David Latimer is an 80 year old man who has essentially grown a garden inside of a sealed, giant bottle made of glass. And it has only been opened once since he started it almost 54 years ago.
Latimer planted the garden on Easter Sunday in 1960 by placing some compost and a glass of water into a 10-gallon bottle shaped glass, and putting it in a location with access to sunlight. In 1972, he opened the garden again to add a bit of water. With that one exception, the garden has remained totally sealed.
Here’s how you can make your own plant in a bottle:
It might seem strange to some that a totally sealed garden would thrive like this, but it’s not – the garden is a perfectly self-sufficient ecosystem. The bacteria in the compost break down the dead plants and break down the oxygen given off by the plants, turning it into the carbon dioxide that the plants need to survive. The bottle is an excellent micro version of the earth as a whole.