Gardening indoors can be a satisfying but sometimes tricky experience. For first-time gardeners, there’s a lot to consider, and it can be a bit overwhelming. Nothing beats having beautiful plants to brighten up your home, or a fresh herb to add to your meal, so it’s well worth the effort of growing your very own indoor garden. The following are 5 simple but effective indoor garden tips that will help you along in growing the garden of your dreams.
1. Plan It Out
One of the biggest concerns for many indoor gardeners is space. Unlike a huge outdoor yard, the space for gardening indoors is often fairly limited. Therefore, it’s important to make sure you know what you’re going to do before you do it and have a solid plan.
Most importantly, measure out the space you have for your pots or planters. Use this to guide your future decisions such as what plants to get. There’s no point in buying a plant that needs a lot of room to grow if you don’t have enough.
If you’re a beginner, always start small. Even if you have a large amount of growing space try to start with only a portion of it. Get used to the maintenance required for the plants and get into the habit of taking care of them before you expand. As the plants grow so will you as a gardener.
The great thing about indoor gardening is there are options for all growing sizes, it just takes a little thought to use that space to the fullest.
2. Make Sure The Space Is Right
Many people will stick their plants in a sunny window and call it a day, but that’s not always right. Many plants will wither or wilt in direct sunlight all day, while for others that’s exactly what they need. It’s important to do a bit of research on your desired plants to ensure that you give them their optimal growth conditions.
This also extends to things like drafty windows, or heating/cooling vents. Many plants don’t do well in places that have large temperature variations. Plants are pretty hardy for the most part, but putting one where it’s constantly hot or cold is a sure way to prevent it from reaching its potential.
This all boils down to making sure the space you select for your plants is right for them. This means taking into account things like sunlight, while also protecting them from other location-related issues.
3. Indoor Plants are Different Than Outdoors
Even if it’s the same plant the care required for an indoor plant is often different than if you were growing it outdoors.
While outdoors a plant can put out new roots if it’s short on nutrients, indoors it’s up to you to provide that. This is just one example, keeping an eye on your watering and fertilizing schedule is extra important as there is no other way to get those nutrients.
You also have to contend with different growing patterns that indoor plants might follow. In particular, indoor plants growing in the winter often grow slower than in the summer. This can change the amount of care they need, and would be something that wouldn’t even be an option if the plant was outdoors.
4. Watering Indoors Can Be Hard
One of the most important indoor garden tips is to really focus on getting water right. Too little water and your plants will wilt and die, too much and they’ll drown in the excess water. This sounds easy, but can be difficult when gardening indoors in containers as the water naturally has less area to drain to. This makes it very easy to overwater your plants, which is often worse than under-watering them. Excess moisture can lead to issues like root rot, not good.
Most plants enjoy the soil that is just a little moist to the touch. This is a good rule of thumb, but always do a bit of research on your own specific plant. There are always exceptions, like succulents which prefer much drier soil.
Another thing you can also do to keep your plants healthy is to lightly mist them occasionally. This helps keep the leaves healthy without having to overwater the base.
5. Don’t get Discouraged
Lastly, it’s important to not get discouraged and treat gardening as a lifelong learning experience. Everyone loses a plant at some point. It sucks, but always look at it as a chance to learn and improve your gardening skills.
Take the opportunity to figure out why the plant died. Then make sure to correct it for your next plant. Life gets in the way sometimes, it happens to the best of us. Don’t let that discourage you though! Keep at it and you’ll build a beautiful or tasty garden in no time! Even the best gardens started from a single plant.
Indoor Gardening Tips
Hopefully, the above indoor gardening tips provide some valuable information to help you in your gardening journey. As always, our goal is to help new and experienced gardeners alike. If you have any questions feel free to reach out to us here, or on any of our social media. We’re always happy to chat with fellow garden enthusiasts and will do the best we can to answer any questions. Happy gardening!
