Wanting to Start a ~5 gallon bowl with nanos

Hi all.

I'm a newbie and have been researching for the last couple of weeks something that piqued my interest. There was actually a post on here originating a couple of years ago that is exactly what I want to try. However, I have some concerns due to there being a lot of negative comments regarding 5 gallon planted tanks and having actual nano fish.

Here is the post that I found (without initially knowing if anything like it existed before two weeks ago!):

http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/12-tank-journals/179004-5-gallon-npt-led-bowl-updated-2-7-a.html

I am absolutely not looking at any bettas, or really any fish that average over 2 inches fully grown. Luckily, if you guys think this would work, I've kind of taken a liking to the Emerald Dwarf Rasbora, WCMM, or other minnow, etc. I think the Emerald Dwarf Rasbora, from what I've read, are pretty, small, and eat a good diet, and they seem to be accepting of planted tank conditions (although, I'm no expert so please correct me if I'm wrong). I would also love to be able to add something else if it were feasible (snails, or some type of bottom dweller).

The questions I have are:

Is there anything wrong with that 5 gallon planted bowl? I didn't see any particularly negative comments on that post, so I'm not sure.

I realize this project would be about a month of growing, a month of flooding, and then adding fish. Can I get the soil, plants, etc at most any fish/pet store, or are there particular places to go? And if I wanted to get driftwood or rocks during a backpacking trip to clean and add into the tank, would that be okay with fish, or do I need to only add items bought from a more controlled environment?