27Dec/110
Indoor Gardens for Small Urban Spaces
When I was living in a small studio apartment in New York City, friends used to wonder why I always kept the curtains closed -- until they saw my view. My one window overlooked the back wall of another building, and it wasn't a pretty sight. But curtains are just one solution for covering up a less than inspiring view. Another is to create an indoor garden in your urban home.
If you've never had a garden before, don't worry. Employees at a florist shop or plant nursery usually have a wealth of information that they are more than happy to share. You can help them make informed suggestions for your future garden by doing a little home research before you go. Here are a few things to consider:
Light or Shady? Some plants need lots of sunlight. Some prefer shade. So make a study of the site of your planned garden. How many hours of sunlight does it get? Is that light strong and direct, or is the light blocked by other buildings? Is the average temperature hot and dry, dark and damp, or something in between?
High or Low Maintenance? Urban gardener, know thyself. How much time do you want to devote to your new green friends? It's important to be realistic because although some hardy plants need just a little water and light to thrive, others are more finicky and will shrivel up and die if they don't get exactly the right care.
Stationary or Climbing the Walls? Most people think of potted plants when they think of indoor gardens, but why not let your imagination soar? If you dare, use that old curtain rod as a support for a trailing vine to add color and interest to your windows.
Lemon or Lime? Just because you live in an urban environment doesn't mean you can't have a small orchard growing in your home. Ask your local plant expert about how to install temperature and light controls if your apartment isn't naturally warm and sunny. And by the way, bonsai trees are another great option for small spaces.
With so many indoor gardening choices you can turn even the smallest of urban spaces into an oasis of green. Just take a few minutes to observe the light and climate conditions of your future garden's site. Then consult with your local gardening experts to get that indoor garden growing in your home.
By: Lara Fine
16Dec/110
Small Area Indoor Gardening Using Containers
Gardening is a hobby that is growing in popularity. Many garden enthusiasts enjoy spending their time growing herbs, flowers, vegetable, and fruit indoors throughout the year. You can gain a true sense of accomplishment when you create beautiful flowers, heirloom tomatoes or fresh basil after few months or even weeks of caring for your garden.
Besides providing nutritious food and pleasant aromas, indoor gardens can also add life and beauty to a room and has been said to add a layer of comfort and warmth to the residents of the home. Indoor plants are great for providing oxygen and improved air quality in a home or office.
There are many types of indoor gardens that could be designed. You could have a vegetable garden, flower garden, herb garden, hanging gardens, fruit gardens and bonsai gardens. You can also mix and match any and all of the above to your liking.
As with the many projects, there are necessary supplies that you will need in order to enjoy garden success. There are plenty of tools available to help you make your plants and flowers grow bigger, stronger and faster. The most important element that needs to be replaced indoors is the sun. The proper grow lights are critical to your garden success. There are a variety of lights specifically made to grow plants including fluorescent, high intensity discharge (HID) and LED grow lights.
No Room For An Indoor Garden?
Containers and small pots can be used to grow plants on counter tops, windowsills or you can stack them in a shelving system to save room and allow you to organize your plants vertically. Container gardening is also useful when you need to move the plants around for even light coverage or to clean your grow area.
When choosing containers for your indoor garden, you will find that there are lots of sizes, designs, and colors of containers and pots to choose from. Using plastic containers for your plants is economical, however, many people like the look of hand crafted clay containers for their plants. Some gardeners use all kinds of items found around the house. You can use containers that are very attractive and give a very natural look to the room. There are some great wooden containers made to look like old whiskey barrels that are another great choice for indoor gardening containers.
Indoor gardening is a fun and satisfying hobby and there is a lot of great information on the Internet for the beginner and even the seasoned gardener to learn from. There are also scores of manufacturers offering basic and high-tech devices and tools help the indoor gardening enthusiast to get professional results out of their plants.
