant's roots are left in standing water, then the roots may rot causing you problems. You can avoid this by using a layer of pea gravel or lava rock to create a drainage area for your plants. My drainage layer is between 1" to 1.5" deep. (2) Non-Toxic Substrate: The quality of the substrate you grow your plants in is very important! You do NOT want to get ordinary potting soil. Potting soil is filled with fertilizers and other additives that is great for plants, but can be harmful and sometimes fatal to your herp. I know a zoo keeper who uses "Edna's Best Potting Soil" to create vivariums for the zoo's herps. It can be difficult finding a retailer that sells it so please visit their website and type in your zip code to find a store near you that will carry their soil. Their website is http://www.ebstone.org/13_ednas.php. (3) Planting your Plants Do not simply stick your potted plant in the soil of your terrarium. Please remove the plant from your pot, and gently pull away as much soil as you can from the roots. Then rinse away the dirt from the roots in room temperature water. I prefer to treat my water by putting a few drops of de-chlorinator. If you don't have this, you can leave your water out in a sterile, non-metallic open container for about 24 hours. This will allow the chlorine and the fluoride to evaporate. (4) Fertilizer Do NOT use synthetic fertilizers! It can be fatal to your herp. If you're plant is in serious need of a pick me up, I would suggest using an organic fertilizer. (5) Don't ever use pesticides on your plants. (6) Maintenance I think this is the best part. You can shape your landscape by religiously trimming and training your plants. These geckos are nocturnal so I never see them during the day. I was sick of looking at what appeared to be an empty sad little terrarium so I created a vivarium that was aesthetically pleasing to the eye during the day, but still a great home for the geckos. I hope this helps! Here is a link that might be useful: The Apartment Garden

your best bet for PDF Vivariums would be to use soil; super soil is great as it's just that, no perlite or anything toxic or dangerous, also, milled sphagnum peat moss; this lowers the pH for that nice moss action and also hold water. use sand to make soil drainable. you should want to establish the nitrogen cycle which will do a few things. one, help break down waste and two: feed the plants. also you should be sure that your soil doens't come with animal waste or wormcastings. if you opt for repti-bark or other off the shelf products, save your money instead. research soil mixes by looking at google.com for key words: Naturalistic Vivariums" also, i've been adding to the soil a single layer of oak leaves. i wash them very good of course. they have tannins that help the soil, and some PDF's just love hiding and breeding in the liter. what species are you interested in?

I think she was being a little sarcastic, amy. scarlett, You've have quite a few posts on this forum almost on the same sort of thing. I remember the Christmas light thing where your husband plugged the lights into the wall still in the box so you served him raw food. You acted like it was funny, but it still sounds to me more like it's a little passive aggressive on both your parts. I'm not really sure what the answer is, but someone has to at least try to break the adversarial relationship. I would suggest you start. I would suggest you seriously try to treat him like he's someone else that you respond gentler too.. act like he's your child, your boss, your best friend. When he acts stupid about e-mail, just say "Oh, I guess I could see how you thought that" (Even if you can't see how he could be so dumb, just try to be overly nice) not "What, were you born on Mars, why would you think that?". It sounds like you are in a very challenging competitive reltionship which can be exciting in ways, but if you are always trying to compete and out do one another, or always have to be the right or smarter one and often respond sarcastically, etc... after a while no one is happy. Try "kindness" instead of trying to be right or knocking your husband down to size whenever you can. Kindness can work wonders. If it doesn't help, and it's very constant and abusive, and you really don't think you are contributing to his negativity towards you, I wouldn't totally rule out your husband possibly having a mood or personality disorder.