About Me

There's no customer service department here. You've got me. Most people find that's the upgrade.

That's Rally, my daughter's dog. The driftwood behind us did not fit in the truck.

I spent thirty-five years around construction. Foundations, framing, water damage, the slow and expensive ways buildings fail. Building much smaller ones, as it turns out, is harder — because they're alive, and they have opinions. Having cantankerous plants takes a lot out of you.

Indoor Biosphere is me along with my wife, in Mahopac, New York. Not a warehouse. Not a dropshipper with a nice logo. Just my house. A house with more glass tanks in it than any reasonable person should own, and a wife who has been remarkably patient about that.

I blend the soil myself — coco coir, sphagnum, orchid bark, worm castings — I spent years getting the ratio wrong before I got it right. I hand-sort the leaf litter and bake or boil it depending on what you need it for. I breed the isopods here rather than buying them in.... and I grow plants. Lots and lots of plants. Every photo on this site is one we took, of the actual thing you're buying, usually on a kitchen counter with the good light.

What I'm actually selling

Not plants. The part nobody tells you up front: a terrarium isn't decor, it's a small closed system. Set it up right and it runs itself. Springtails eat the mold. Isopods eat what the springtails miss. The plants take it from there. You stop maintaining it and start watching it.

Getting that right is the service. The plant in the box is just the part you can see.

I only ship plants I've had in my own care for months. I'd rather grow my inventory than resell someone else's — and yeah, I talk to them. If a piece of wood isn't right, it doesn't go in the box. If a plant is having a rough week, it stays here until it isn't.

That's the whole business.

— Paul