House Plants

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In many climates, it is extremely difficult to maintain an outdoor garden. If the temperatures are below freezing for a good portion of the year, it might be wise to bring your plants inside and start indoor gardening.

Alternatively, you can do indoor gardening just to give your house a more natural feel, along with some nice decorations. Flowers blooming in your house add a lot to the decor, especially if you have the pride of having grown them yourself. If you are interested in starting to garden indoors, read on and find out some of the basics.

Some plants are simply not suited for growing in an indoor environment. If they take a large amount of water, then you will probably want to keep it outside. Watering a plant a lot, you can easily end up drowning it with too much water, or not giving it what it needs out of caution. So try to pick a plant that doesn’t require too much water.

Another bad aspect of indoor gardening comes when a plant drops leaves or flowers all over your floors. Make sure you’re familiar with what the plant does during all seasons, so that you don’t end up with a huge mess on your floor.

Next you have to make sure that you will give the plant the attention it needs. Especially if you have many different plants across your house, it will be wise to set up a routine for watering. Figure out how often each plant needs watered, then color-code them with small tags or marks on the pot.

Maybe you will water red tags once a week, and green tags will get watered every Tuesday and Thursday. It all depends on what types of plants you have. Just make sure you have some sort of system so that you will remember the individual needs of each plant.

The supplies are the final important part of indoor gardening. Naturally you will want pots that will blend in with your current decor. This will be fairly easy to accomplish. You can get ceramic pots, clay pots, metal pots, or wooden pots in any design.

You can hang them from the ceiling, set them on tables, or place them in the corner. Just think about how big the plant is going to get, how fast it will get there, and what parts of your house need decoration. Indoor gardening is a fun and rewarding hobby, fortunately, it is easy to get started.

The Joys Of Indoor Gardening

Indoor gardening, or gardening that is done indoors as in offices and residences, has become a popular hobby. Other than its aesthetic appeal, it also provides health benefits such as purification of air.

Generally houseplants are grown in indoor gardening. The more popular methods of indoor gardening include organic gardening and container gardening where the use of chemicals is avoided.

Thousands of houseplants are grown in indoor gardening. Typical houseplants include ferns, cactus, bonsai plants, daffodils, hyacinths, rose plants, rubber, Chinese evergreen, money plant, weeping fig, zebra plant, prayer plant, philodendrons, orchids, jade plant, African violets, English ivy, begonias etc.

Indoor gardening requires patience and continuous care to yield good results. The important factors in successful indoor gardening are light, watering, soil, plant pots, fertilisers and pesticides.

Light:
Light is very important for indoor plants as plants prepare food by photosynthesis. Two factors of light are intensity and duration. Different plants need different intensities. Duration of 8 to10 hours of sunlight is more than sufficient for most plants.

Watering:
Improper watering is the leading cause of death of plants in indoor gardening. Watering once a week is sufficient. Feel for dampness about an inch under the soil; if the soil is damp do not water.

Soil:
Water drainage through soil is very important. Usually coir and peat are added in soil to improve drainage. Plants like cactus need very high drainage.

Humidity:
Plants roughly need a humidity of 80% RH (relative humidity). This can be achieved by placing a tray filled with pebbles and the water level just below the pebbles, adjacent to the plant.

Fertilisers:
Fertilisers contain phosphorus, nitrogen and potassium. Changing the soil is better than adding feriliser.

Pesticides:
If the houseplants become affected by pests, use a garlic and chilli juice to spray on the plants, rather than using chemical pesticides.

Pots:
Pots of clay are preferred as they help in water drainage and aeration of soil better than glazed or plastic pots. Use correct sized pots as plants in pots that are too large are prone to root disease due to moisture retention. A small pot restricts the growth of plants. The pots need to be changed around once in two years.

Tools:
Investing in good tools is better in the long run, as the tools are used for tough jobs. Clean the tools thoroughly after use.

Indoor gardening is one of the most popular hobbies in the world. It gives great satisfaction to see the plants growing, as well as improving the aesthetic  appeal and atmosphere of an interior.

For more on Gardening visit gardening-club.info. Susan also enjoys writing at Education and Reference.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Susan_Jan

Even if you’re not an avid gardener or flower lover, the sight of a well-maintained indoor garden is impressive. However, if you’ve tried your hand at indoor gardening, it’s not as easy as bringing the plants indoors. Here are some tips to start you off on the right foot.

The first crucial decision has to do with lighting. Ask yourself, exactly how much light should I give the plants? Your house may not have enough light for your plants to exist, so this is a prime consideration.

