Four Things You Should Know About Building An Indoor Garden

Building and maintaining an indoor garden can be a fun and exciting hobby to pursue. At its heart, it really no different than having an outdoor garden in a lot of ways, except that you will have to supply some elements that we take for granted outside the home. For those of us who want to fill our homes with the beauty of nature, just follow the listed tips below, in order to achieve the most success with your garden.

Lighting

The first element that you will have to simulate for your indoor garden is sunlight. You can do this in any one of several ways. First, you can use the natural light coming in through a window, just be certain that the plants you place there will need that much light, and that they can handle it. One rule of thumb to remember with plants: the darker the leaf, the less sun they need. Plants with small, thin and light green leaves, like those on African violets, can actually be harmed by placing them in direct sunlight. The darker the leaf, the further away they can be, getting diffuse sunlight will be just fine for them.

Water

Plants need water, and those you choose for your indoor garden will need you to supply it, unless you know how to make it rain inside. The thing is, though, is that you have to be careful about how much you give each plant. The number one reason that indoor plants die is that they are over-watered. With most plants, once a week is sufficient, and you can easily check if they need water by checking their container. The container you place your plants in should have a good drainage system, namely sufficient holes in the bottom of the pot to allow excess water to drain away into a saucer. If there is standing water in the saucer, it does not need more. The excess should be tossed out to avoid rotting the roots, which will kill the plant.

Humidity

Keeping the humidity level constant for an indoor garden can be a challenge, especially during the winter. Most plants need some humidity and moisture, to keep the pests away, and their leaves clean and fresh. As this is usually done by the morning dew outside, you can help by simply applying a light mist over all of the plants in your care, once a day.

Food

Outside plants get food from two main sources: the sun and the soil. With an indoor garden, you will have to make up the difference by applying plant food or fertilizer regularly. Depending on the type of plants you are raising, you can either use a generic fertilizer, which will give them the basic nutrients, or one that is specially blended for your particular plants. Just be sure to read all instructions carefully, and follow them completely. You do not want to kill your plant by overdoing the feeding.

3 Of The Best Tools To Have For An Indoor Garden

When starting an indoor garden, it’s not just the kind of plants people choose that will make the process easier, it is also the kind of tools people use that will make the overall process better. People should not just use the same tools that they use in their outdoor gardens, because they could carry pests or chemicals on them that could harm the process of the indoor plants. Having the right tools can make starting and maintaining an indoor garden a much easier process.

Trowel

Since indoor gardens require somewhat small containers used for planting, a trowel is a perfect tool to use. This is because a trowel is a smaller version of a shovel. It can be used in tight spaces to dig holes for seeds or scoop soil in and out of each container. Trowels come in metal or plastic material so it is very versatile and can be used on any number of different plants. To help stop the spread of pests between plants, the trowel must be washed after the use in one plant before the use in a different plant.

Mist Sprayers

An indoor garden can be hard to keep up with because of the lack of moisture in the air as well as the indoor temperatures. A hand held mist sprayer is a great tool that will help keep indoor plants moist. These come as just regular plastic spray bottles as well as professional mist sprayers that were made for indoor gardens. They can be used to spray the soil for the seedlings to grow, and they can also be used to spray the actual plant leaves as well as the soil to maintain the health of the plant.

Pots & Containers

There is a difference between the types of planting containers that indoor plants need versus the type of containers that are used for outdoor plants. There is also not going to be a patch of dirt indoors that people can use to start their garden like there is outdoors, so every plant and flower that will be grown indoors will need a specific container to be planted in. Indoor plants will need a pot or container that has a good drainage system underneath that will catch the extra water from watering each plant, so as to not damage the carpet or other flooring inside the home. There are also a variety of fancy and beautiful containers made especially to make indoor gardens look their best.

Growing Your Own Food With An Indoor Garden

Due to such great choice and the availability of a vast range of foodstuffs, ‘foodies’ or ‘gourmets’, for the snobbish, have expanded all over the land. At one time only people rich enough to eat in the best restaurants and order the best meals were considered gourmets. It was both a class and gender thing. Years ago, men in general, didn’t cook that much and even when they did; they didn’t have much interest in it. Now, everyone is doing it and talking about it! One of the staples of this food explosion is the pepper.

The Humble Pepper

Peppers come in all colours and shapes and sizes. They all have their own properties. Some are sweet or bitter, and then there is strong or mild or hot and even hotter!  For the home gourmet the problem is running out of them. They can also be very expensive to buy, depending on the season. The solution to this problem is to grow your own peppers. What if you don’t have a garden? The indoor garden is your only alternative. At one time people would have laughed at the very thought of cultivating fruit or vegetables inside, but nowadays the indoor garden is a fact.

