Savvy Gardening: Garden Ideas, Tips, Pictures, and More » Indoor Gardening

Basic Tips For Indoor Gardening

Jennifer — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 06:35:51 +0000

Indoor gardening focuses on growing your plants indoors, either in a small pocket garden or in pots. Plants were not meant to be indoors which is why there are a lot of indoor gardening tips and advice that need to be considered and followed for your indoor plants.

Indoor Gardening Tip No. 1 : Let There Be Light

All plants need light to be able to process and manufacture their own food. Their primary source of light in the outdoors is the sun. Indoor gardening deprives them of the sun so we must provide indoor plants with another light source. Artificial lighting may be necessary if the area where your pocket garden or potted plant does not have enough light. Your plant will be thinner and will have smaller and paler leaves when it does not get enough light.

Plants intended for indoor gardening should be acclimatized gradually before they are placed in the area. Gradual introduction to the indoors may be needed so that your plant will not lose foliage or die. Indoor plants will also benefit from being put out of the house once in a while for several days.

Indoor Gardening Tip No. 2 : Watering Your Plant

Plants for indoor gardening may have different watering needs compared to plants for the outdoors. The temperature and humidity indoors will need to be considered when watering indoor plants. For plants in pots, you need to make sure that the pots drain well enough so as not to immerse the roots in too much water. You may need to use platters or trays to catch the drainage from the pots or these might mark your floors. You can tell when your indoor plant needs watering because the soil will be dry to touch. Use water with pretty much the same temperature as the room where the plant is located.

Indoor Gardening Tip No. 3 : Temperature And Humidity

Some plants thrive in humid weather while others can not take it. The humidity and temperature of the plants you use for indoor gardening will depend on what kind of plants they are. Tropical plants prefer humidity while others prefer dry weather. Get to know your plants and their species so you know which can adapt easily to indoor gardening.

Indoor gardening is great especially for decorating. Plants lend a different ambience to a room, leaning more to it being cozy and comfortable. Having plants in the room can also promote better health for you.

Introduction To Greenhouse Hydroponic Gardening

Jennifer — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 06:17:20 +0000

Greenhouse hydroponic gardening is the process of growing plants and vegetables without the use of soil. It usually involves using gravel or some other material to support the roots, and the plants are fed with a nutrient rich water solution. The purpose of this is that the plants do not receive their nutrients from the growing medium as they would from soil. This technique has been around for years, but was once only used by professionals and commercial growers. Over the last several years, however, many home gardeners have turned to this style of gardening to grow their own plants and vegetables. This article will provide a brief overview of greenhouse hydroponic gardening and some advantages associated with it.

How Is It Done?

Hydroponic gardening is usually done in a greenhouse. This will allow you to maintain the perfect climate and conditions required to maximize your yield. When most people think of a greenhouse, it usually brings to mind the large greenhouses used for commercial use. This isn’t necessarily the case. Mini-greenhouses are available for purchase that are perfect for home use. Some people have even been known to build their own greenhouses that serve the same purpose. Whichever you choose, the idea is to create an environment with the ideal temperature and humidity for growing whatever it is you’re planting. Another advantage of greenhouse hydroponic gardening is that you can extend the growing season, especially if you live in a climate that is not conducive to gardening.

When you begin thinking about setting up a greenhouse hydroponic gardening system, there are a few different ways you could go. There are several different types of kits you can purchase, but they are usually a bit pricey. Many home gardeners build their own system, which you can do with many of the items you already have. If you’re a beginner, you may want to buy a kit to make sure you have everything you need. These systems vary in some ways, but the basic idea is the same.

Your planting containers will contain whatever growing medium you are using. In many cases, this would be gravel. The plants will grow in the gravel, but only for support for the roots and stalks. There are a number of different methods for delivering the nutrient solution to the plants. This solution is made up of water and fertilizer. The difference between regular fertilizer and the fertilizer used here is that this type contains all of the nutrients that the plants will need. Regular fertilizer leaves certain things out because the plants are expected to get a certain amount of nutrients from the soil. Of course, in this case there is no soil.

This solution will be either pumped or fed some other way into the medium. It is then absorbed directly into the roots. Many of these systems are automated, with sensors in the medium to tell the pump when more solution is needed.

