Tag Archive for: indoor gardening

New Year, New Gardening Reads

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Spend winter months brushing up on your plant knowledge and cozying up indoors with a book on plants. The options can be endless and there’s certainly something for every level of gardener. Explore a whole new world of plants with our recommendations below.

How To Make A Plant Love You

by Summer Rayne Oakes

Everyone deserves to feel the inner peace that comes from taking care of greenery. Beyond the obvious benefits–beauty and cleaner air–there’s a strong psychological benefit to nurturing plants as a path to mindfulness. They can reduce our stress level, lower our blood pressure, and improve our overall outlook. And they offer a rare opportunity to find joy by caring for another living being. This is a guidebook for cultivating an entirely new relationship with your plant children.

Field Guide to Urban Gardening: How to Grow Plants, No Matter Where You Live

By Kevin Espiritu

If you think it’s impossible to grow your own food because you don’t have a large yard or you live in the city…think again. There is a plethora of urban gardening options to create beautiful, productive edible gardens no matter where you live. The key to succeeding as an urban gardener is to choose the method(s) that make sense for your unique living situation and then give your plants what they need to thrive. Kevin helps you do just that.

How Not to Kill Your Houseplant: Survival Tips for the Horticulturally Challenged

By Veronica Peerless

From the basics of horticulture to detailed information about what type of plant will thrive in your living space, How Not To Kill Your Houseplant will be your comprehensive guide. This book covers 50 popular house plants and teaches you how to look for warning signs of sickness, pests and disease. With helpful tips, pictures and informational panels How Not To Kill Your Houseplant will help you create a plant paradise right in your own home.

Homestead Brooklyn shows you how to fertilize your houseplants.

Photo courtesy of Urban Jungle

Urban Jungle: Living and Styling with Plants

By Igor Josifovic and Judith de Graaff

This book will inspire beginners as well as advanced plant parents. It goes beyond the basic of plant care into the art of styling your home with plants. Travel across Europe to 5 different green homes with urban jungle bloggers, Igor and Judith. Along with style tips you’ll find DIY ideas with step-by-step instructions along with beautiful photography. Take your design skills to the next level and create and care for your own urban jungle.

Gardening Under Lights: The Complete Guide for Indoor Growers

By Leslie F. Halleck

Growing under indoor lights opens up a whole new world of possibilities for home growers. Gardening Under lights is a complete guide to high tech growing. It explains the basics and gives an overview of the most up-to-date tools and gear available. It also offers tips and techniques for growing ornamentals like orchids and bonsai, to growing a whole range of edibles from arugula to zucchini. There is also a complete guide to starting seed indoors.

New to seed starting? Watch this video to get up to speed.

Root, Nurture, Grow: The Essential Guide to Propagating and Sharing Houseplants

By Caro Langton and Rose Ray

A follow up to their successful debut book House of Plants, Caro and Rose show how easy it is to propagate house plants at home in their stylish new book. Beginner friendly techniques such as stem cutting, rooting in water, runners, offsets, grafting, and division are all covered. It also includes DIY projects like seed-bombs and how to make self-watering plant pots. Find out how fun and easy it is to create new plants for meaningful gifts and displays.

Here’s how to propagate the hottest houseplant.

The Savage Garden, Revised: Cultivating Carnivorous Plants 

By Peter D’Amato

While this might not be new, The Savage Garden is still the best-selling book for anyone interested in carnivorous plants. The new edition is fully revised to include the latest developments and discoveries in the carnivorous plant world, making it the most accurate and up-to-date book of its kind. Beautifully illustrated with over 200 color photographs, let this be your guide to the beautiful, unusual world of easy to grow savage plants.

Bonus: Houseplant Masterclass

The Houseplant Masterclass is the first comprehensive online audiovisual course on houseplant cultivation, care and maintenance taught by Summer Rayne Oakes, founder of the blog, HomesteadBrooklyn.com, the weekly web series Plant One On Me, and author of the forthcoming book, How to Make a Plant Love You (Optimism Press, July 2019).

