Indoor gardening is a great way to use your green thumb without devoting an entire chunk of your
backyard to a garden plot. Indoor gardens are great for miniature herb gardens, floral gardens or decorative plants. Keep reading for more information on how to get started with your own indoor garden.
Getting started with indoor gardening
One of the first things to consider when
beginning an indoor garden is to decide what kind of garden you'd like to have. Two general indoor garden styles are container gardens and hydroponic gardens.
A container garden utilizes planters and traditional soil, and a hydroponic garden uses fertilized water and a non-soil starter for your plants. In a hydroponic garden, you could even add in a live fish to the bowl -- but that's entirely up to you.
Container gardens
Container gardens are great for people who want to eventually move their plants outdoors. Any size or shape container can be used for a garden giving you a wealth of options.
You could easily purchase potted plants to add to your home decor instead of buying seedlings or baby plants and putting them into containers yourself. When looking for plants to buy, look for healthy leaves that are firm and steer clear of plants with more stem than leaves.
If you're going to be replanting, use a container that is the same size as the one it came in or no more than two inches larger. If the pot or container is too large for the plant, it can hold too much water and end up causing the roots to rot. Also, be sure that your pot has at least one drainage hole at the bottom.
Terra-cotta, resin and fiberglass containers are good options to choose from but they don't stop there. You could transform an old vase, tea cups or even an old shoe into a container for a plant.
Hydroponic gardens or water gardens
Hydroponic gardens (surprisingly) require less water than traditional soil gardens, they require little space and make growing easy.
No matter the system you choose, water gardens all follow the same setup: a water tank is located on the bottom with stacks of shelves and plants above it. The water in the bottom tank is fertilized and fed to the plants above using a pump system. The water filters down through the plants and is drained into the original water tank.
Hydroponic gardens don't need to be large. In fact, you can use the space in front of a well-lit window. If you want a larger garden, you can create a system that takes up the entire space of a wall.
Garden locations
When choosing a location for your indoor garden, container or hydroponic, light is essential. Both types of gardens need light access to thrive. If you live in a home that doesn't get a lot of natural light, you should consider installing a growing lamp for your garden.
A hydroponic garden will need vertical space for its setup and it's recommended you set up this garden on a hard floor instead of carpeting to avoid mold and mildew.
With both garden systems you can cultivate herbs, flowers and even fruits and
vegetables which can reduce your
grocery bill and increase a bit of peace of mind with all the green in your home.