Bring your garden indoors for winter!

indoor gardening

Beautiful isn’t it? And you’re probably also wondering what it is right? Well this is an example of one of the many kinds of hydroponic planters available if you are thinking of doing your gardening indoors. Hydroponics is a latin word meaning “working water” simply because of the fact that plants can be grown easily, effortlessly and most importantly, without the use of soil (no mess, perfect!). Not only are we fast approaching the coldest time of the year and i cant really see myself: knees to ground gardening in minus degree, British weather, but furthermore my flat is quite small and sadly i don’t have a garden. So what are the options for people in my situation then? I began to search for ways i could grow my own plants and one day (even more abitiously) grow my own vegetables. After all, everyone knows that plants and flowers can brighten up any living space instantly, with lovely fresh smells and vibrant colours.

Before i moved into my own flat, i wasn’t aware of hydroponics plant growing techniques until a friend mentioned it, it was all quite new to me.

I set about finding out as much information about hydroponics as possible (i feel i could probably lecture on the topic now!). Using google to search for the word ‘hydroponics’ brought up a lot of retailer websites as well as informational websites like Wikipedia. Intially, i was told it was quite an easy thing to do but i didn’t want to take the risk of it all going wrong so I decided on purchasing a starter kit which will include all the essentials to help me grow my own plants in as little as 8 weeks so this was great news. I just couldn’t wait to have my own plants and to see my friends and families faces when i informed them that i grew them myself, without the predictable mess of soil (i later found out they had to see it to believe it!).

Some starter kits might not include a seed kit. Fret not however, you can actually purchase some on various websites like ebay or homebase and even in everyday supermarkets. However, i personally found that the hydroponics websites give you a lot more information and also ideas about nutrients which help to make the already fast growing process, even faster! As i mentioned before, the average time it takes to grow plants using this system is about 8 weeks (which is 3 times faster than conventional growing techniques) and before you know it, you’ll have to start thinking about where to put your new plants. Furthermore, as hydroponics only requires water, some people actually make use of their old fish tanks to store their plants, and if arranged well it can look rather beautiful. I personally have made use of my ever growing collection of beautiful vases.