How to Do Indoor Gardening

People who live in condos or have no area for a garden often long to be surrounded by greenery. For those people, indoor gardening may be the solution. Not only do plants add vitality to interior design, they have purify the air, suppress dust and fight allergies. Some are low maintenance, but all require a regimen of watering and fertilizing.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Indoor space
• Plant pots
• Fertilizer
• Starter plants

1. Identify the lighting conditions in each of the rooms you plan to decorate. Mark each room as either dim, bright direct or bright indirect. Then, for each room, consider only plants that thrive in that lighting condition. Palm plants require direct light, herbs and vegetables grow in bright sunlight, and bamboo plants can grow in dark indoor conditions.

2. Consider temperature and moisture as the next most important factors after lighting. If the temperature of your indoor space ranges from 65 to 80 F, for example, only consider plants that thrive within this temperature range.

3. Look at the space constraints. Some plants vary in height from a few inches to several feet. Fortunately, you can control the height of the plant by the size of the pot. Use small pots to restrict plant growth.

4. Find out what other care needs your favorite plants have. Besides watering, most plants need fertilizing, trimming and often leaf picking.

5. Buy plants that are either practical or appealing to you. If a plant isn't aesthetically pleasing, consider growing a vegetable that you can eat.

Tips & Warnings

• Don't buy high-maintenance plants if you're constantly on the go or travel often and don't have a housekeeper. Plants that need frequent watering or watering at specific times are a poor choice for those who have irregular schedules or who are out of their homes for more than a day at a time.

Resources

• The Garden Helper aids in cultivating home gardens.

[SensitivePlant]

on 1/13/2009 Nice article! Kids and many adults favorite indoor plant, is the TickleMe Plant. The TickleMe Plant is that REAL plant that MOVES when you Tickle It! The leaves fold and even the branches MOVE when Tickled!. It is easy to grow any time of the year. I found my supplies at http://www.ticklemeplant.com