Potted plants indoors can offer such wonderful benefits. You don’t have to have a huge garden to gain rewards from your plants. Small pots of indoor herbs can help to sustain and flavor dishes in your kitchen, while also offering beauty and even air purifying! Luckily, growing indoors can be really easy by just following a few tips!
9 Easy Indoor Garden Growing Tips
Growing indoors is a great way to get a headstart on your spring garden as well. If you are interested in eventually planting your plants outdoors, these tips will also be helpful.
1. Pick the Right Plants
Making sure you pick plants that can grow in your indoor environment is a crucial step. Plants need to be able to thrive in the location you plan to place them. If you don’t have much light, pick a plant that does well in the shade. If you have a large window, choose plants that thrive will intense sunlight. The right plants can make all the difference.
You can start your plants by seed if you have the inclination, or you can even order plantings and transplant them on arrival. Here are some great options for indoor plants:
- Herbs – an indoor herb garden is a great way to have beauty and function in the home. Some wonderful options are: parsley, cilantro, basil, sage, thyme, mint, and chives.
- Lettuce Greens – romaine lettuce, mixed salad greens, green leaf lettuce or even spinach or kale.
- House Plants – ficus, pothos, spider plants, philodendron
I prefer to grow herbs because they can be so useful in the kitchen. Food just tastes better with fresh herbs. Plus, if your plants grow well, you can preserve your herbs and use them dried as well!
Related: How to Grow and Harvest Basil
2. Pot Plants in the Right Containers
Whether you’re purchasing mature plants or starting from seed, plants need space for their roots to grow and thrive. Containers for indoor plants need to be large enough to allow for growth. Remember, annuals will need less space than perennials so be sure to find containers that will be large enough for those plants with deep roots. The right containers will encourage your indoor garden to thrive.
3. Use the Best Soil
Not only does your pot need to be the right size, but your soil is important too! Do plenty of research before choosing plants and get the right soil. Annual herbs need lots of composted soil with plenty of nutrients, while aloe vera needs dry, rocky soil. Soil needs to drain well too. If water can’t drain, the wet soil will rot the roots of your indoor plants.
Related: Cheap and Free Ways to Improve Soil
4. Consider a Light Source
Light is important to plants. Depending on the needs of your plants, you may need to choose your plants on this alone. A large window can allow for sun-loving plants, while a darker home will need to consider shade-loving house plants.
There is always to option to buy a grow light for your indoor plants, especially if you are planning to transplant in the spring and need them to thrive indoors first. Ferry-Morse offers an amazing under-cabinet or hanging indoor LED grow light to help your plants thrive through the winter! (Use the code Lavender15 for 15% off!)
5. Water Consistently
Potted plants tend to dry out quickly. If you aren’t paying attention, your potted indoor plants can quickly wither away and die if you aren’t watering them consistently. Check your indoor garden plants daily for watering. Plants in direct sunlight will need to be watered more frequently than those that are placed in a darker area.
Keep in mind that some plants prefer to be in the drier side, so too much water can actually kill them. This is most common in cactus and succulent type plants, or herbs like sage and lavender which prefer well-drained drier soil as well.
6. Consider Heat and Humidity
Some plants require drier temperatures, while others need high humidity. Some plants need warmth consistently, while others do well in cooler temperatures. When planting indoors, you will have to keep in mind that some plants will do better in your home and environment than others.
Do you live in a dry climate? Maybe consider plants that don’t need high humidity to thrive. If you live in a cold climate, don’t place a hot climate plant near a doorway where it will consistently be exposed to cold air. Stable temperatures with little variation will help your indoor plants thrive.
7. Fertilize
Indoor plants are restricted to the soil in which they are planted. Frequent fertilizing or feeding is important for optimal plant growth. When restricted to a certain amount of soil, the plant will use all the nutrients pretty quickly and then growth will become stunted.
Apply fertilizer frequently, depending upon the needs of each plant, for the healthiest indoor plants. Ferry-Morse offers a great liquid Fertilizer called Superthrive plant vitamin solution, that can help feed your indoor plants!
8. Protect Against Pests and Diseases
Although there are fewer pests indoors, you can still suffer from pests and even diseases on your indoor plants. Inspect your plants regularly and care for them if you find that any of your plants suffer from any ailments.
Be sure that if a plant does suffer from pests or disease, the first thing you should do is remove it from the proximity of any other neighboring house plants. Pests and diseases can spread quickly, and you can lose all your houseplants if you don’t stop them in their tracks!
You can make your own non-toxic pesticide by mixing 2 teaspoons of dawn dish soap and 1 pint of water in a spray bottle. Spray on infected plants, and hit both the foliage and the soil.
With disease, remove all parts of the plant that are diseased before treatment, but treatment will depend on the ailment.
9. Prune Your Plants
Plants do best when old or dead growth is cut off. Even your bushy herbs can grow leggy if they aren’t cut back occasionally. This is especially true of basil, mint, and thyme. Removing growth can, many times, encourage more growth. Try pinching off the end of the plants and watch your plants grow fuller and bushier and help your indoor garden thrive.
If your plants grow too large, you can always repot into a large space and encourage more growth. Herbs like thyme and be split up and grown into two plants! Keeping your plants trimmed and healthy is best!
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