The course was fully funded on Kickstarter in April 2018 and went on sale in December 2018. The Masterclass features five sections and 100+ sub-sections on houseplant growing, care and cultivation; over 4 hours of audiovisual recordings; 300 full-color images and charts; a comprehensive care spreadsheet of 300+ common houseplants; 100+ botanical terms and 350+ botanical Latin names; product and book recommendations; access to a private Facebook community; and more. Participants will get houseplant badges as they complete sections and a certificate of completion at the end of the course.

Want to learn the basics of one of the most common houseplants? Summer Rayne teaches us all about Pilea Peperomioides.

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5 Ways to Decorate Your Garden for the Holidays

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It’s truly the most wonderful time of the year! Everyone seems to be in a better mood when they’re spending time with the people they love.

Going all out with décor is easy and fun. Putting up a big Christmas tree with lights and ornaments, draping garland around the house, really makes it feel cozy and welcoming. Draping lights around the home and statues on your front lawn is a fun way to make the whole neighborhood light up.

This year, incorporate some living décor for your holidays. Here are 5 ways to decorate your garden:

1. Decorate Containers

Containers are a perfect way to liven up a home. Finding a festive container or painting a plain one with festive colors or patterns will bring it to life for the holidays. Fill your container with winter-hardy plants that are right for your zone. Just be sure to use Espoma Organic Potting Soil to give it the nutrients it needs.

2. Design the Grounds

With colorful winter shrubs, vegetables, and flowers, planting in a design can bring cheer in ways that are unique and cheerful. The colors and options your plants provide can make an image come through. Utilize the dead space in between your winter hardy plants to create a holiday design.

3. Plant an Evergreen

While everyone brings their trees indoors, plant one outside. You can decorate it the same way you decorate the one indoors. Plus, you can enjoy your Christmas morning outside, depending on the weather. Use natural materials, such as pine cones, berries, and flowers collected from your garden to decorate. Be sure to use Espoma Organic Holly-tone to keep the foliage green.

4. Train Your Plants

Adding a toy train to show off your garden is a great way to mix fun and childlike spirit into your garden. Utilize the plants you already have planted that will survive the winter. Have the toy train go around what you want to showcase. Add some twinkling lights, and everyone who stops by will want a garden like yours.

5. Green Your Mailboxes

Draping an evergreen garland over a mailbox is a simple way to incorporate living décor into your holidays. Creating a garland requires few materials and can look festive within a few minutes. Be sure to add a nice, large bow to tie it all together.

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Want to keep making decorations for your home? Check out this Succulent Snow Globe from Garden Answer.

 

 

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How to Repot a Bromeliad

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Summer Rayne Oaks of Homestead Brooklyn demonstrates the ins and outs of repotting bromeliads. Follow along as she explains the difference between the pup and mother plant and what happens when you remove the pup vs leaving it on to continue growing. Utilizing her expansive collection of plants, she shows us what both scenarios look like in the repotting process.

Three takeaways from this video:

Summer Rayne teaches you how to get a brand new bromeliad from a plant that is about to expire. With the right care, she was able to get new life from the plant.

The best soil to use for bromeliads is a barky airy mix, such as The Espoma Company’s Organic Orchid Mix, that’s full of nutrients.

Once the pup is either 1/3 to 1/2 the size of the mother plant, you can decide to remove the pup for the mother to grow another or keep it on and watch it grow from the mother until it expires.

5 Steps for Repotting a Bromeliad:

  1. Grab some gloves. Some of the leaves are going to be prickly, so you want to protect yourself.
  2. Grab scissors or sheers. If the mother plant is desiccated or if you want to remove the pup before repotting, you will need something sharp to remove them.
  3. Remove the bromeliad from the container and separate it from the mother plant, if possible.
  4. When placing the bromeliad into the new container, center it and fill with Espoma’s Orchid Mix. You don’t need to tuck it in too hard, as it likes having room to breathe.
  5. Water it in well to help it settle into its new home.

*Remember, if you have a healthy mother plant and a healthy pup, you can plant them together or separately. You won’t harm it either way.

