Indoor Gardening by Will Cook Page A

don’t want to deal with the hassle of managing your own earthworms, you can buy fresh compost locally. Always remember that the health of your plants will be determined by the health of the soil they’re growing in!
    7. W ATERING AND M ISTING I MPLEMENTS
    Watering your plants is one of the most important tasks in the schedule for taking care of your indoor gardening. You will need adequate implements to water your plants; some plants may require regular misting. Also, you will need to research on what type of water your plants would enjoy most. For example, some experts recommend that you use the water in which you have boiled vegetables to water your plants – and your plants will grow very beautifully and healthy (I only recommend this if the vegetables were organic, otherwise pesticides and herbicides could pollute your house plants).
    8. F ERTILIZER
    No matter how good the soil, you may need to add fertilizer at least once in 6 months or one year. I recommend using organic fertilizers or compost as I personally try to avoid chemical fertilizers.
    However, it can be a bit more difficult to manage with organic fertilizers. Chemical fertilizers are immediately available for plant uptake, while organic fertilizers are not. Organic Fertilizers need to pass through the gut of microorganisms before they can be broken down into elemental forms that plants can use. Because microorganism populations in containers vary greatly, nutrient delivery may be erratic. Nutrient levels, pH, temperature, moisture levels, soil composition, soil structure and oxygen levels all affect these microorganism populations. Further, when microorganism populations are low, organic fertilizers tend to build up to much higher concentrations in properly irrigated plants than chemical fertilizers do. If this occurs, when cultural conditions return to favorable, the microorganisms can release large amounts of nitrogen into soils, so it's easily possible to get a delayed nitrogen burn reaction from organic fertilizers - and you may never even realize why it occurred. Because of this, most novice gardeners will want to use chemical fertilizers to start with to make the whole process even easier.

C HAPTER 2. T HE B EST T YPES OF P LANTS F OR I NDOOR G ARDENING
    Contrary to common belief, the list of plants that can be grown indoors is quite varied and long. There are thousands of flowering plants, non-flowering plants, cacti, herbs, fruits, vegetables and even evergreens that you could grow indoors. So, if you love plants and need to grow them indoors take heart in the news that you have plenty to choose from!
    One very important thing you should keep in mind while you decide about the number of plants you want inside your home is that indoor plants will raise the degree of humidity in your home. Hence, this is a good thing if you are living in a dry climate, but not so good if it is already humid. So just remember to use a dehumidifier if thinks get too humid with all your new plants.
    While it is true that for your plants to live and thrive indoors they should be adaptable to indoor environment – i.e. less light, drier and cooler environment – it is important that you understand that most plants adapt very well indoors if you are willing to go the extra mile to provide them what they need. Plants also respond very well to love – but as a plant lover and gardener, I’m sure you already know that
    Here is a very small list of some of my favorite plants you could grow indoors very easily:

1. A FRICAN V IOLETS ( S AINTAPAULIA )

    The African Violets are among the most popular indoor plants because they are as easy to grow as they are beautiful. Their flowers last quite long and flowers are known to stay in bloom for several weeks when they are cared for well.
    T EMPERATURE:
    The best temperature for these flowers is 75 degrees Fahrenheit during daytime and about 60-70 at night. They will grow just fine from about 60-80 degrees Fahreinheit (15-27