Nearly everybody reading this probably asked for a dog at some point during childhood. Some of you lucky things will have got one and had a treasured pet who probably taught you to walk, played games with you and became your best friend.

But for a significant proportion, dog ownership won’t have been practical. Maybe your home was too small, or on the top floor of an apartment block, or maybe your parents both worked full time and there was nobody to take it for a walk. In that case, there’s a good chance that you were fobbed off with a goldfish.

There are a number of advantages to goldfish as pets:

• They don’t take up much space.
• They don’t require much maintenance.
• They can be kept in a whole host of attractive glass containers, with a wide range of props.

Interestingly, one of the biggest current trends in the gardening world is comeback of the terrarium – enclosed gardens that were popular in the Victorian times. If you don’t or can’t maintain a garden, then you’ll find that terrariums have many of the same advantages as owning a goldfish.

Here are our top six tips for keeping a terrarium:

1. Utilise whatever space you have

Terrariums don’t have to go in a bowl on your coffee table. See your flat as a world of possibilities… the Murus stained glass terrarium can even be hung on the wall:

2. Use unusual items

Look around your house or a local charity shop for unusual items to liven up your planting. You could use anything from fossils to children’s toys, as in this example by Garden Hada:

3. Don’t automatically select a bowl

Bowl-shaped terrariums are a classic and they have their advantages, but there are a whole host of original options out there, from lightbulbs to Matteo Cibic’s domsai terrariums which give your plants legs (literally):

4. Use natural objects

Don’t forget to add natural objects like wood and stone to your planting arrangement, to help to give contrast to the plants and create a miniature landscape. We loved the shiny stones used in this pretty little planting arrangement seen at the IPM 2014 gardening exhibition in Essen.  Other natural objects include Pilea glauca, sempervivum and aloe. See main article image.