Make Your Own Dino Swamp

You can create a cool prehistoric scene for your dinosaur models and toys with everyday gardening supplies.

WHAT YOU’LL NEED

• Large plant pot and saucer, earth or stone color preferred
• Large bucket of clean small (but bigger than aquarium-size) natural color gravel
• 16 quarts commercial potting or other high-quality soil, measured dry
• Two-foot-diameter circle of strong black garbage bag (leaf or trash compactor bags are nice and strong)
• Recyclable container (two-liter soda bottle)
• Small submersible fountain pump found at most hardware stores
• Clear tubing, at least six inches long, and the diameter prescribed by your pump
• “Outdoor” rated UL-listed extension cord
• Small ferns (and other prehistoric-looking flora), garden moss, and small, interesting garden rocks
• Your favorite plastic dinosaur models and toys

WHAT YOU’LL DO

Step 1: Measure five inches from the bottom of the container and carefully cut off the top.

Step 2: Attach tubing to pump outlet. Set the container flat on a table and line the container with the garbage bag. Place pump in bottom of lined container and fill voids with gravel to top of container. Gather remaining liner and use a twist-tie to temporarily keep clean. Set aside.

Step 3: Place plant pot and saucer on a flat surface and fill the pot halfway with gravel. Place the pump/container assembly on top of level gravel in pot and slightly toward the front.

Step 4: Carefully fill area around pump/container assembly with soil about one-third of the way to pot’s top (lip). Gently moisten soil surface with a small amount of water.

Step 5: Arrange your plants (remove from individual pots first) around the pump/container assembly, largest toward the back. Fill remaining area around plants with soil until just below the top of the plant pot.

Step 6: Shape a depression around the edge of the pump/container assembly. Bury the pump power cord and snake it out the back of the pot. Remove the bag twist-tie and gently line the depression with it. Insert one or two of your small garden rocks in the depression (do not puncture the bag). Line the edge of the depression with gravel and cut any excess bag.

Step 7: Carefully fill your swamp and cut the tubing to a desired length. Camouflage its end with garden rocks and gravel. Water plants without running soil into the swamp.

Step 8: Place your remaining garden rocks, moss and dinosaurs to complete the scene. Be creative. Nothing looks better than a meat eater stalking from behind the ferns. Better yet, decorate the pot by gluing on various imitation fossils.

Step 9: Have an adult locate an appropriate outdoor electricity outlet. Run power to your pump via the extension cord.

Did You Know?

Ferns and falling water help clear the air of allergens and pollutants; one through respiration, and the other by creating negative ions that electrically “charge” the surrounding air and “stick” to dirt. Placed around the home, plants and ornamental fountains improve the quality of our indoor environments and our overall health.