Just because you live in a tiny apartment or don’t have a glut of green space doesn’t mean you need to miss out on the magic of gorgeous green finger living. As long as you have a sunny window, a little time, and can commit to cultivating your indoor garden, you can grow homely produce inside the tiniest space. From freshly plucked tomatoes from tiny vegetable gardens to fragrant herbs and leafy greens, floral blooms, and citrus fruits – here are our top tips for growing your own indoor garden and making your living space a natural oasis…
Green Thumbing the Basics: How to Get Started
First, let's start with some tips for getting your garden system going. Choosing the right spot for your garden, considering how light comes into your home, taking temperature into account, and deciding what you want to grow (it could be as simple as a succulent or as epic as growing microgreens), all of these choices should be considered so you know exactly how to get going with your garden system.
Pick Your Place
Most plants need a good dose of sunlight to survive so the first quest on your garden growing mission is to find a space. The space should be in direct light so your growing plants and leaves are able to soak up the sunshine, photosynthesize and thrive. This is why people often pick the windowsill as their spot for growing an indoor vegetable garden or fresh herbs. Without good light, your indoor plants may be a little spindly and weak. If you don’t have a good sunny spot for your garden you could also consider getting grow lights and creating an artificial grow light program so that your plants can lap up all their energy needs regardless of the weather. It's worth noting that if you are choosing the route of hydroponics, you may need a little more space for your setup.
Consider Humidity
Indoor gardeners may struggle a little more when it comes to creating ambient humidity. Winters can be dry, especially if you turn the heating up – which can lead to your plants browning around the edges and looking withered or your herb garden wilting. A good way of combatting humidity problems is to keep your plants lightly misted, or to place them close together so they can create a microclimate, and to run a humidifier to keep things moist and magical. For those who want to get serious about the possibility of their indoor garden systems, you can also look for hydroponic garden solutions which skip the potting soil and uses water and nutrients to grow glorious green spaces.
Choose Your Plants
Not all indoor gardens are born equal and a big contributing factor to success is selecting the right type of plants that are able to thrive in an indoor space. Indoor plants that bear food include lettuce and salad greens, beans, simple vegetables like cherry tomatoes and strawberries, and even mushrooms. If you want to get going on your indoor garden without worry, you can purchase an indoor garden kit to get growing with fewer hiccups as these kits have everything you need. All kinds of herbs can be easily grown indoors. The best indoor floral blooms include peace lilies, marigolds, cacti, and all kinds of succulents. Your local nursery should have plenty of helpful information to ensure you pick the perfect array of indoor plants.
Pick Your Pots
Growing herbs, veggies, and pretty potted plant varieties inside will give you a load of room to play around with your setup. If you aren’t taking the hydroponic system route and keeping things simple with container gardening, you can opt for terracotta or plastic containers that hold moisture really well. This is your chance to also get creative and reduce waste in the home; old coffee pots, bottles cut in two, and just about any receptacle can keep your plants safe. Just be sure to avoid anything that’s held chemicals as this will kill off your plant.
Get Your Accessories
Indoor gardening is a little more complex than just stick them in the ground and let nature do its work (even growing outdoors can take a little more work). First of all, you will need to select a good soil and peat potting mix that holds all the right nutrients for your new plants. Again, your local garden center or nursery will be able to offer advice when it comes to products like liquid fertilizer, getting rid of bugs, and the right plant food to keep your plant growth happy and healthy. Beyond that, you may want to consider seed pods and plant pods or heat mats to keep your seedlings warm, drip or water pump systems that keep your plants fed and watered, and timers for LED lights that ensure your greens are getting the right levels of darkness and light so life can thrive.
Problem Shoot Plants
Knowing how to keep your plants healthy and knowing how to watch for those telltale signs of problems will keep your garden flourishing throughout the season. Be sure that you adhere to the right watering schedule to match the plant you are growing. Signs of overwatering include wilting from the stem to the leaves, drooping leaves, and discoloration. Signs of underwatering include dry soil, brown edges, and wilting from the leaf to the stem.
Ideas That Take Root: Creating an Inspiring Indoor Garden
Now we have the basics down when it comes to getting started on indoor gardening systems, we can take a look at some fun inspiration to turn your kitchen windowsill or whatever living space you like into a glut of green style.
Take a look at some of our favorite inspiring ideas for your indoor garden...
Vertical Garden Glory
A vertical garden doesn't have to be something super fancy and complex; you can just upcycle an old bookcase or set of shelves. Fill those blank shelves with a range of different plants -from creepers crawling out of old coffee pots to simple succulents, leafy green lusciousness, and heavenly herbs.
Hanging Gardens of Babylon
Stuck for space on your windowsill? How about crafting a hanging indoor herb garden using some old planks, nails, and string. Want to take this one step further? Choose a window or area with lots of light and go wild with all your hanging plants. Not only can you create a cascade of gorgeous greenery but you can get bright patterned pots and macramé or colored hangers to bring a little zest to the space.
Sweet Succulent Space
If you don't want to go big when it comes to your growing indoors, you can keep things Scandi simple with a collection of sweet succulents instead. These hardy little plants are hardly any trouble and can adorn any desk, kitchen table, window space, or shelf.
Grocery Store Shop
Forget the need to have an outdoor garden, you can definitely grow vegetables indoors. Make a veggie shop in your very own kitchen by having growable edibles well within reach. Whether it's mustard greens, rows of herbs like basil, rosemary, and coriander, tomato plants, microgreens in your smart garden, tiny pretty peppers, bauble like sprouts, blooming bok choy, or baby carrots in a deep pot - nothing compares to having a garden harvest right under your roof.
Bathroom Beauty
Bathrooms can make the perfect space for indoor gardens year-round. Often warm and humid, your bathroom can become the home of tropical style plants. Drape them over your shower, line your shelf with cacti, and even build a floating shelf above your mirror and fill with climbers and hangers and plant roots to run wild and double up on that glorious glut of green.
How does your indoor garden grow? Share thoughts, comments, and gardening tips with us and let's bloom beautiful spaces together.
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