Advantages

The advantages of greenhouse hydroponic gardening go far beyond the conditions provided by the greenhouse. Obviously, it’s cleaner because there is no soil to deal with. The way the plants are fed allows you to have complete control of the nutrients your plants will receive and when they receive it. The result of this is larger, healthier, and faster growing plants and vegetables. Weeds and insect infestations are two other problems that are eliminated with this type of gardening.

Greenhouse hydroponic gardening is gaining in popularity all the time. Maybe you should check it out.

Organic Indoor Gardening

Jennifer — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 06:46:50 +0000

The idea behind organic indoor gardening is simple: pack up everything you know about organic gardening and move it indoors.

What Is Indoor Organic Gardening Anyway?

Simply put, indoor organic gardening is the indoor cultivation of plants without using synthetic fertilizers or pesticides. Organic gardeners focus on every phase of a plant’s life and every component that goes into a plant’s health, from the water and soil to the climate and insect life. Applied to indoor gardening, organic gardening means that artificial lights are permitted, but artificial fertilizers and pesticides are not.

Organic Gardening With Indoor Herbs

One of the easiest ways to get started with organic indoor gardening is to culinary herbs indoors. Growing herbs is fun and easy to do, and you can use herbs for recipes in your kitchen, for homeopathic healing remedies, and for room-freshening potpourris and sachets.

Herbs need well-drained soil, so use an organic soil mix made for cactus or other plants that thrive in dry weather. Put your herbs in a south-facing window where they can get four to five hours of bright sunlight every day. During the winter, you may need to supplement the light by using fluorescent lights for up to 12 hours a day.

Inspect the leaves of your herbs often for signs of pest damage. If you find aphids or other leaf-eating animals on your herbs, pick them off and drown the bugs in tap water. Spray the infested plants with a diluted insecticidal soap, being sure to coat both the top and the underside of the leaves.

Organic Indoor Gardening Fertilizers

Fortunately, many organic fertilizers are available for use in indoor gardens. The ingredients organic fertilizers are made from often don’t sound or smell very pretty, but they are chemical-free, and they will produce amazing results in your indoor organic garden.

Fish fertilizer is a liquid made of bits and pieces of seagoing fish. Mix it with water according to the instructions on the container, and water your indoor plants with it. Fish fertilizer has a strong fishy smell, but the odor disappears soon after the soil dries.

Bone meal and blood meal are byproducts of the meat business. These fertilizers come in powdered form and should be stirred in to the top surface of the soil.

Indoor Gardening With Organic Pesticides

Regular plant inspections are the mainstay of indoor organic gardening. It’s best to spot problems, including pest infestations, early, before they get out of hand. Keep insects away from plants by lighting citronella candles regularly. Flying insects don’t like the scent of citronella oil in the air. Kill crawling insects by adding one teaspoon of dishwashing detergent to a quart of water. Pour the solution into a spray bottle, and spray the plant thoroughly, including the underside of the leaves.

Indoor organic gardening is fun, easy to do, and good for your plants and the environment.

What You Need to Know About Lighting for Indoor Gardening

Jennifer — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 06:42:24 +0000

If you have considered hydroponics and want to do it indoors then you will need lighting suitable for indoor gardening. Lighting for indoor gardening, aside from being a substitute for the sun can actually speed up growth or benefit certain plants depending on the type of lights you choose. The element of control you have over indoor lighting allows you to enhance the growth of the plants in your indoor garden that is absent in conventional gardening.

Types of Lights

There are two types of lights in lighting for indoor gardening, metal halide lights and high pressure sodium lights. Metal halide lights produce light in the blue spectrum, this type of light is good for vegetative growth and will promote good vegetative growth in your plants. High pressure sodium lights on the other hand will produce a strong output in the red spectrum, this is good for the flowering and fruiting stage of growth. The advantage of using lighting for indoor gardening is that you can easily switch the type of lights depending on the stage of growth, something you can’t do outdoors.

There are two ways you can go about using lighting for indoor gardening. One method that is used by most people, is to use both lights. Another option that is quite viable is to use a single light. When using this method you should first use metal halide lights in the vegetative state and then switch the bulb to a high pressure sodium one. This way you can have both lights and get the best results. There are however lighting systems that provide light in both the blue and red spectrum. This is probably the best solution and doesn’t require to tinker with your lighting system.