By: Rion Piccaro
3Dec/110
Indoor Garden Guide
A garden is a plot of land, normally outside the house, that is adorned by shrubs and flowering plants. It makes the outside of homes presentable, if not very dainty. Remarkably, it can also up the aesthetics of your home's interior. The indoor garden is styled to add natural elegance to interior design. A well arranged garden will make pleasant impressions in your home, making it a pristine place that you would certainly love.
Indoor Garden Arrangements
The aim is to further embellish your home's interior. They can be arranged to look like patches of nature within a modern or manmade environment, as if it were an oasis in a desert. The garden, teeming with home themes and furnishings, provides a sense of balance to your home's design. It comes as no surprise that many people regard indoor gardens as places for relaxation or sanctuary, given the serenity it provides.
Indoor Garden Plants
Like outdoor gardens, it is filled with shrubs and potted plants. It can be a grassy patch of land or something that resembles a Japanese garden, depending on the home interior's theme. Arrange pots and garden planters throughout the area and leave an open space for larger plants. In the background, you can place strips of wood, which create a natural and stylish impression. Just mix and match the flowers and the shrubs, until you find a combination that suits your home's theme.
Indoor Vegetable Garden
Some people add another function to their indoor gardens - they turn the areas into sources of food, vegetables in particular. They can even make profits if they produce huge quantities of vegetables, since they can sell their produce to groceries, the market, and their neighbors. When making one, take note that not all vegetables will survive inside the house. Do some internet research on which plants will flourish with minimal sunshine. You could also ask your gardener or landscape artist for more information.
Beauty and Function
The indoor garden is both picturesque and functional. If you build it well, your household will benefit much. You can relieve stress and feel reinvigorated just by spending some time in the garden.
By: Greg J Thompson
30Oct/110
Indoor Gardens for Serenity
For some people, the luxury of a big outdoor garden is something that they just don't have, but if you fall into this bracket, there is no reason that you shouldn't still enjoy plants, just in the form of an indoor garden.
Plants add beauty to a space, making a large room seem more homely or brightening up a room with a lack of light. But they also have the added bonus of purifying the air, taking the carbon dioxide from our breathing and changing it to oxygen. If you smoke indoors, they can help clean the air of excess carbon dioxide, and keep everything fresher.
People say gardening is a relaxing pass time, and an indoor garden will give you calm all year round when it is too cold to garden outside. You can choose from such a large variety of plants in colours, sizes, shapes, flowering versus non flowering, and they can be tended to all year round. With an inside garden you can also decide how much time you want to dedicate, as you can choose plants that need to be watered less like cactuses. You can also get little fruit trees to have in large pots in the house if you want to bring a taste of the outdoors inside.
All in all, an indoor garden is a relaxing thing to have if you do not have the space or time to tend for an outside garden. Make sure that you Buy Home Insurance to insure the belongings inside your house.
By: Laura Hartson
15Sep/110
How To Properly Handle Pests In Your Garden
Pests in your indoor garden can be one of the worst things that can happen to any gardener. The reason being is that these pests are known to attack weak plants and destroy an otherwise perfect garden. Knowing what to look for and having a preventative strategy is a necessary element in order to reduce the likelihood of an infestation.
Mites and other insects love unattended indoor gardens. These environments are ideal for these plant predators. This is normally due to the fact in which most indoor gardens have an improper environment for predatory insects and mites to exist. This leaves the bad mites and insects to flourish and reproduce uninterrupted. Dealing with this problem early on can make the difference between successfully harvesting your fruits and vegetables to completely destroying and disposing of your entire garden.
An indoor gardener must understand the reproductive cycle of these pests in order to properly treat the problem. Most mites and a few insects lay eggs which hatch every three days. This means that whichever treatment is chosen, the fact in which eggs might remain which allow new hatchings to occur within a few days must be taken into consideration. This important fact can be the most important weapon any gardener has against these problem pests.
