indoor garden?

Your light source will dictate what you can grow. Is this to be a greenhouse type garden?

Pot.

He said unique. Everybody grows pot.

Start with something easy to grow so that you can start with a foundation of success. If there's a nursery nearby, go and ask (you don't have to buy anything; they usually like to just talk and may give some advice). Just ask -- what grows well indoors around here?

There are maps which show what should be planted where, but those are for outdoors. For indoors, you have more flexibility because you can keep it warmer in the winter and can add light or not as needed.

Choose a room with a lot of sunlight. We have a room with a Southern exposure and it works very nicely for growing plants. If you don't have Southern, try Eastern or whatever's close to that (e. g. Southwest if you don't have Southern). This is good for much of the US and I'm sorry but I've forgotten where you are so I can't get much more specific than that.

Nearly any plant will clean the air at least a little, in terms of converting carbon dioxide to oxygen. Right now, you need to worry about what you can grow and then move onto what's better or more exotic (crawl before you run, know what I mean?).

For example, we have Christmas cacti, impatiens and a spider plant. The spider plant is the biggest honkin' spider plant I have ever seen -- it's about 2 feet high and about as wide. Very full, with dark green leaves. It's nothing special to write home about, and it's not even very pretty, but it thrives. Like I said, start with a foundation of success.

As for food plants, one thing you may want to keep in mind is trying to keep them near the kitchen. Since our plant room is up on the second floor, we really aren't growing anything close to the kitchen (and we've tried to grow stuff in the kitchen, but ours is dark and cold and it just doesn't seem to work out) and so we don't grow edibles indoors. Doesn't mean you can't or that you can't grow stuff farther away from the kitchen. But it is awfully nice to grow basil in a pot and snip some leaves off for dinner without having to transport the plant through the entire house in order to get it to the kitchen.

Herbs are good because they're small and because they can be expensive in a store so you get the joy of eating from something you grew plus actually saving some money in the process, which is pretty nifty. Tomatoes can be grown indoors (you probably eat hothouse tomatoes already) but you should go for a smaller variety so that you don't end up with a plant that needs a lot of space.

I've grown potatoes (just lop off a chunk with a few eyes on it and stick it in the dirt) and avocadoes (make sure the pit is split before proceeding, then put it about 1/4 of the way into water with toothpicks in it, in order to keep the bottom from really sitting in the water. Once roots have sprouted, stick it in the dirt) in containers but haven't gotten them to the fruiting stage.

You might want to Google the phrase container gardening.

you might check aero garden on the net. I'm considering getting one or three.

Definitely check those out!

The problem with those Aerogardens is that they require you to purchase seedling cuplets that fit in the thing and they are single sourced. Like buying an inkjet printer - it's cheap but the ink costs a fortune.

I've done well with a 48" dual bulb shoplight fitted with broad spectrum bulbs and simple plastic greenhouse flats. These lights are the same ones used to help battle winter depression so if you feel down, they might help with that too. Make sure to get a hood for the fixture, and mount it with chains to screw in hooks. That way you can easily adjust the height of it. You want to keep the bulbs about 1" above the growing plants or they'll get too leggy. I use this method to start vegetables in early spring.

Of course, halogen lamps are widely available now at any home supply store, and they can make anything grow better. From my original suggestion to tomatoes, you can grow them indoors in winter under halogens. These you need to keep a bit further away from the plants though as they burn extremely hot and bright.

Good luck. Post your results!

GOOD INFO! potatoe hehe obvious but i totally missed it thanks

i think im just gonna start bamboo/ herbs (they sell them close by a little mexican store) i live in las vegas so its dry and hot or cold and dry, woohoo

and potatoes, i love them.

after that ill start looking into more exotic plants and add ones that catch my attention.

maybe tomatoes , i think thats pretty basic to start. wish i had a reall f-ing garden haha.

thanks again.

Spider plants are excellent for purifying air.

Monstera deliciosa.

Requires very little care and not much water.



Monstera deliciosa is commonly grown as a houseplant for decoration, typically in hotels, restaurants and offices, as well as in private homes. It grows best at a temperatures of 20 °C to 30 °C, requires high humidity, and needs shade. Growth ceases below 10 °C
Monstra do not usually flower or fruit indoors. The amount of light will determine ho large the plant will grow.

Not good for a house with toddlers as the leaves contain oxalic acid a poison if ingested.

Being from California (hiss to Dys), I never really understood the mania that took over the nation in the seventies about having an indoor jungle... oh, look, aphids!! I would get cross-eyed nodding pleasantly at someone's well-tended african violet collection..
I didn't understand how deprived people can feel with all those sticks sticking up from the ground outside in winter...

Still, I don't mind one or two or three or four or more indoor plants, especially for apartment living.