The size of your light varies according to how big an area is being used. Light sizes range from 250 watts to a 1000 watts, you can cover an area as small as three by three inches to seven by seven inches. If your indoor garden does receive some sunlight you can use smaller lights for a bigger area. Do a little research as to what size lights are needed for the size of your garden. It’s just as important to determine the right light size as it is to get the right type of lights. Too little light and you won’t be getting good growth results, too much and you might be killing off your plants.

How Your Can Make Hydroponic Vegetable Gardening Indoors a Fun Hobby

Jennifer — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 22:08:11 +0000

You know that it is very important to make sure that you maintain a healthy diet. Your diet should include a good amount of vegetables as well. However, unless your get your vegetables from an organic food store chances are that they have been sprayed with chemicals to keep pests away. So, why not use the intrigues of science to do some hydroponic vegetable gardening indoors?

Hydroponic Vegetable Gardening Indoors: Delicious Vegetables Grown Without Soil!

If you have never considered the possibility of doing hydroponic vegetable gardening indoors, now is the time to start! Many people think that growing vegetables indoors without some sort of greenhouse would not work, and would be messy too. These people might think differently when they find out that hydroponic vegetable gardening indoors requires no soil!

How is gardening without soil possible? Well, when it comes to hydroponic vegetable gardening indoors, all you will need are some hydroponic nutrients, a sunny area, and a place for the vegetable plant that you want to grow. When applied directly to the roots of the vegetable plant, the vegetable plant can sustain itself without the nutrients in soil.

If this does not sound amazing enough to you, imagine the decorating you can do with your vegetable plant! Not only can you place it in an ornate pot large enough to accommodate its roots, but with the right care you can use sand to support it in place of soil! The possibilities are endless when you think about the many different ways you can fit your indoor vegetable plant with your décor.

So, where can you find the materials necessary for hydroponic vegetable gardening indoors? The first place you should check is your local garden center. However, it should be noted that hydroponic gardening techniques might be more readily available in specialty gardening stores. If you do not have any such places near you, the next step is to search the internet.

Indeed, there are many gardening products available online for when it comes to hydroponic vegetable gardening. The hard part is selecting a website that gives you reputable material. All too often people end up get faulty gardening supplies from the wrong websites. Thus it is very important to make sure that you only go to a secure website, and one that has an excellent reputation. With the proper research, you are sure to find the right products for your hydroponic vegetable gardening adventure.

Growing House Plants With Organic Indoor Gardening

Jennifer — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 22:23:35 +0000

Indoor gardening is a popular hobby, and one that can actually improve your décor and your health. Glossy green living plants are an unbeatable decorating accessory, whether you favor the bold statement a snake plant makes or the ethereal lightness of an asparagus fern. By surrounding yourself with healthy green plants, you oxygenate your living environment and gain more energy.

Grow Houseplants Organically

You can do some organic indoor gardening with houseplants. Growing organically means you don’t use chemical pesticides, herbicides, or fertilizers in your gardening routine. Organic indoor gardening also means not using genetically modified seeds, cuttings, or other elements.

Indoor Gardening The Organic Way

If you’re serious about indoor organic gardening, you might want to purchase Indoor Gardening the Organic Way: How to Create a Natural and Sustaining Environment for Your Houseplants, by Julie Bawden Davis.

The beginning of the book explains how houseplants are grown and shipped to your local garden center. Young house plants are fed the equivalent of a fast food diet to pump them up so they’ll look good in the garden center. When you bring your new house plants home, they may have a bit of a chemical fertilizer hangover at first. Be patient with them, and soon they will become accustomed to an organic lifestyle.

Organic Fertilizers

The best organic fertilizer is homemade compost. Even if you live in an apartment, you can make organic compost for gardening indoors.

Use a coffee can or another metallic container with a tight fitting lid. Make a few ventilation holes around the side of the coffee can with a nail or a drill. Fill the can with alternating layers of crisp, dry ingredients and wet ingredients.

For the crisp, dry ingredients, use dry leaves if you have access to them. Otherwise, you can use shredded newspaper or crumpled up paper bags.