The first step to a pest free garden is to eliminate any outside sources of infestation. This means having a sterile environment. When visiting your garden, make sure to use the same clothing which was used while you were outdoors. Keep any plant introductions into your garden to a minimum. If you are given or purchase any plants, make sure to quarantine them or sterilize them with the proper insecticide. The insecticide chosen depends on your gardening preference. Many insecticides are now also organic for those with such needs.
Keep the room clean of debris. This means cleaning up after dead leaf matter. Reduce the amount of sitting water in the room. This can be difficult for hydroponics systems which make use of water as the primary mean of nutrient transport. If you are using such a system, try to make any improvements which will reduce the amount of water which is left standing in the system. This will also help reduce the humidity levels in the room which can help with fungi infections as well. Last, but not least, always inspect your plants from top to bottom for any signs of insect damage.
By: P Martini
24Aug/110
Easy Guide to Growing Herbs Indoors
Growing herbs indoors is one of the most convenient and economical gardening styles. You could grow as many as twenty different herbs right inside your own home. It is all possible with the help of diverse pots.
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Indoor gardening is commonly associated with container gardening. On the other hand, indoor herb gardens could also be as wide ranging as a full green house or an atrium.
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Container gardening and tips for keeping soil moisture
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This type of gardening is conducive for those who live in buildings with not much outdoor space for bed gardens. This is also suitable for places where the soil moisture and content cannot sustain plant life.
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Planting in pots could also mean healthier growth. You could easily control weed growth and external factors that could wilt your herbs - from changing weathers to pest infestation.
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There are various containers for indoor gardens. The best ones are the 5" by 4" pots for countertop spaces. You could also go for vertical planters where you could hang six to eight small pots. If you have adequate leg room, you could use big pots and steel oblong basins. These could accommodate up to six different herbs. You could also use home-made or ready-made self-watering containers to save you time in watering plants.
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A sample herb combination is as such: arugula, chives, basil, cilantro, parsley and thyme. They are best kept in one medium sized tub-like container because they do not have expanse root growths.
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You need to place the potted plants near areas where sunlight could still reach them. If you do not have enough room with such description, you could place a lamp directly over the plants. The 300 watt bulbs could be sufficient to provide the plants with heat. You could turn on the lamp for at least five, at most eight hours every two days.
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In watering indoor potted herbs, you need to always check the soil moisture. Grab some soil and squeeze it. If it oozes, you need not water the plants. The ideal time for watering plants is about three times a week.
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Also, you could do these following steps in keeping soil moisture to last longer. Line the bottom of your containers with plastic wrap or newspaper before filling in the soil. You could also use baby diapers. The polymers in the diapers absorb and maintain moisture in the soil.
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Greenhouses and Atriums
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These two areas are mainly used by people who have less healthy soil components in backyards and lawns. These are ideal for gardeners who already have over fifty matured potted herbs. These could be separate locations outside the house proper.
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Since these are assumed to be at least four cubic meters wide, you could combine varied sized pots and container beds. The latter are usually wooden that look like bed mattress frames. The soil you should use is organic composts, available in sacks at gardening stores.
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Both of these locations should have natural lighting. The roofing should use transparent polymer plastic so the light can penetrate easily yet not exposing the indoor herbs to too much sunlight and heat.
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Now you see that growing herbs indoors could be diverse. You are not limited to your kitchen countertops to enjoy hundreds of herbs.
By: Tim Y Edwards
9Aug/110
Indoor Herb Garden Tips
For the individual who is beginning to learn all the excitement that can be found in the art of creating yourself an indoor garden of herbs, it should be a rather easy task, and one with much enjoyment for you and any member of your family to be able to complete together if you like.
One of the best parts about this enjoyable and fun-filled hobby is that they are inexpensive to make. Not only are they cheap to make, but also they are very easy for you to be able to maintain with very little effort, and they are not time consuming at all. If you are a beginner who finds enjoyment in this type of hobby, this is definitely the type of project that will help you to get further in-tune with your green thumb abilities.