Indoor Pepper Growing

Use aeroponics to guarantee your own personal supply, without regard to bad weather spoiling your crop. Peppers are one of those vegetables that are considered quite easy to grow; they don’t need a great deal of attention compared with other types of plants. Unfortunately, they do need some attention. Which is fine if you are a keen gardener with the time to lavish on your plants. What if you are just a keen foodie that wants to spend more time on cooking and eating than cultivating? The indoor garden system would be ideal for you.

Make Things Easier

The people who know say that before planting seeds, you need to prepare the ground with compost and fertilizer. Pray for plenty of sunshine and water them a lot in the early stages of growth. Also, be on the lookout for root rot and pests. Don’t worry, with the indoor garden system that aeroponics offer, most of that you can forget about. It’s possible to supply sunlight by using a grow lamp. As soil is not used, so there is no need of compost or fertilizer. Irrigation can be done automatically, using a timer. And peppers are not the only things to flourish with this method.   

Indoor Gardening - Why Not Try Aeroponics?

This is a great system for urban gardeners that lack space or even a garden! This type of indoor gardening can be used in any closed or partially enclosed space. What are necessary are merely water, air and nutrients. He plants or vegetables are suspended in the air, so the roots are completely uncovered. Aeroponic kits come with a support structure that acts like a trellis and holds them in the air, without damaging them. Water, mixed with the nutrients, is sprayed directly onto the roots as a mist. It makes indoor gardening so easy!

Aeroponics Are Environmentally Friendly.

With this system of indoor gardening no soil is used and so no damage to the earth is incurred. Cultivating plants can be done in a closet, storage room or even an attic. The hanging plants don’t need soil to flourish. The nutrients that are mixed with the water are sprayed onto the roots. The spray nozzle atomizes the mixture to mist-like dimensions. In this way it also helps water conservation. Most of these kits come with a water retrieval system that recycles the solution. That in turn means less waste of both water and nutrients.

Don’t Get Mixed Up Between Aeroponics And Hydroponics.

These are two easily confused words as they are both indoor gardening systems that sound the same. The majority of people more or less understand the difference, but most will admit to some degree of confusion. It is the word ‘ponics’ that trips them up. Aero is a well-known word that almost everyone understands to mean ‘air’. The same with the word ‘Hydro’, but when added to ‘ponics’, it seems to confuse the issue. Anyway, the hydroponic system depends on the plant roots being either covered by water or floating on top of it. Of course, that depends on what you are growing.

No Room to Swing a Cat?

For keen gardeners that don’t have much space, aeroponics is the answer. If you live in a city, the chances that you have access to areas for gardening are pretty slim. If you still yearn to grow something, then indoor gardening is a must for you. The kits are relatively cheap and can be set up easily in a corner or cupboard or balcony. Space is probably the most limiting factor for an urban gardener. One advantage of this system is they can be stacked one on top of another.

4 Vegetables That Can Be Grown In An Indoor Garden

Many people love to grow their own vegetables to save on money, and to help provide healthy food for their family free of bugs and chemicals. Some think they have to wait until late spring or early summer to do this, however, others have discovered that they can grow vegetables all year long right inside their own homes.

Creating an indoor garden can be a great way to start any vegetable growing goals. All that is needed are the right containers for the kind of vegetables that are able to grow indoors, a place inside close to windows to promote enough sunlight on the vegetable containers, and to make sure to keep the soil moist. It may also be necessary to add extra lighting during some of the winter months. There are some vegetables that are easier to grow inside than others, so here is a list of four vegetables that are better to start out with:

Lettuce

When choosing lettuce for an indoor garden, loose leaf lettuce is best. This is because it does not have a core, and can start to be picked just four to six weeks after they are planted. Another great thing about choosing loose leaf lettuce is that after the leaves start to be picked, it will still produce new leaves for several weeks.

Carrots

Carrots are another great vegetable to start growing in an indoor garden. Carrot containers need to be kept in a cool place and the soil will need to stay damp. After the carrot seeds sprout, they will need to be thinned out to make sure that there is enough room for the bulbs to grow under the soil in their containers.

Green Beans

Green beans can also successfully be grown in an indoor garden. Bush green beans are easier to grow indoors than vine green beans, because they will not need to have a trellis for them to grow upwards on. Bush green beans, however, need to be planted in individual pots so that they have enough room to grow.

Radishes

Planting radishes in an indoor garden is a quick way to start seeing real progress. To better grow radishes indoors, make sure to cover the container with plastic wrap after planting the seeds and watering until the seeds start to sprout. This allows the soil to keep more of its moisture after watering, and will help to produce faster results.