With so much time spent at home this year and health being a top priority, creating a simple indoor garden is an easy way to brighten your family space and health and wellness. Adding an indoor garden can add vibrancy to any room and spread lasting immunity benefits. Read on to learn how to create an indoor garden and why it’s a gift that keeps giving.
Indoor Garden Wishlist
Nurture yourself and your family by integrating nature into your very own secret garden. Building an indoor garden can reduce stress, increase focus, and boost your productivity. Architects and designers have coined this concept of adding more connection to natural living things in indoor spaces as biophilic design, and it has been adopted as a top priority due to its endless benefits. An indoor garden will reap endless psychological and health benefits for the whole family year around.
Since the primary motive for building an indoor garden is to cultivate more zen, incorporating low-maintenance attendees to your plant party is essential. Here’s a list of 6 easy plants that are available at most garden stores under $20:
Air Plant
These guys don’t even need a pot. You can literally sit them in a glass bowl and they’ll thrive. Air plants are a great place to start for indoor gardeners with limited space. You can hang this little guy in a window or set it up in a tiny pot and spray it with water once every couple of weeks to keep him happy. Another benefit to air plants is their ease of adding them into your current interior design. With air plants, you can make every room in the house a mini indoor garden because of their easy upkeep and lack of messy soil. Cheers to air plants!
Spider Plants
Spider Plants were recognized as one of the “Best Air Cleaning Plants” in a study by NASA. It has proven abilities to filter formaldehyde and xylene, both have been linked to cold-like symptoms and long-term breathing issues. Another perk is the plant’s quick and easy propagation patterns; if they’re kept in cool, sunny environments with drained water, springtime will be a busy month of indoor garden growth.
Aloe
Kids love plants with a product. Aloe is a great choice for an indoor garden for that reason along with its easy-to-care-for nature. When the plant has matured, you can cut open its thick skin and scoop out some of the juicy core to aid burns and dry skin. For extended use, ensure this plant has a good bit of sunlight and water sparingly.
Bromeliad
Many indoor plants are lush green colors, a Bromeliad is a great choice for those who long for a little color in their indoor garden. These plants grow a bright flower inside the bowl of the sprouted green shoots or on the tips. Bromeliad’s are very low maintenance and can be watered once a month if they are in a good pot that allows the water to filter through.
Christmas Cactus
Another indoor plant that can add a touch of color is the Christmas Cactus. With correct care, you’ll see red, pink, or white-tipped shoots right around the holidays. At such a cheap price, these would be fun to place throughout your indoor garden zone to add a color pop throughout.
Snake Plant
Most of the low-maintenance plants widen while they grow; a snake plant grows tall which will add more dimension to an indoor garden. Due to its growth pattern, it doesn’t take up a large pot and can be watered sparingly in a sunny room.
READ MORE: 9 Low Maintenance Plants You Won’t Kill
Easy Set up for a Thriving Garden
An indoor garden doesn’t require a lot of space, so don’t worry about moving furniture around. A good way to start an indoor gardening journey is to identify quiet/boring spots around the home that might benefit from nature’s touch. The first few places to look may be a window seat, a shelf, a long wall, a bathroom counter, or atop a staircase.
When a spot is identified it’s important to make sure the space will bring warm temperatures and moist air. In the New York Times Bestseller, Hot House Flower by Margot Berwin, the main character jumps into indoor gardening with zest and finds the most outstanding collection of indoor, tropical plants in a laundromat. The business owner and plant expert explains it’s the warmth and moisture emitted by the laundry machines that make the perfect conditions for growing. Though indoor gardens are not restricted to the laundry room, it elicits a point of reference for the necessary warmth, sun, and air moisture necessary in the chosen indoor garden location.
Unlike outdoor gardens that form a community in a flower bed, indoor plants thrive in their own pots. This will help to maintain soil moisture and prevent the need for daily watering. One-pot size doesn’t fit all. For each plant, research the potential growth and plant to align with its potential. If a plant doesn’t have space to grow-it won’t. To cultivate a garden feel, choosing pots in thematic colors will bring cohesion and more visual appeal.
READ MORE: 7 Helpful Tips To Get You Indoor Gardening
5 Ways Kids Can Help With An Indoor Garden
Building responsibility through plant care can start at a very young age. Once a toddler can hold a cup, they can pour water into a pot of soil.
- Ready, set, spray– Since most indoor plants don’t require much water a simple spray bottle is a fun way to build responsibility and teach the basic needs of all living creatures.
- Pruning– Most kids have given themselves a haircut at some point in their lives. The satisfaction of cutting is rewarding for kids’ coordination. This responsibility can be assigned to your kids if leaves begin to brown.
- Set-up help– Engaging kids from the start builds their commitment to indoor garden projects. Kids can help pick out pots and types of plants and even name them, these actions help build a bond.
- Making recycled or simple clay pots is another hands-on activity to garner plant commitment.
- Building an indoor garden creates an age-old sensory stimulator-dirt play. Assigning your gardening spot with a tarp or old newspaper prevents dirt intrusion and makes a sandbox-like feel to the activity. Add spoons, cups, and ice cream scoops to make the soil transition successful.
READ MORE: 5 Amazing Health Benefits Of Houseplants
Best Practices For Indoor Garden Longevity
When a plant is in the ground, they have lots of space to dispel water but for potted plants their space is limited. Support this modified process by watering every other week and adding small rocks and stones to the bottom of the pot. This will allow the plant to dry out between watering and prevent root rot which is a common issue amongst potted plants.
Avoid indoor locations with harsh sunlight. Most of these plants are used to a tropical canopy providing shade, keep that in mind when you are setting up your space. They’ll only need a few hours of sunlight a day and they don’t need to be scorched.
Connecting with a local plant shop is advantageous in growing lasting plants; the employees have an inside scoop on most plants and can share tips to guide you toward gardening success. Like notorious cat ladies, one plant usually isn’t enough so bonding with a local plant shop is a good investment in time as your garden grows.
Think of Becoming a Plant Mom? Check out these Indoor Garden Inspo Resources.
Joy Us Gardening is a fully built-out plant resource with lots of videos, blog posts, and resources to build your plant knowledge. Planterina is a plant design genius with lots of videos on how to organize and style your plants. You can even buy plants from the website.
For tons of excellent family gardening ideas, check out www.gardeningwithkids.com. It’s a non-profit that supports the connection between kids and nature; the website hosts an exciting repository of gardening ideas, crafts, and lesson plans to keep the fun going.
Ready to roll up your sleeves and start planting? Share your indoor garden journey with friends and family to potentially start an indoor garden club. The more green, the merrier!
WANT TO READ MORE?
Want to learn about more indoor plants? Check out A Quick Guide to Houseplants to learn about how to identify diseases and plants that are suitable for each room of the house.
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