Do you have a green thumb but no outdoor garden? Or, maybe you want to try a new and healthy hobby? If so, you’re likely to enjoy Dave Landry Jr.’s guest post on indoor gardening beginner tips.
Some of us don’t have space outdoors to create a garden, but maybe we still want to grow our favorite plants or flowers… inside the home instead. If you’re not sure where to begin, check out this indoor gardening beginner guide.
1. Choose the Right Plants & Indoor Locations
Creating an indoor garden, however, might limit your plant or floral choices. Not every variety can be grown indoors successfully. Thankfully, there are many hearty houseplants. To find out which ones they are, go to your local nursery and talk to an expert there about the plants they would recommend for in-home decorating and gardening.
Your nursery will be able to tell you how much sunlight and water each plant needs. Unlike with outdoor gardens, you won’t turn on the sprinklers or even deep-water your plants.
You will need to be mindful of the water. Choose locations that help these plants grab their optimum amount of natural sunlight, while also ensuring that they add to the ambiance of your home. You can use hanging baskets to create a rustic aesthetic in a room.
Once you know the plants and flowers that will survive and thrive inside your home, it’s time to think about how to arrange your indoor oasis. Here are some suggestions for taking the greenery indoors:
2. Dear Indoor Gardening Beginner: Ask about Pests
Pests can harm plants and flowers, and no homeowner wants bugs in their home! But be careful with pesticides, as some chemicals can be irritating or a hazard to your health.
If you’re unsure about the solution, reach out to a qualified pest exterminator like https://www.pestcontrolexperts.com/exterminator/arizona/ to make sure your Arizona home is free of pests. A regular service plan from a professional can provide what you need.
Before spraying anything, be sure to talk to a plant expert about the safest solutions for keeping pests from invading indoor plants. And while you’re at it, check if any of the plants are drooping and, if they are, that’s likely their way of saying to water them.
3. Beware of Poisonous Plants!
Some plants may be toxic to kids or pets. If you have small children or pets, be sure to ask your local expert about the safety of plants. Yes, a plant variety may be ideal for the home, but it also might make your favorite pet sick… or worse.
4. Oxygenation and Indoor Gardening
All greenery helps oxygenate the environment. All plants utilize photosynthesis, and this process removes carbon dioxide from the air while releasing oxygen.
5. Plants May Help You Grow Socially
Gardening also opens the door to a new social network. If you’re becoming passionate about your indoor garden, consider joining a local gardening club or group. You’ll expand your social presence and probably learn quite a few tips!
6. Indoor Gardening Benefit: Some Plants Help Heal
Aloe plants are popular for in-home gardening. Why? The gel of this plant may help soothe burns and cuts. Just pop open a leaf and scoop out some gel. The plant also may help soak up fumes from paint.
7. Green is Soothing
According to CNN, experts say that the color green may calm us. So just looking at those plants may have a benefit your overall mood. The beauty of nature, indeed!
While your outdoor space might be small or nonexistent, make use of the indoors to create a lush indoor garden. You’ll need some planting pots and a bit of a green thumb, but even the most inexperienced gardeners can find plants that are easy for the indoors (think cacti!). Indoor gardening brightens up the room, oxygenates the atmosphere, and can help you branch out socially too.
So head to your local nursery and stock up on indoor plants to green up your home! Check out this related guide if you want to start an outdoor garden.
About Dave Landry Jr.
Dave Landry Jr. applies his passion for all things personal finance to helping clients save more of their hard-earned money. He’s a personal finance manager, debt relief counselor, and blogger who writes about personal finance topics to help readers with money matters.
Dave lives in Southern California with his wife of 9 years and three wonderful children. Find him on Twitter at @davelandryjr.
Could you make a post about the poisonous plants because I really wouldn’t know where to start
I’ll ask Dave, who wrote this post, if he can do so. Thanks for the suggestion!
Loved the post, thanks for sharing.
Great to hear it! Dave offers many useful ideas here.
Awesome tips! Thank you for sharing! I want to reblog this (if that is okay) I really love this post!
Hi Luna, the current webdesign doesn’t enable reblogging with a button but instead you could write a post and link back to this one in it ~ I appreciate it!
I love me some indoor plants! I have so many and they multiply! Hehe. During the summer months, they decorate my porch. In the winter, they give me oxygen. Hehe. Wonderful guest post. Sending hugs!
Wonderful
I have a garden cart in my office full of plants and a fern on my kitchen counter. Live plants seem to do best on one side of my house, as opposed to the silk ones I keep elsewhere!
My plants are taking over!!!!
There’s almost not enough room for N & me. Still, I can’t seem to stop propagating them, and they refuse to stop growing! I know one sees many plants when I post an Art Gown, but seriously, half of them are in the hallway when I shoot. :D
There’s nothing more relaxing than sitting in a room filled with plants. Now with warm weather is here, all of my plants are outside enjoying the fresh air but I miss them on a rainy day like today when I can’t sit in the garden. Great post!
Good point about having plants to brighten your day when stuck indoors, Marjorie :)
The people I know who love plants do seem to have their own secret handshake. I wish I knew the first thing about growing plants, in doors or otherwise.
Perhaps you will decode the language one day – or at least stop to smell some of the flowers they plant :)
Great tips. Nice to see a post about indoor plants for people like me who no longer have a garden. :)
I have fourteen houseplants that I enjoy caring for and watching them grow. They love the sun in my apartment.
Thanks Christy and Dave! Green is very soothing – I’m looking forward to when all the leaves will be out around here. I hadn’t heard that part about aloe soaking up the fumes from paint – pretty amazing!
Thanks for this Christy…I have planted up my Granny’s old tea set with herbs. I run my hands over them (and eat them too!)…. <3
Yes, I like the soothing factor the most. Thanks for the caution of poisonous plants, will surely keep it in mind.
Indoor plants purify the air in indoor spaces! It also adds beauty and serenity 😃
This is so informative. I have started a little bit of gardening and can see a big difference it really is very soothing and all the points you mention are spot on!
I am enjoying my little greenery in my home. Since losing Miley and buying a couple of greenery plants, it feels like home again.
I love the peperomia in the photo, Christy. Great article.
Great post, Christy. As much as I love the color green, you’d think I’d at least have a green pinky if not a thumb. But I guess it wouldn’t be a pinky if it was green… Even silk flowers don’t do well with me. ;) Hugs.
Great tips shared
I also want to some indoor plants mainly because if the decreasing air quality here in Delhi. Loved the post
Great tips ! I especially liked the point you made about poisonous indoor plants. A lot of people don’t realize there are many out there. When my kids were toddlers I thought the Christmas poinsettia was a great decor until I learned from an article that if ingested it can be harmful ( toddlers want to put all the pretties in their mouths). I never knew that color green was calming. :)
Yes and those beautiful poinsettias can also harm cats if they ingest the leaves – ack! Thanks for being here :)