You are here: Home / Archives for indoor gardening

Essentials about Indoor Gardening

November 13, 2010 By Leave a Comment
b1

Indoor gardening is not just a wonderful hobby and a fruitful pastime which beautifies your home, it is easy to start and maintain too. This article tells you all that you wanted to know about indoor gardening.

You have surely met people who would put a false tree at the corner of the living room, put some fake plants on the window sill and dust the leaves every now and then. They call it indoor gardening. In reality, this is far from what true indoor gardening is all about, as indoor gardening as a concept, has moved away for a long time now. Other than beautifying your home by lending a ‘natural’ look indoor plants also cleanse the atmospheric air. This they do by sucking up all the carbon dioxide and other pollutants and toxins floating in the air. Thus indoor gardening has its health benefits too.

There are a couple of points you have to take into consideration when choosing the indoor plants for your home:

- Are they adaptable to the environment and atmosphere in your house?

- Will it take a lot of time and effort to maintain this indoor plant?

- How much light does it need to survive and thrive?

- How much money am I going to spend to develop my indoor garden?

If you are starting on a low budget, your best choice is to start with seeds or cuttings. If you have a bit more money to spend, then go for plants which have already grown. The other important consideration is to decide whether you want a plant to display throughout the year or only part of the season. Indoor gardens with herbal plants are good as they are not only good looking but are sometimes edible too. Herbs grow very fast and you do not have to wait for long before you see results. Chives, dill, sage, thyme, and oregano are some of the popular herbs which people grow indoors.

Your personal experience in gardening or even indoor gardening is a critical factor for consideration before choosing plants for your indoor garden. Some plants are strong and do not die easily. Perhaps these are the plants you should choose if you are a ‘greenhorn’. Few of the hardy plants are: Fatsia, Cyperus, Scandens, Popular Succulents, Coleus, and Bromeliads.

Some of the maintenance rules are different for indoor plants from outdoor gardening. The main reason for this difference is that outdoor plants are exposed to sunlight and indoor plants may not get adequate amount of natural light. The solution lies in proper lighting. When you buy a plant that has already grown, you will need to make it get used to your home and the light it receives in its new place of residence. When you get such a plant, make sure that you rotate the plant which will trigger and maintain an upright growth.

One point to remember for indoor plants is that they also need adequate water to grow and thrive. How much water is ‘adequate’ is determined by the variety of plant you have chosen. When watering the plants, make sure that the water is properly drained out of the pot. The temperature of water must be the same as the room in which the plant is in. special attention must be give to the temperature in your home for proper growth of indoor plants. While a 10 to 15 degree variation can not harm any plant but frequent temperature fluctuations may cause damage.

The difficulty level or the level of ease, which ever perspective you view it from, indoor gardening is quite the same as outdoor gardening. One of the biggest advantages of indoor plants is that you do not have to worry too much about garden pests, etc. You are also spared of the usual tension of high winds and frost which can severely damage any outdoor garden.

Filed Under: container gardening Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , ,

Indoor Gardening for the Constrained Gardener

November 13, 2010 By Leave a Comment
body

Not everyone who loves gardening can afford to plant outdoors. The reasons range from the lack of space to the fear of snipers. These reasons however are no deterrent to enjoying the beauty of gardening indoors which this article examines.

If you’re a gardener who hates the fact that the onslaught of winter puts a halt to your gardening or if you’re an apartment dweller who has yard but wants to plant, then indoor gardening may just be what suits you nicely. Indoor gardening brings in a bit of the outdoors into your home or apartment and provides you with color all year round. Indoor gardening may be different from outdoor gardening but in the true nature of the word, the same principles apply. With some know-how about the difference between indoor and outdoor gardening, you should be well on your way to growing in no time at all.

It’s a well-known fact that plants get rid of the carbon dioxide in the air and replace it with oxygen. This is very beneficial to your health and it is a reason for you to want to learn some indoor gardening. Other than this, plants also remove toxins and pollutants from the air. Not only is this healthy for you it helps you get rid of some of the dust and allergens that are found in the air, which can cause problems for you.

