Here’s How to Get Growing Indoors

Whether you’re seed starting vegetables or just want some beautiful flowers in your home, indoor gardening requires a different approach than outdoor gardening. For starters, you can’t use regular garden soil: it’s not sterile and can contain weed seeds or pathogens. For most plants, you’ll want an all-purpose indoor potting mix. You can also find plant-specific potting mixes and fertilizers for orchids, African violets, cacti and other succulents. All indoor plants should be housed in indoor planters with good drainage to help prevent root rot. If you’re growing orchids indoors, make sure to place them in bright, indirect sunlight, and cut off the flower spikes that are blooming so the plant will grow back.

There are plenty of seeds and bulbs available for most the popular flowers and vegetables. You can also get a jump on the growing season by starting your vegetables indoors. In addition to a good seed starter kit you might also consider a heated seedling mat to improve germination. Grow lights are also essential to stimulating photosynthesis in your seedlings. LED grow lights are energy-efficient and can be colour-optimized to suit different stages of growth. Fluorescent grow lights can illuminate multiple plants which is also a real benefit.