leaf mould is not available part of welldecomposed manure may be used in the mixture it is not necessary to sterilise the soil mixture to take care of fungus and insect infection add a small quantity of fungicide and insecticide to the soil mixture it is advisable that these chemicals are mixed in water and then added to the soil making the soil moist has certain advantages the dust will not fly while you fill the bottle with soil and when you plant the saplings the soil wont crack selection of plants the plants chosen should be slowgrowing because fastgrowing plants need frequent pruning which is bit difficult in case of a bottle garden herbs like sage oregano basil and ferns work quite well for a bottle garden as they usually adapt to the size of their environment be it a small bottle or a big container keep the bottle near a window but direct sunlight must be avoided or else plants will wilt insidehow to sow a sapling place the selected saplings inside the bottle with the help of fork and forcep pour a few droplets of water and close the lid of the bottle the plants start growing inside the closed bottle you should not water again unless the saplings start wilting so what are you waiting for happy gardeningfor more stories follow us on twitter and facebook