| Year-Round Indoor Gardening |
From "Ask DIY"
episode ADI-106 |
|
|
|
advertisement
|
Q: My house gets as gray as the winter sky. I would love to bring summer color inside. Any advice?
A: (Jesse Mack Burns, Ask DIY Gardening expert) You can bring those outdoor plants right inside and add them to some other plants. A great patio plant, for example, is a bromeliad (figure A), which has a bloom and can come in at the end of the season. Chrysanthemums are also common, outdoors and in gift baskets, and they add a lot of great colors. The idea is to mix these plants in a large pot with traditional indoor plants, such as a variegated English Ivy, or the bright textured color of many of the ferns now available. Working smarter: Consider investing in a large, lightweight polystyrene pot (figure B), available in numerous sizes and colors They make it much easier to transport large arrangements from spot to spot in the house. More good choices to combine with indoor plants include begonias (Rhizomatus Begonias) and the Kalanchoe, which has nice thick leaves and lots and lots of white blooms, (figure C). Coleus, too, have color right in the foliage. They'll be brighter growing out of doors but still do well indoors too. Here's how to pot the plants for indoors: - Put a drainage layer in the bottom of a large pot, such as white gravel or the broken shards of a terra-cotta pot. (If you need to break the shards further, wrap them in a towel and bang them with a hammer on the ground.)
- Add enough porous, fast-draining potting soil to reach four or five inches below the rim of the pot.
- Gently remove the outdoor plants from their individual containers, making sure to break up the roots since they've been sitting in the pots for a while and the roots tend to compact. Take the indoor plants out of their pots too.
- Position a plant with some height, and not too much color, in the center of the pot. A fern works well in that position.
- Fill in around the edges with shorter, more colorful plants -- usually the ones you brought in from outdoors.
- Add a cascading plant, such as a variegated English Ivy, to the side of the pot.
- Fill the pot with more soil, adding a bit of time-release fertilizer to the mix. Take into account that indoors your plants won't require as much food as they did in the fast-growth season outdoors.
- Water the newly potted arrangement well at first. But keep in mind that the plants won't need as much water indoors, either, unless they're near an air conditioner or heating vent.
More questions for Jessie Mack:
Q: Sometimes it will warm up after a cold spell. Is it okay to bring plants back and forth, inside and outside?
A: As long as the temperature outside is not that much different than the temperature that the plants have been in inside your house, it shouldn't hurt them at all. But if you put them out in cool temperatures -- even if it's real sunny -- that could hurt. Remember to bring the plants in in the evenings, which is when the cool temperatures set in. To make that easier on you, put large plants on a rolling platform.
Q: If I bring outdoor annuals inside, do I have to treat them differently?
A: The main thing you should do differently is to water less, keeping a saucer beneath the pot to collect any excess water. And make sure not to place the pots near vents. Web site resources for all-season gardening: Garden Tips for Each Month From American Plantfood.com Gardening-Year Round Interest From Jersey Insight.com Plants for All Seasons and Garden for all Seasons From My House and Garden.com Vegetable Gardening in Winter From Natural Hub.com Vegetable Gardening in Summer From Natural Hub.com Vegetable Gardening in Spring From Natural Hub.com Vegetable Gardening in Autumn From Natural Hub.com Books: Easy Gardening Projects for All Seasons
by Barbara Pleasant
Taylor Publishing Co. (1997)
1550 W. Mockingbird Ln.
Dallas, TX 75235
Phone: 214-819-8334
Fax: 214-819-8580
Web site: www.taylorpub.com The Four Season Landscape: Easy-Care Plants and Plans for Year-Round Color
by Susan Roth
Rodale Press (1994)
Customer Service
33 East Minor St.
Emmaus, PA 18098
Phone: 800-914-9363 or 610-967-5171
| 
)
)
)
)