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Learn more about Summer Rayne here:

Website: homesteadbrooklyn.com

Instagram – @homesteadbrooklyn

YouTube – Summer Rayne Oakes

Twitter – @sroakes

Facebook – Summer Rayne Oaks

 

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Classic Houseplants for your Living Room

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What is the most commonly used room in your home? It’s probably the living room. It’s where the whole family comes together, where visitors sit and enjoy conversations and where memories are made. We’ve already shared houseplants for your kitchen and bedroom; now let’s focus on the living room.

Houseplants differ in needs of light, space and water. So we are outlining the perfect houseplants to add to a medium or brightly lit living room.

Head to your local garden center to pick any of these beauties up. And don’t forget to grab some Indoor! liquid fertilizer to give your plants a boost.

Here are our top picks for plants in the living room:

String of Pearls

This easy to grow succulent adds dimension and design to any space. As the string of pearls gently cascade down the container, it resembles jewelry hanging off of a shelf. You can’t go wrong with this classic plant. It grows best in bright light. Make sure you feed regularly with Espoma Organic’s Cactus! liquid fertilizer.

Philodendron

This heart-leafed plant will inspire anyone who comes in contact with it. It has gained popularity due to it’s big, angular leaves. It is easy to grow and will tell you when it needs a little bit of love through it’s slightly dropping leaves. Philodendrons prefer bright, indirect light.

Umbrella Tree

Aptly named for foliage that look like miniature umbrellas, this tree is the perfect addition to your home. This tree needs bright, indirect light – if they do not receive enough light, they can get leggy, so be sure to keep an eye on it to ensure it is getting the light it needs. Learn more about dealing with leggy plants.

Rubber Tree

Don’t be intimidated by a tree this size. Get a young rubber tree and train it to any size you want. Caring for this tree is simple – put it in bright, indirect light so it doesn’t over heat. Enjoy the oversized foliage, and a few compliments from visitors.

Staghorn Fern

This antler-like foliage will be the conversation starter you were looking for. Mount this fern on any wall or place it in a basket to really show off it’s beauty. This fern does well in low-to-medium light, so it will be happy anywhere you place it.

Learn how to fertilize these houseplants from Homestead Brooklyn.

 

DIY Cat Tower Garden

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Find out how Laura from Garden Answer makes this clever indoor cat tower garden! Laura uses Espoma’s Organic Seed Starter to get her seeds off to a great start.

Spice Up Your Life – Start an Indoor Herb Garden

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Add an extra special kick to homemade dishes by incorporating fresh herbs from your kitchen garden. It’s especially easy when flavorful herbs just need to be snipped from your kitchen windowsill.

Grow a winter herb garden in your kitchen with easy herbs like rosemary, chives, oregano, thyme, lemongrass and mint in just a few steps.

Herbs are perfect for growing in the kitchen. Be sure to feed with Indoor! plant fertilizer to give them a boost.

How to Grow Herbs Indoors in 5 Steps:

  1. Pick a container. Visit your local garden center to purchase herbs and pots. Choose 6” containers that have drainage holes and saucers. Herbs don’t like wet feet.
  2. Pot up your herbs. Fill containers halfway with Espoma’s Organic Potting Mix. Remove herbs from containers by pushing from the bottom. Gently loosen roots and place plant in the pot. Fill with soil to the depth the plants were growing in the original pots. Water well.
  3. Choose a Spot. Place plants in a sunny window that receives at least 6 hours of strong sunlight each day.
  4. Refresh plants. Water as needed to keep the soil lightly moist, but don’t overwater.
  5. Give herbs a boost. Feed with Espoma’s Indoor! liquid plant fertilizer as needed to give plants the nutrients they need.

Once warm weather does arrive, get ready to plant more veggie crops!

 

5 Romantic Red Houseplants

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On Valentine’s Day, there’s always a lot of pressure to find the perfect gift, so we made it simple.

Give something that will live long past the special day, continue to grow, and offer a daily reminder of your love.

Cultivate Love with These 5 Romantic Red Houseplants

  1. Anthurium
    This lovely houseplant has heart-shaped blooms called spades. Be sure to buy one in bloom to ensure your significant other sees the heart on your sleeve plant. Anthuriums love light, so be sure to place them in a bright area, but not directly in the sunshine.

