Keeping houseplants is a great hobby – but there’s a difference between a hobby and a decor statement. A weird assortment of greenery in even more assorted pots isn’t going to cut it – even if the plants themselves are really quite pretty. If you hope to combine arty decor with indoor gardening, here are the tips you need to make your plants into indoor features that will be noticed!
Indoor Kitchen Gardens With Flair
Food gardening and urban farming are enormously trendy right now, and there’s a special something about being able to pick fresh herbs, berries, and greens right in your kitchen and fresh for the pot.
There are some truly awesome and innovative high-tech indoor planters out there. They’re good-looking and they even look after the plants themselves! That’s great if you have a busy lifestyle and don’t have much time to care for your indoor kitchen garden. There are even planters that you can hang on walls like pictures! Just remember that most edibles like good light, so choose a site near a bright window or use grow lights.
Choose the Right Plants and Pots for Visual Effect
Think of plants in interior decor much as you would sculptures or paintings. One big, truly striking one will look way better than a ton of little ones dotted around all over the place. Sure, that one plant is going to cost more, but you can go big and beautiful!
Choose plants with a strong sculptural effect. A stately potted palm can change the entire atmosphere of a room. Or, you can go for beautifully groomed Yuccas or Dragon Trees for an up-to-the-minute look. Round off your indoor gardening choices with stylish containers. Plain-Jane plastic pots are out. Choose attractive ceramics, terracotta, or brass.
What to Do About Drainage Water
Back in the day, drainage water presented a huge problem for indoor gardeners. Traditionally, you’d have a pot with a drainage saucer. The alternative was no drainage at all. For the former idea, you had to empty the excess water from the saucers before it turned into a stinking mess. In the latter case, watering became a fine art with root rot as a real danger to your success.
Nowadays, you can get beautiful hydroponic systems that recirculate water or semi-hydroponic containers that store it in a reservoir beneath the plant. I’d suggest the first of these for kitchen gardens and smaller houseplants, while the semi-hydroponic pots will work well for the big, showy house plants we talked about earlier. Most of them come with a nifty little watering indicator that tells you just when you need a top-up. It’s low tech, but it works!
Indoor Houseplants Make You Feel Good: Try It!
If the idea of having an indoor oasis doesn’t excite you, the psychological benefits might! Research into our natural affinity for plants concludes that they reduce stress, make us more productive, and can even help to keep us in healthier physical condition. And, let’s face it, you’re going to feel awesome about adding a sprig or two of fresh, homegrown herbs to your cookery even if that’s all you grow!
SHOP FAUX PLANT OPTIONS…
