Going indoors...
Very wet weather has made it impossible lately to go outdoors and enjoy a bit of gardening, so in recent weeks I decided to do a bit of gardening indoors. I’ve always been an ‘outdoors’ gardener, but I thought I’d have a crack at a few indoor projects.
When I was in primary school, I remember my mum doing a container gardening course through TAFE in Perth. The only reason why she did it was because she couldn’t keep plants alive. So for 10 weeks, she attended night-school to learn all about pot plants, hanging baskets, and how to care for them! By the time she completed this course, mum was potting up a storm and I was watching everything she was doing.
I went to my favourite garden centre last week and found a few plants that I couldn’t resist! Rosary Vine (Ceropegia woodii, above), Peace Lily (Spathiphyllum sp.), and Hare’s Foot Fern (Davallia sp., below)…
Amazingly, they’re pretty hardy. All of them. But just make sure you read up a bit on each of the indoor plants you decide to buy: they’ll have preferences for watering, light conditions, soil type, and drainage.
Other than having a pretty, green living thing in your house, it also cleans the air you breathe. I potted a Pygmy Date Palm last year and put it in the bedroom. At the end of each day, that ‘stale breath’ smell has gone from the room! Some indoor varieties are better than others at doing this, the best being Snake Plant (Sansevieria sp.). NASA has even studied their effectiveness at cleaning indoor air.
So why not give an indoor plant a go! Just make sure you read up on their care, and you’ll become an indoor green thumb who’s the envy of all your house guests!