  1. Bromeliad
    This easy-to-grow houseplant is the perfect gift. It provides an exotic touch of red to any home. Even with the thick foliage and wide leaves, it gives off a radiance that anyone will fall in love with. Be sure to use Espoma’s Orchid Potting Mix to allow proper drainage and vitality.

    Feed regularly with Indoor! liquid fertilizer to keep your plants happy and healthy.

  1. Kalanchoe
    Succulent love! This succulent produces clusters of tiny red flowers which will last for several seasons. The scalloped greenery is just as gorgeous as the flowers, so you will have a showstopper year round. Use Espoma’s Cactus Potting Mix and Cactus! liquid fertilizer to be sure your Kalanchoe is happy and hearty.

  1. Croton
    Red can be too much for some lovers, so crotons offer the perfect balance of greenery with a subtlety of red. But don’t let it fool you, this houseplant is a bold contender. It offers texture and design to any household that needs extra energy. Crotons also help purify the air, which in turn keeps you calm and relaxed.

  1. Red Aglaonema
    Another more subtle red houseplant, the Red Aglaonema is a standout in home décor. The bold foliage adds height and eye-drawing texture. Your significant other will love this easy-care plant.

 

Trust us, gifting any of these romantically red houseplants will show your love for years to come. Feeding plants with Espoma’s Indoor! liquid fertilizer helps keep their red vibrant.

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Check out this Anthurium care video by Summer Rayne Oaks:

 

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Houseplants for the Bedroom

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Your bedroom should be a sanctuary. The place to go at the end of a day and unwind, relax and rest. We’ve already shared the best houseplants for the kitchen; now let’s focus on the bedroom.

Unique indoor plants are the perfect solution to help purify the air and add serenity to your space. Plus, they can add natural color and exotic beauty to bedrooms.

Not all houseplants are the same. Some will let off CO2 while others release oxygen, which can really make a difference. The best indoor houseplants do the double duty – they help you relax while purifying the air in your room.

Here are our top picks for plants in the bedroom:

  1. Snake Plant

This plant is an excellent night breather, which leads to a better night’s sleep. It has tall pointed foliage and is easy to care for. Anywhere you need to add a little height, this plant will do the trick. The foliage can be green, yellow or white, with spots and lines of various shades. Read more about healthy houseplants.

  1. Bamboo Palm

With foliage that’s a little wild and crazy, this plant is certainly a showstopper. Bamboo palms bring color and warmth to bedrooms with their exotic textures. Plus this palm can be happy almost anywhere since it grows in low light. Plus, it is pet-friendly! Learn about more pet-friendly plants.

  1. Fiddle-Leaf Fig

The most popular houseplant of the moment, the fiddle-leaf fig, is a stylist’s dream accent. Its violin-shaped glossy leaves and mass will fill space in larger bedrooms. It truly is a plant that you will admire. Read more about oversized houseplants here.

  1. Orchids

Orchids are perfect houseplants for your bedroom. Keep them happy with Espoma’s Orchid! liquid fertilizer.

Orchids are also excellent night breathers and offer gorgeous blooms. Orchids provide the perfect balance of elegance for décor and tranquility for health. With Espoma’s Orchid! Liquid fertilizer your orchid will be thriving and happy. Visit your local garden center to learn more about orchids. Learn more about orchid care. 

  1. Dracaena

Most Dracena’s grow upwards with smooth strap-like leaves in various shades of greens, with white, cream or red touches. Depending on the species, the leaves can be short and pointy or long and grass-like, making this tropical plant even more unique. Read more about unique indoor plants.

Remember to keep your bedroom a place of relaxation and serenity to help unplug, unwind and sleep well. Feed your houseplants regularly with Espoma’s Indoor! liquid fertilizer to help keep them healthy and strong. Visit your local garden center to learn more.

Have a Christmas cactus that needs some care? Watch Laura help explain what these plants need to survive these cold months.

Best Houseplants for the Kitchen

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Sometimes we find a beautiful houseplant and have no idea where to put it. Other times we have a space that needs filling and no idea what to put there.

The way we see it, you can never go wrong with more plants!

There’s no better place to start adding plants than the kitchen. If you haven’t thought of adding plants there before, you’re missing out!