One of the first things that you need to consider is to keep in mind what the best herbs are for indoor gardens. There is a very wide assortment of many popular herbs that are commonly used like thyme, mint, oregano, rosemary, and even garlic chives. To get these herbs, you can go to your local garden center, or you can also use one of your friends or family members stem cuttings that they have clipped from their herb garden. These are some the best herbs for indoor gardens because they do not demand a lot of attention or constant sunlight.
For decoration you can get one of many different containers for your stem cuttings in an array of rainbow colors to make your indoor herb garden more attractive to visitors. If you would like to start from scratch you can just use seeds. When growing from seeds you'll want to use a heavy clay or terra cotta pot, which facilitate good air and water circulation.
By: Jake Strong
17Jun/110
Garden Grow Lights For Indoor Gardens
Garden grow lights are influential items for an indoor garden to flourish; poor indoor lighting can cause a failure to set fruit or bloom and turn your leaves yellow. There are several types of garden grow lights that are used for different styles of indoor gardens.
Indoor grow lights can replace the natural lighting or complement the sunlight needed for growing. There are indoor plants that have a problem with direct sunlight but benefit from artificial grow lights. The sunlight that plants use converts the carbon dioxide into the sugars that are needed for proper growth. The garden plants such as vegetables, herbs, and flowers will need from 6 to 8 hours of full sun each day for them to set fruit or bloom. This feat is basically impossible unless you are constantly moving your indoor garden from window to window. This is the reason we give our plants the additional artificial light for growing healthy.
Fluorescent lighting is a form of grow light that is very common because they give off a good amount of light for your plants without the risk of burning them and they are less expensive to purchase. The fluorescent bulb labeled T-5 is an ample source of light because of being small and they give out a more concentrated light. This type of light is good for plants that like to have some shade. Indoor vegetable gardens that contain lettuce and spinach and indoor herb gardens prefer to have this type of lighting.
HID or high intensity discharge lights are a very effective lighting for indoor plants. They are available in two different types: HPS or high pressure sodium and MH or metal halide. The HPS are used most often used as flower grow lights because they give off a red or orange light which inspires the plants to flower. MH garden grow lights are best suited for stimulating leaf and shoot growth due to the blue spectrum light they emit. Incandescent grow lights are mainly used to add extra light to some of the plants that do not absorb very much natural sunlight. Incandescent bulbs tend to be more expensive than and not as effective as other types of grow light systems. These bulbs also give off more heat than light and if the plants are too close to them they will burn the foliage. Incandescents are best if used for highlighting plants instead of helping them grow.
Mercury vapor lights can be very expensive if you grow a large number of houseplants or a large indoor garden. The mercury vapor bulbs will give off more light and less heat than the incandescents. This means they are a great source of light for any type of indoor plant. LED or light emitting diode indoor grow lights is the newer style for indoor plant growth. These lights do not send out any damaging heat and will emit more light per wattage; because of this, these lights are able to be placed closer to the plants and do not cause damage.
The lights you use should be placed as near as possible to the plants without burning any part of the plant. A 25-watt incandescent should be no closer than one foot from your plants; the 100-watt bulb, two feet away and the 150-watt 3 feet away to prevent burning. Most of the indoor plants will need grow lights from twelve to sixteen hours each day. To help encourage foliage growth, MH lights need to be running 18 to 24 hours each day. You will only need 12 hours each day for the HPS grow lights for budding and flowering.
The way your plants are growing informs you if the are getting sufficient lighting. Some of light deficiency symptoms include long stem lengths between leaves, very little or no growth of the plant, the leaves are smaller than normal and there are no buds or flowers. The foliage on some plants might turn yellow and fall off prematurely. If any of the symptoms occur you may need to relocate the lights or purchase better garden grow lights.
By: Barbara Volkov