A) go not to your local grocery store for a plant, but to the best nursery in your region. The difference in price is worth every cent, as most good nurseries don't speed plant and otherwise mistreat the growies. Skip Home Deposit, and its clones. At a good nursery, right away you'll have people working there who know what they are talking about, and who can guide you along your way to becoming a fern fan, an orchid maven, a spathaphyllum space cadet, a ficus amicus, or whatever.

B) bamboo... leaf drop city.

I don't know where you live, ogionik, and that's none of my business, but up near where I used to live in LA, Marina del Rey Garden Center at least used to be sharp about indoor plants, and there was at least one good place in Santa Monica. Presumably there are such places in your vicinity.

MDR Garden Center is in the middle of the 90 freeway, where it ends a bit east of Lincoln. Not the easiest place to just drive in to, assuming it is still there, but worth it.

But better for you to establish yourself, or they with you, with a local good nursery.

Osso is right about the pest problems - white fly, scale, aphids - they can be hard to control.

You mention you are in Las Vegas, not exactly a gardening paradise. I couldn't even find a community garden in the city. You might have to move to another state if you get serious with this gardening stuff.

Growing food indoors is not very practical in your situation, nor economical. However, there are plenty of plants that will be happy in an apartment and some might even produce a fruit or two. Think in terms of meyer lemons, key limes, figs, and maybe some lettuce under a grow light. Bay trees are fairly easy and I don't think it's possible to kill mint.

Here are some catalogs you might want to check out. When growing indoors you are best off with tropicals, others plants need to go through a winter to thrive. You also have to be aware of what fruits need pollinators (can be done with a paint brush in some cases). Stick with the zone 9-10 stuff:

Raintree Nursery

Edible Landscaping

One of the largest suppliers of indoor exotics:

Logees Greenhouse

Are you more interested in the beauty of plants or survival type gardening?

You might want to check out what these people are doing:

Path to Freedom- Urban Homestead

key limes, i love those things.

fyi im not goin for like, all out wheat fields but more like fresh herbs occasionally when i cook a "real" meal, key limes was a great idea!
i love them! i want berries, they are my favorite food in the world but they are like giant bushes, i think. ive never seen a real berry bush.

next payday im sure ill be at a real nursery, you guys are giving me advice i tell others all the time: quality first!

now that i sit and think about it, im in a desert, im pretty sure (/sarcasm) cactii would do great here.
what desert plants could i look at? aloe vera off the top of my head, even in a pot outside would work i just love having plants around. any other suggestions? i might as well start a list of plants i want in general if im gonna make a trip to the nursery, my gma got rid of some idiots so i can start plants there until i get a house.

damnit i have so much planned, i have a compost bucket and i was thinking about starting to make worm castings(sp?) if possible but im sure that will be on wikipedia or google but ill ask here still.

not a greenhouse (i wish!)

but im not averse to using growlights.

DAMN, the more ideas i get the more plants i want, i wish i could edit my original post so i could keep a list and reduce post clutter.

i think i need to focus, a window growbox with light i think will be my goal, nothin major but enough to provide plants with a solid environment. i will still have other plants around the house that dont need light so much..
so far:
-spider plants
-key limes
-herbs
-bamboo! i love this stuff for some reason
-cactus

and ill ask at the nursery about their suggestions for las vegas, im sure they'll know.

thanks for all the input!

greenwitch, i was aiming 50/50 looks and survival.

OGIONIK, I grow 5 or 6 varieties of herbs in a "strawberry pot". (it has about 8 openings around the sides.

When I'm cooking, I just grab my scissors, and walk down to my entryway where I grow them.

They greet everyone who visits, and are as nice looking as they are aromatic.

I can see OG's herb garden now...

lol, i already got those covered mi amigo! ;D

funny ****, ok long story goin on a tangent.

watched "the secret" with mom she needed some company and some you know "feel good" ness so i suggested she watch it even tho i think its a crock.

when i go to leave i ask her if she has any extra art supplies, she hands me a slightly used sketchpad, some wood to build an easel, and an art book.

the sketch pad was filled with coffe mug drawings, the wood had a ******* coffee mug sticker, and the books first drawing guide was a coffee cup.
in the movie it says "ask for something simple like a cup of coffee"

i get home, read my horoscope in the back of a weekly vegas magazine.
"your creative energy is abundant, use your fertile energy and (someshit about procreation) now is the time to beging planting new seeds"

i mean my horoscope was totally fuckin about growing plants. ill post aan actual quote tomorrow i clipped it out and saved it. crazy, and im athiest agnostic, maybe "someone " is trying to let me know something. im a total skeptic so i chalk it up to coincedence.

hehe , i always liked growin things, maybe its a calling?

Sorry I misplaced you in space, ogionik - bit far to go to Marina del Rey from Las Vegas..