Houseplants in the kitchen aid in decreasing cooking scents that consume your home – while it might smell amazing when you bake cookies, cauliflower can really bring you down. Or, you can grow edibles in your kitchen to have easy access while cooking.

Here are our top picks for plants in the kitchen:

 

  1. Assorted Herbs
    Herbs are perfect to grow in the kitchen. Place your herb garden on your windowsill or in a hanging basket for ease. Luckily, a lot of herbs grow well indoors with adequate light. They need to be rotated if they start to become leggy. Read more about growing herbs in your kitchen.
  1. Aloe Vera
    Aloe Vera is one of the easiest plants to grow, so keeping it in your kitchen will bring life there all year long. It’s especially great to have in the kitchen to use its natural coolant in case of a burn. It will do well anywhere in the kitchen, although next to the stove is probably best. Read more about growing aloe and other succulents.

  1. White Jasmine
    The soft jasmine scent that is released from the blooms of this plant will help keep your kitchen smelling nice and fresh. The scent is subtle enough that it won’t overwhelm the kitchen yet can still help your space feel clean and refreshed. Read more about growing jasmine.

  1. English Ivy
    Ivy is a diverse plant that can thrive in many rooms. Putting it in the kitchen will add dramatic lines and textures while purifying the air. If your cabinets don’t hit the ceilings, this ivy will gladly take up space. It will add wonderful shades of green with accents of whites or yellows. Read more about growing ivy in unusual spaces.

  1. Spider Plant
    Another great air purifier, the spider plant will help keep cooking more enjoyable. Place it somewhere you need to add height and texture to an area. It is an easy-care houseplant that will continue to love you in every season. Read more about the benefits of houseplants.

Don’t forget, all of these plants need to be fed as directed with Espoma’s Indoor! liquid fertilizer to grow strong and highlight their colors.

 

 

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How To Make An Easy Terrarium

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Terrariums make great additions to any room. There are endless options for variety, decorations and plants. They can be assembled in minutes and will continue to be enjoyed for months.

They can even match this season, like these adorable winter snow globes!

Whether you’re a terrarium expert or just making your first one, here are six easy steps to follow again and again.

Six Steps to Create a Terrarium

Step 1: Assemble materials

First, envision the terrarium you want. Where will you place it? What kind of plants are in it? What type of container will you use? Does it have a lid? Once you’ve got an idea, visit your local garden center to find many of the materials needed to make a terrarium.

You will need:

  • Glass jar or bowl
  • Sand
  • Activated charcoal
  • Espoma’s organic potting soil or cactus mix, depending on plants
  • Ornamental moss
  • Decorative elements such as fairies, rocks, shells, or stones
  • Small plants or succulents
  • Watering can
  • Espoma’s Indoor! or Cactus! liquid fertilizer depending on plant needs
  • Optional: Tweezers
  • Optional: Small sticks or bark

Step 2: Sand Layer

The first layer in your terrarium will be for drainage. Add about a 1-inch layer of sand, rocks or pebbles at the bottom. This ensures that water will not linger in the soil and will help to prevent root rot.

Step 3: Activated Charcoal Layer

Add about ¼ cup of activated charcoal to the terrarium to help keep it healthy. The charcoal helps the water stay clear of buildup and microorganisms that can grow on any living thing.

Step 4: Add Soil and plants

Add an adequate amount of soil for your plants. Dig a small hole to place the plant in. Choose a few standout succulents or add as many plants as you’d like. Make sure each plant has room to grow. Remember to leave some space to add in creative elements.

Step 5: Get Creative

Once your terrarium has plants, it’s time to add the finishing touches. Layer different types of ornamental mosses or decorative stones to enhance the look. If you’ve got fairy garden elements, add them in now. If you’re adding any pieces that you may have brought in from outside, make sure to rinse them off well first. You might find it’s easier to use a set of tweezers to place these pieces in smaller terrariums.

Step 6: Fertilize

Help your terrarium plants stay healthy and strong by feeding with the proper Espoma liquid fertilizer.

Enjoy! Switch up your terrarium whenever you feel like you need a change or new plants!

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