David Latimer has grown a little garden inside a sealed glass bottle that has only been open once since he started it almost 55 years ago. He planted the garden in 1960 and opened it in 1972 to add a bit of water. Ever since then the bottle has remained totally sealed.

The only requirement for keeping this little bottle forest going is plenty of sunlight for it to take advantage of nature’s self-sufficient ecosystem. 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.

Here is a video explaining how you can make your own terrarium: