Indoor Gardening – Kickoff your indoor garden in the fall
November 6, 2016Indoor gardening isn’t as easy is just bringing in your leaf babies
Most gardeners will tell you the horror stories of bringing outdoor plants indoors, it’s not just the needs of the plants, but the environment too. In this post we’ll cover the high level tips and tricks for indoor gardening to get you started.
Check your leaf babies for pests before starting your indoor garden
Face it, you’re already bummed out on account of the change in season, and the fact that all your hard work over the Spring and Summer is coming to an end. Whether you’re a suburban rosarian, an allotment small holder, or crop share farmer, the prospect of having no plants to tend to is a little sad. So you think, well I’m just gonna dig up these few specimens and bring them in with me…
WAIT! Hold up right there. Step away from the plant.
First off, it’s going to be a bit of a shock pulling up a plant from the ground and throwing it into a pot full of different soil. If your soil is like ours, there’s lots of creepy crawlies doing good stuff to it. They’re not going to be too welcome in your house. You’ve got a couple choices:
- Spray the baby down with some insecticidal soap
- Freshly transplant into new media
- Wash off the dirt from the root ball in a bath of room temperature water
- Transplant into some well soaked (not super saturated) planting media like coco coir
- Add a little fertilizer
This will give you a chance to double check for diseases and make sure you’ve got a good chance of survival.
Finding the right spot for your indoor garden isn’t easy either
So you’ve got a full sun plant that you want to bring inside huh? Even a window with full southern exposure might not get enough light in the winter months. In the peak of winter, for some places, the day can be very short (9 hours in USDA zone 6) and the sun’s angle very low. Houses and trees easily block a lot of the light coming in.
The good news is that if you start early enough, hardy plants will adapt to reduced light, but may slow their roll a little. On a guess, you forgot and are panicking right now aren’t you? No fear, many of the big box retail hardware stores sell light kits for indoor plants. They have a wider light frequency spectrum (more colors in the visible and invisible areas) that plants like. And in a pinch, very close LED or fluorescent bulbs will tide you over for a little while, while you get sorted out.
OMG my pets are eating my indoor garden!
Well who told you to let the cat near the plants dopey! Being a responsible plant parent is as important as being a responsible pet parent (or actual human parent). That said, KNOW WHAT PLANTS YOU ARE BRINGING INTO YOUR INDOOR GARDEN!!!! you wouldn’t let your kids eat bleeding heart or columbine because you know they’re poisonous to people. Humans are not as instinctive as animals. Many animals won’t bother things that will hurt them, but humans aren’t as smart. So if your planning on indoor gardening, do you’re reading, know what’s compatible and arrange accordingly. You will still need high shelves, protective fences etc.
for an indoor garden to solve these sorts of problems. Also, don’t believe the pop culture wives tales. Just because your mother-in-law or your facebook squad says a plant is poisonous, do the actual research. Wikipedia is not a bad start.
Overwinter care
Most summer time plants do pretty well in indoor gardens over the winter, but they may change their growth habits. It’s important to check their soil and make sure they’ve got the right amount of water and no rotting is going on. They also tend to change from month to month. So, while November, December and January may be slower, February might have you running around with your watering kit on double duty. As an example, we go through 2-3 gallons of water per week in the Fall/Early winter up to a whopping 9-12 gallons per week, by the end of the winter and beginning of spring. You’ll also want to make sure you know your plant’s fertilizer needs. When they sleep in the winter time they’ll use less than usual, so be careful not to over do it.
Save room for new leaf babies
Its easy to get carried away with indoor gardening. You will need room for some starter flats and if you’re cramming stuff in now, its just gonna be bananas in January and February trying to find places for stuff. Think about leaving gaps in between your planters now, so that you can rearrange things in a few months.
Indoor Gardening on vacation
Did you say you’re going skiing or on a cruise during the winter months and the garden is going to stay home because plants travel well… What’s the plan? There’s a few strategies you can try here.
Depending on when, you could take advantage of the dormancy trait. Water everything well before you leave and hope to make it back before they need watering again (which actually works well sometimes). Alternately, you could get a very responsible, caring and loving family member or friend to come check on all of your leaf babies while you’re gone. Finally, if your friends and family are all coming with you, well, you could always pay someone. Be careful to screen them to be sure they’re not going to go all crazy with your plants while you’re gone, leave detailed instructions and make sure to call and check in if you can. Sure you’ll sound paranoid and be labeled with some odd judgmental-ism but that doesn’t matter… just the plants matter…