For the wet ingredients, you can use raw vegetable scraps – nothing with oil or butter on it – and coffee grounds.

Keeping the compost can indoors will heat the compost up fast and help process it quickly. You can get the compost to make itself more quickly by stirring it periodically.

When one coffee can is full, start another. Turn the first can upside down every day to mix the ingredients and keep the compost cooking. Soon the first can will be full of rich, crumbly compost – the key to indoor organic gardening.

Mix a little bit of compost in with your plants’ soil to provide long-lasting nutrients. You can grow almost any houseplant with this indoor organic gardening trick.

Indoor Gardening Can Provide Benefits Of Fresh Food

Jennifer — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 22:13:19 +0000

Just because you don not have a big yard does not mean you cannot grow your own fruits and vegetables. There are some advantages to indoor gardening, such as not having to worry about the weather and many of the pests that attack the plants when they are growing outside. It also means the traditional rakes, shovels and hoes can be left in the shed and there will not be a need to roll up the garden hose at the end of the gardening day either.

Although there is still an opportunity of uninvited pesky guests finding their way to your vegetable patch, indoor gardening can still provide a great deal of satisfaction in growing your own fruits, vegetables, herbs and spices. In some cases a patio can be used to give the plants a taste of direct sunlight, something they will occasionally appreciate, but for the most part indirect lighting and some indoor grow lights can provide all the lamination they require.

Some of the more popular plants raised when indoor gardening include tomatoes, peppers and strawberries that can be plucked from the vine as a fresh, healthy snack or cooked into your favorite dish. Plants that can thrive without a lot of direct sunlight usually work better, but many growing lights are available to help them plants through the photosynthesis process.

Plant Eating Animals Out Of The Equation

With some outdoor gardens small wild animals tend to believe the plants are there for their enjoyment and with indoor gardening rabbits and others are effectively locked out of the fresh vegetable smorgasbord. Fencing is not required and planting plants to keep them at bay will not be necessary. You can also use a variety of decorative container in indoor gardening adding to the home’s décor while growing your own food to eat.

Old boots or empty buckets make interesting plant containers for indoor gardening and a small plastic boot tray under the container can prevent damage from water spills to carpets or wood floors. Of course, having a patio on which to store some of your indoor gardening tools is also convenient, but not necessary.

Pesticides for indoor gardening can also be used, but many prefer to use natural products to keep the bugs off their plants when they are growing indoors. By using all natural and organic products as fertilizer and pesticides, it reduces the danger to any indoor animals that may be sharing the garden space.

Starting Your Own Indoor Herb Garden

Jennifer — Sun, 18 Nov 2007 19:16:01 +0000

Even if you live in an apartment you can start your own indoor herb garden and this is a really great idea because you can use herbs for so many different things. From cooking to medicinal purposes, growing your own herbs is a great, cost effective and handier alternative to buying them at the supermarket. If you are interested in starting your own indoor herb garden then you should know that there are basically three different ways you can start.

Getting Started

You can choose to start your herbs from seed, which means that you are really starting from scratch and working from the ground up. This does not mean that this route is more difficult or time-consuming, because it really isn’t at all. It is the least expensive way to start an indoor herb garden as well, which is definitely something that you want to consider.

If you are interested in going this route then you will need a lightweight soilless mixture, seeds of the herbs that you want to plant, clear plastic baggies and small pots with drainage holes built into them. Fill the pots with the soilless mixture and then place them in small bowls of water. Once the pot has absorbed the water from the bottom up and the soilless mixture is saturated you can remove the pots from the water and place your seeds in the mix.

Now you simply have to take the plastic baggies and slip one over each pot, as this plastic will help the seedlings to retain as much moisture as possible and also create a very warm environment.

Another way to start an indoor herb garden is to use stem cuttings. All you need to do here is place the cuttings that you want to use in small jars of water and leave them in an area where they will receive plenty of sunshine, and in no time at all they will grow roots.

The final and easiest way to start your own indoor herb garden is to purchase live, grown plants from your local garden center. These are herb plants that have already been started and so you really do not have to worry about the hassle of preparing soil and actually planting the seeds. You just need to make sure that the plants get plenty of water and sunshine, and once a week you should feed them using a diluted organic fertilizer.