Follow this Guideline to Understand Everything you Need to Make an Indoor Garden
So you want to start an indoor garden but you don’t know where to begin? Maybe you want the ability to grow flowers and vegetables year-round. Or maybe you would like to make your home décor more attractive. Whatever your reason may be, there are certain things that everyone needs when beginning an indoor garden.
The world’s largest indoor garden is a 50,000 square foot farm located in Japan. They grow the equivalent of 10 acres of the land worth of food inside one building! That’s incredible, but it takes a lot of equipment to do that. You can make an indoor garden at home with the right supplies.
The Size of the Garden
First, you need to know how many plants you want to grow. You can make an indoor garden as large or small as you like but bear in mind that bigger is not always better when it comes to gardening. A smaller garden will require less maintenance and be easier to take care of. It’s important to keep in mind that plants need at least six hours of sunlight every day, so whatever location you choose for your garden needs to get plenty of natural sunlight.
You also need good ventilation if you want healthy plants. If the air is too humid or not well-circulated, mold can grow on the plant leaves and damage them.
4 Key Components
To give you an idea of what’s needed to make a simple indoor garden at home, I’ll tell you exactly what I use in mine. There are four key pieces of equipment that I consider essential: pots, seeds, fertilizer, and grow lights.
The pots can be any size or shape, but they need to have good drainage. I use plastic pots because I can poke holes in the bottom of them with a pocket knife. If you’re using clay pottery, soak it in water for at least an hour before you put your plants in so that it will absorb some water and won’t dry out as fast.
Fill the pots with soil (potting mix is best) and wet it with water until it’s completely saturated. Plant your seeds at the depth that the seed package recommends, then cover them over with more potting mix. Press down gently on your soil to make sure that all of your seeds are touching the soil. This will encourage them to grow roots.
If you don’t want to waste vital growing time, buy seeds that are specifically for indoor planting. This is especially important if you’re going to grow your plants from seed and not buy the pre-grown ones in a store. Don’t be surprised if some of the seeds never sprout: about two-thirds of them will die before they can grow into fully mature plants.
Fertilizer is something I never used to think about when growing my own food, but you need to fertilize your indoor garden or else your plants won’t grow properly. You can buy fertilizer specially made for indoor gardens which will provide the right amount of nutrients your plants need to grow.
The last item is the most important one: grow lights. Many people make the mistake of thinking that they don’t have anywhere bright enough for their garden, but this isn’t true at all. In fact, you can use regular fluorescent light bulbs from home or office lighting in a pinch if you need to. I use T5 grow lights which are designed specifically for plants. They’re extremely bright and come in different lengths depending on how tall your plants will be when they mature.
If you follow these guidelines, you should soon be able to harvest an indoor garden full of fresh vegetables like tomatoes, green beans, cucumbers, spinach, and lettuce.
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