Indoor Garden

Have you always wanted to have a garden but don't have the space or knowledge to get started? Well we've got an easy way to start gardening and to transform your indoor space into your own indoor garden paradise! Paradise is a Persian word for garden and whilst it tends to have a religious understanding, it is nothing of the sort but it can give us some peace and tranquility indoors and quickly too.

Stress is probably the biggest reason that we visit our doctors so often, in this modern age,. In years gone by more people had gardens and open space which may have helped make their lives less stressful, but who knows? What we do know is that plants can help relieve stress and refresh the air indoors which in turn maybe one of the reasons that stress is relieved.

So let's start by considering our indoor space as our garden and decide what we can do with it.  It really doesn't matter if all you can do to begin with is a few plant pots and containers on a single window ledge with maybe some fresh herbs to add to your cooking, or if you can actually make one of your rooms a garden room.

What really matters is that the act of deciding to do something about an indoor garden. Then selecting the pots and the suitable plants and the compost for them all, is therapeutic and when we start to nurture them by careful watering according to the plant's needs and protecting them from strong sunlight if necessary and draughts, the plant takes on a separate identity in our minds and we begin to care for them automatically and marvel when they grow up and then bloom for the first time. You did that! It creates a diversion for your mind and gives you a "feel good" factor.

We can decide on what we want our indoor garden to achieve, do we want it just to brighten up a dingy corner of a room, do we want to grow herbs for cooking or for medicinal purposes? Do we want plants that are fragrant and perhaps remind us of a holiday somewhere or a time. Scent is a real memory jogger and we can suddenly smell something that takes us right back to our childhood decades before so strong is the association in our minds with smell.

Would we want an indoor garden for our kids to start teaching them all about plants and help them to grow and nurture the seeds they have planted. As children we always grew our own mustard and cress and put it in egg sandwiches. Talk about smell; I can recollect the smell of the hardboiled eggs being opened and mashed for the sandwich!

Sometimes we grow plants in memory of someone. My wife is a keen African violet grower after my father and we also grow roses in the outside garden in memory of her father. There are all sorts of reasons, to grow plants and flowers, and whatever you do just get on with it! It's not landscaping many hectares of land for a stalely home it's just a plant pot! Start small and build up if you want, just do what you feel comfortable with.

Here are some useful tips to help get you started on this wonderful journey to creating your own indoor garden

1.  Purpose  what do you want to achieve? Is it for the look, for cooking herbs, for medicinal herbs, kids plants?

2.  Where will it go? Is it just a window sill or several sills, maybe the kids room as well. Herbs in the kitchen? Pretty fragrant flowers in the living room? Welcoming green plants (caster oil plant) in the hallway. So many places to choose from. Choose one place to start and build up from there.

3.  Plants what plants will you grow?  See 2 above and decide.

4.  Characteristics maybe you like a certain type of plant, so you could have a collection of African violets, (like my wife), which come in many shapes and sizes and streptocarpus which is a spectacular plant to have.

5.  Do you want to include and other features like a mini solar powered water feature of wind chimes both of which create a very relaxing atmosphere. You could build a plant pot feature around some nice candles and so on, or just let your pot plants be the focal point.

6.  Is your chosen position suitable for indoor gardening, most plants are not too keen on draughts and the chill factor on a cold window sill in the winter. If you think that they might like more light you can move them to a brighter sill or position or buy an indoor plant light for them.

So there you have it an indoor garden, can stretch from a pot of basil or maybe mint on the kitchen window sill to a mini water garden or lights garden with candles or safe low volt electric lighting. You can have a room dedicated to an indoor garden, maybe you have a conservatory, or you could have a house full of cactus plants.

It's your decision, it's easy to change if you don't like it at first and it gets more rewarding the more you do it. Your stress levels will reduce and your house will be a nicer and probably more healthy place to live in. So what are you waiting for?