It is time to host a flower show in our homes, create a relaxing and sensual atmosphere with an indoor garden
You would be amazed at how many health benefits indoor gardens have to offer. Some houseplants like the snake plant, Heart Leaf Philodendron, Golden Pothos, Dracaena, and English Ivy are known natural air filters. They can also boost your mood, reduce stress levels and even increase productivity.
Before we proceed to discuss what the garden effect is and you can maintain a garden-effect in your house, let’s take a second to touch on the health benefits of gardening.
What are the health benefits of gardening?
Regardless of whether you have an indoor garden or an outdoor garden, the chances are that your skin will come in contact with sunlight — you may not be exposed to sunlight for a long duration probably because of seasonal conditions such as in winter when there is little to no sunlight.
According to recent research, half an hour’s worth of sunlight is enough for your body to produce up to 50,000 vitamin D units, which helps to strengthen bones and the immune system.
Another study showed that sunlight could lower the chances of getting breast cancer, prostate cancer, bladder cancer, and other medical conditions. People with low levels of Vitamin D are at a higher risk of developing health challenges such as dementia, type II diabetes, and psoriasis flares.
Considering all of these, you can appreciate what a little sunshine in your small garden can do for you. However, you must be careful not to expose your skin to too much sun rays to lessen skin cancer risks.
What is the garden effect?
Indoor gardens offer countless health benefits, which are regarded as the garden -effect. Indoor gardens can purify indoor air quality and mitigate the risks of dry air related ailments like colds, sore throats, and other respiratory problems by increasing humidity and oxygen supply in your house.
Like air purifying machines, plants can remove air pollutants such as mold spores, dust, and allergens. And houseplants in your indoor garden can help improve your quality of sleep.
One question that’s probably running through your mind right now is how can you maintain an indoor garden-effect during winter, and what other benefits of gardening are there?
It may interest you to know that gardening is regarded as an exercise. In addition to being a form of exercise, gardening can help maintain a healthy weight, promote sleep and improve sleep quality.
Speaking of improving sleep quality, researchers found out that people who garden regularly can get up to 7 hours of sleep at night.
Other health benefits of gardening, especially indoor gardening, includes:
A 2014 study reported that horticulture therapy (which involves using gardening to improve mental health) might effectively treat and manage health conditions like dementia. Gardening can also boost mood and help you recover from stress quickly.
How do you keep your garden healthy?
To be successful at maintaining a good garden-effect in the house, it would be best if you know how to keep your garden healthy.
So, how do you keep your indoor garden healthy and disease-free?
First, you should have it at the back of your mind that three things must be present and coincide for your home plants to get a disease. A host (a plant that can get sick), a pathogen (a disease-causing organism such as a virus, bacterium, or a fungus that can attack the plant), and the third element, environmental conditions like humidity or drought that promotes the growth of the disease.
These three elements — the host, pathogen, and environment form a triangle. And if one element is missing, there won’t be diseases, and you won’t have to lose sleep over your garden getting infected or contaminated.
The million-dollar question is, how do you eliminate the chances of your indoor garden getting diseases?
Top tips to get you started on your indoor gardening adventure
Here is a list of factors to consider while making efforts to keep your garden plants healthy.
1. You should carefully examine any garden plant before buying
You will agree that the best way to keep diseases away from your garden is not to introduce them in the first place. It may not be easy to spot sick plants because not everybody is a horticulture expert. An insider tip would be no avoid any plant with dead spots, insects, and rotted stems. You should also examine the quality of the roots.
A healthy root should be firm, most likely white, and spaced. Mushy or dark roots is a No-No!
2. Always opt for fully composted yard waste
While choosing your compost material, it always best to go for materials that have fully composted. If the compost yard waste is thoroughly composted, it will generate high temperatures for an extended period that will kill any pathogen in the material.
Introducing an infected compost material or plant debris into your garden will eventually reintroduce diseases into your garden.
3. Keep an eye out for bugs — some insects such as aphids can transport diseases from one plant to another.
4. You should also clean out your garden in the fall because diseases can stay on dead leaves over the winter and attack new plants in spring. Other ways of keeping your indoor garden healthy are to go for disease-resistant plants, use the right fertilizer, prune at the right time, water regularly and don’t crowd/overcrowd plants.
How would you like some indoor gardening ideas?
Whether you live in a big house or a small apartment, you can be creative with your indoor gardening ideas and fill your home with all the positive energy and the much spoken about “garden-effect.”
Some popular indoor ideas that won’t take up much of your space include:
1. The Terrarium indoor gardening is simple and easy to set up. It doesn’t eat up your space, and all you need is an air plant and a glass bowl.
2. The Kokedama, popularly known as the Moss Ball indoor garden.
3. Vertical gardening
Vertical gardens are ideal for blank walls and can easily be adapted to suit your needs. People often use this idea for indoor herb gardening, which allows them to have herbs at arm’s length while cooking.
4. Pallet basket hanger indoor gardening
You can think of this form of gardening that involved a DIY approach and one that encourages recycling. All you need to do is get a wooden pallet from a nearby warehouse and adapt them to serve your gardening purpose. They can go on the wall to form some vertical indoor gardening.
While exploring various creative ideas for your indoor garden, you must consider the size of the space you have and the season’s effect on your plants. Regarding space, the idea behind indoor gardening is to enable you to keep your plants indoors and not lose functional space.
While the perfect spot for an indoor garden is the kitchen (near the windows), you can also use hanging planters to create a unique indoor garden to save space and give your home a refreshing visual effect.
Indoor gardening in winter
As you may already know, not all plants grow all year round — some thrive better in summer conditions while others don’t. While summer provides plants with all the sunlight and the right temperature they need to grow, winter conditions are different.
In winter there is little sunlight and not many plants like the cold. However, winter is the best time for indoor gardening because you get to maintain that garden effect you cherish so much.
Gardening in winter requires grow lights to compensate for the low temperature and sunlight during winter. As such, providing the best conditions that will stimulate and enhance your plants’ growth.
What are the best plants for your indoor garden
Before we round up, here are the best plants for your indoor garden and their benefits.
- Snake plant — filters indoor air
- Spider plant — removes harmful chemicals from the air
- Rubber plant — absorbs airborne chemicals
- Gardenia — promotes quality sleep and helps to relieve anxiety
- Peace Lily — absorbs acetone vapor and improves indoor air.
Others include Aloe Vera, Areca palm, English Ivy and Golden Pothos. Some vegetables you can grow indoors include lettuce, carrots, scallions, spinach, and herbs. Remember, not all plants are pet friendly. As such, you should keep them away from the reach of pets and children.
In conclusion
Now that you know how to maintain garden-effect in your house, the right plants for your indoor garden, and how to take care of them, you should get started on your indoor garden and not let any second go to waste. While you are at it, please feel free to share your indoor garden ideas with us. Bye for now!
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