Because lighting is essential in the life of a plant and needed for growth as well, it tends to be a major consideration whenever you’re starting indoor gardening. The amount of light that comes into your home naturally and how much it has will help in determining which plants will be able to survive. Plants that require medium or low light tend to do well in homes except you plan on using artificial lighting. Another thing that is important is for you to condition your plant after it has been purchased. Because your house has a limited amount of light filtering in, you can slowly adjust your plant to cope with this condition by providing maximum lighting for it and decreasing the amount of lighting over the period of several weeks until you attain the needed condition. This also energizes the growth pattern of your plants. Another thing to note is that if you watch you will notice that a plant tends to turn towards the sunlight. Unless you want your plant pointing in a particular direction, rotate it on a very regular basis.

When you heat up your house during the winter, the internal humidity in your home will also decrease. Plants need a lot more moisture in the air and during these months you may want to increase the humidity levels in your home. You should use a humidifier or spray the leaves of your plant with water in order to achieve this.

An indoor garden will need to be watered as much as an outdoor garden. Watering too little is bad and so is too much watering. You should also supply your plant with a container that drains through at the base. This allows excess fertilizer and salts to drain out of the soil and gives the plant access to the necessary nutrients. Fertilization should be based on the type of plant that you have. It should be done every two or three months but never during the dormant seasons.

Plants tend to do excellently in temperatures that are in the region of 65-75 degrees Fahrenheit during the day and some 10- 15 degrees cooler during the night. You should ensure that your plant isn’t placed in a place that is prone to hot and cold drafts. Sudden changes in temperature may harm your plant. Placing your plant on a cold windowsill in the middle of winter may make it freeze as well.

Filed Under: container gardening Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , ,

Understanding Indoor Gardening Plants

November 13, 2010 By Leave a Comment
c7

Indoor gardening is a lot less popular than outdoor gardening but it is just as interesting. This article covers the basics of indoor gardening and indoor gardening plants for people who are just getting involved in the activity.

Sooner or later we are bound to receive a house plants either as gifts or alternatively from a person who is moving away and can’t take the plants along. All this will give you a reason to indulge in some indoor gardening. If you don’t know how to take care of plants, they will usually wither and die off. At certain other times people may begin to care for the plants they are given and turn into wonderful gardeners.

Indoor gardens are not that different from outdoor gardens, the difference is primarily that you are taking care of the plants in your home instead of an outdoor garden. One huge benefit of the indoor garden is that it can be enjoyed in cities where land is always in limited supply. For people who are usually indoors, it makes for a wonderful hobby. On the whole it is a healthy practice as well. What happens is that your plants take in carbon dioxide turn it into oxygen and purify the air that we breathe in. This way you have attractive plants that have a lot of different benefits.

Indoor gardens tend to be a great idea for people who reside in climates that are cold and hard or climates that are extremely hot. The indoor garden allows the gardener to manipulate the environment in order to allow their plants survive. If the weather is annoying cold and everywhere looks a boring grey it would be rather wonderful to have different wonderful plants placed around your home to add beauty and cheer to the atmosphere.

After selecting the kinds of plants which you want to grow, the next thing is to find a container. You may also choose a small plant that can be left on a counter or windowsill instead. You must make a plan for your indoor garden as well and you have to decide where you want to place your indoor garden so you will have an idea about how much space is available for the plants. As soon as you have done this, you can choose a container as well as plants that you want to grow. Never forget to do your research about the needs of the plants and this includes needs such as watering, sunlight and food.

As soon as your material has been gathered, you may begin to plant and arrange your indoor garden in your home. Whenever you’re arranging your garden, you should make sure that plants which require sunlight are placed near a window. Plants which require indirect light can be put in a spot with low light intensity. Failure to do this right will mean you will be getting rid of some very dead plants in the near future.

If you love herb gardening, you may plant an indoor herb garden as well. Herbs tend to require about four to six hours of sunlight each day as well as loose soil for easy drainage.

People with pets should take care when choosing plants as well. You must ensure that your pets must be able to stay in the same place with your plants without incident. Certain plants may be harmful to animals and certain animals can be harmful to plants, so you have to find a way to handle this.

Filed Under: container gardening Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , ,