Gardening in the City: Bringing the Outside In

Living in the city does have a lot of perks – perhaps even too many to mention. However, one of the downsides of living in the metropolitan is that yards or gardens are hard to come by. Unless one lives in a house located in a high-end neighborhood, chances are there isn’t any room in or around the house for a garden. Most folks end up renting an apartment and are not given the opportunity to unleash their artistic side through the creation and cultivation of a garden. Well, there’s no need to fret as container gardens have now become a very popular form of indoor gardening. Below are a few tips on how to come up with an indoor container garden that will surely put that green thumb to use. Brighten Things Up One of the main reasons why gardens are situated outdoors is because of the fact that they need sunlight to grow. This is why folks who intend to grow gardens inside their homes need to come up with ways to compensate for the lack of light exposure of their plants. Ideally, indoor gardens should be positioned in such a way that they are still exposed to sunlight. If one has a sunny windowsill that can provide direct sun exposure for around 4 or 5 hours a day, it would be best to place the container garden near it. However, it is still essential to install some sort of sheer curtain on the window to prevent the plants from getting sunburned. For those who are not as fortunate enough to have this luxury, it is necessary to make use of artificial light. However, it’s not as simple as buying the first light bulb one sees in the hardware store. Keep in mind that the objective is to replicate the effect of sunlight so it is essential to find a bulb that is as close to natural light as possible. The best way to go about this is by getting bulbs that have a Kelvin temperature of around 6500K. These are the closest thing to natural sunlight and it is ideal to position them around 4 to 6 inches above the plants, constantly being adjusted as the vegetation grows. Fertility is Key As with any type of gardening, fertilization is crucial for plant growth. The same holds true for indoor container gardens – even more, actually. Outdoor gardens have the luxury of getting natural fertilizers in the form of droppings from all sorts of insects and animals. Indoor gardens don’t have this type of exposure so it is ideal to fertilize the plants every time one waters them. Artificial Insemination Another disadvantage of indoor gardening is that the plants and flowers will not be exposed to wind and insects. This means there is no natural means of pollination; it becomes the gardener’s role to manually assist the plants in bearing fruit and reproduction. Once the flowers bloom, gardeners should make use of a small brush or a cotton swab to lightly brush the flowers and transport the pollens to another flower.