Creating an Indoor Garden

Writer and gardener Alice Vincent suggests you give your indoor garden a little more consideration – and get a lot more back in return.

After a year spent largely indoors, we’ve never been more aware of our need to connect with nature. Concentration, stress and happiness levels can all be improved by how we engage with the outdoor world, with people relying on parks, gardens and nature more broadly to feel calmer at an anxious time. Keeping plants indoors not only makes our spaces beautiful, but improves our air quality, wellbeing and productivity.

But we’ve also learnt that you don’t need a garden to be a gardener. As people have clamoured to connect with plants, gardening has become more accessible. It’s now far easier to shop for houseplants online and find them at lower prices in everyday stores, and the interiors world has embraced greener living with inventive indoor planters and accessories. Among such abundance, knowing where to start can be overwhelming. If you’re starting from scratch, a bit of outdoor gardening advice still applies: right plant, right place. With so many gorgeous varieties on offer, it can be tempting to plump for the plant you find prettiest, take it home, and pop it in the cutest corner of your home. But plants rely on light for energy and growth, so it’s important that they not only get access to it, but get the right kind of light for their needs. A south- or east-facing window will receive a lot of direct, hot sunlight in summer - perfect for cacti and flowering plants, but overwhelming more sub-tropical specimens. Similarly, dingy spots in corridors or bathrooms will fail to inspire much enthusiasm in most plants. For these, look to low-light tolerant plants, such as golden pothos, sansevieria and peperomia. For a jungly feel, height and scale are crucial. You’ll want a mixture of both to get that sense of escapist lushness. Kentia palms and dracaena can offer height and texture with minimum care with the right level of daylight, while Ficus elastica and Monstera deliciosa are great plants to give a strong structural background to your display. Don’t forget about hanging plants: allowing vines or trailing plants to dangle from a bookshelf or even a hook in the ceiling encourages the eye to look up and creates a sense of drama.

Once you’ve got the verticals covered, play with texture and colour. Ferns offer beautiful softness and interest from their unfurling fronds, and are happy enough if you keep them away from direct sunlight and their soil moist. I love the gentle curving fountain of spider plant foliage, too. Punctuate the green with variegated and colourful varieties: fittonia and calathea come in a beautiful range of colours and shapes. For depth, look to darker-leaved varieties: the ZZ Raven, for instance, or the dark purple butterfly wing-like foliage of an Oxalis triangularis. Finally, remember to water your plants properly. Different plants will have different hydration needs, but checking the moisture levels of the soil before you water will help avoid overwatering – stick your finger in the soil, and if the top two inches have dried out, water thoroughly under a tap until all the soil is wet and the water drains through the drainage hole. That should give the plant enough moisture for anywhere between a week or two, depending on the season. While there’s a real joy to be found in matching the perfect planter to your plant, self-watering planters are brilliant for those who want to spend more time admiring than watering. Soon, you’ll realise that there’s as much pleasure to be found in tending and caring for your plant as there is in gazing lovingly at them. Much like some find the act of cooking as relaxing as the eating, connecting with our plants comes from paying attention to their needs. The more you look, the more they’ll grow!

Written by Alice Vincent