Are you prepared to supply your plant with light through artificial means? It could be expensive. If possible, try to select plants that require minimal lighting such as Philodendrons and Boston ferns.

If there are not that many indoor plants, you may consider bringing them out into the sun during the day before bringing them back inside. Think of your plants as batteries. If you expose them to enough sunlight outdoors, they can store this as a reserve source of energy indoors. This is especially effective during summer.

It’s also important that you know how to spot the signs that will tell you whether your plants are getting the right amount of light. One sign is in the leaves. If the plant has small leaves and thin stems, it needs more light. The same is true if the color of the plant turns paler than usual.

You may even have to condition your plants, which is a way of making them used to the lights in your house gradually, especially if they came from a place that has brighter lights than your home.

You start by exposing the plants to the brightest possible light in your house. Move them around daily while lessening the amount of light they get, until they reach that point where they are exposed to their regular amounts of light.

When it comes to watering, the rules are fairly simple. Make sure to water the soil thoroughly and to have the water drained at the bottom of the pot. The quantity of water depends on the plant.

The biggest mistakes here are not watering them enough or watering them too much, so avoid both. Also, use water that has the same room temperature.

Try to keep the room temperature at an even level, ideally in the 65-75 degrees Fahrenheit range.

Other items such as fertilizers and humidity levels depend a great deal on the type of plants you choose.

As houseplants are living in an unnatural environment we need to give them extra care to get the best results. They will require all the elements of outdoor plants in their need for good nutrients, water, ventilation, light and a suitable climate.

Without this balance they will soon wither and die. It is vitally important that they have the best quality soil. As with outdoor plants they will need soil that is light enough for their roots and to hold water and air, but not so light as to allow the nutrients to wash through and not be made available for their roots.

One thing that will not be as much of a concern as outdoor plants is their need for support against winds. This can allow you to use lighter soil however you will still need to ensure the plant is getting the nutrients. This might require additional feeding that is over and above what you would give an outdoor plant.

The environment can also affect plants, and anyone who is smoking in the house will affect the plant growth and result in poor health just as it does to the person smoking.

Potting mix is readily available and in different varieties to suit the requirements of various indoor plants. You can buy inexpensive moisture monitoring kits and also some small units that will release water into the soil when it detects that the moisture is getting too low.

Getting good potting mix for your indoor plants can make a noticeable difference to their condition as the soil that we get from outside can sometimes have diseases or insects in it.

If there is an opportunity to do so, it is a good policy to put the plants outside in the sun for a few hours and also to get some fresh air.

When caring for indoor plants, they will also benefit from having their leaves cleaned, as there can be a buildup of dust when growing indoors, not having the rainfall to wash them clean.

Most plants need humid air in order to thrive. That’s because the pores through which they breathe lose most of their moisture when the surrounding air is dry, a loss that the plant can’t always replace through the water its roots absorb.

The thinner the leaf, the greater its need for humidity. Thick, leathery, or waxy leaves, or those covered with hair, are usually relatively immune to dry air.

If you follow these few tips for indoor plants and humidity levels, you will have a beautiful and healthy collection of indoor plants.

Though high humidity is rarely found in most houses, it is always good to keep an eye out for a plant that is being affected by high humidity. If you notice rot, mildew or mould, it is time to get some ventilation in the area, or else lose your precious indoor plants.

Some of the signs of low humidity are brown leaves, wilting and buds dropping. Low humidity is particularly prevalent during the winter months, especially if it is cold and the house is heated.

The best-known method of increasing air humidity is spraying houseplants with warm water. Unfortunately, this is not terribly efficient, since the humidity provided dissipates rapidly. To efficiently raise humidity by spraying, repeat the process several times a day.

If you have many small pots of plants or flowers, make a large tray and fill it with marbles or pebbles. This will keep the pots above the water and the evaporating water will raise the humidity around the plants.

Contrary to high humidity, low humidity could also adversely affect the plants by sapping them of their water content faster than they can replenish it. Do not keep to a schedule to water plants. Check the soil in the pot before adding water. Water when you feel it is necessary not because it is time to water the plants.

Use a mixture of soil and a wetting-agent that will hold water for longer periods, there are readily available wetting-agents, at most garden centers. A high sand mixture will allow water to drain out far too easily.

For low humidity, install an electric humidifier to raise the humidity level and a dehumidifier, if the humidity level is too high.

In the end, following this advice for indoor plants and humidity levels, you will notice that you have healthier plants.

Next in this series about Indoor Plants: Growing Herbs Indoors – The Reality