Green indoors

GREAT SPACES

My grandma’s house had a vast gar­den for children to run around, play and admire the colourful flowers and plants, and for the grown-ups to sip evening coffee in a well-manicured private garden. Well, that was a town in Uttar Pradesh, much more spacious and greener than modern-day cities. But those who really want to bring in greenery into homes can still manage to do it, in spite of all modern-day constraints.

One only has to be smart, look for ideas and options to  create your own patch of green indoors. If your house does not have a garden area, make use of the balcony area by hanging some light-weight pots or placing a step-style planter that can accommodate several pots.

Ensure some extra oxygen by bringing in plants like areca palm. The tree will purify the environment by removing carbon dioxide and toxins from the air. You can alternate it between the outdoors and indoors to ensure longevity. If space is a real problem, de-clutter a corner for the plant of your choice.

Bedroom side tables can be used for keeping a single colour flower stick or a colourful bunch in a vase. Bathrooms too can house a stem or two. Window edges or countertops can be used to add a distinct colour or warmth to the décor with plants and vases of choice. You could possibly have a temple tree (champa) and bottle brush branches extending into the balcony. Instead of chopping them off, trim them regularly and let them be a part of the balcony, with their flowers and fragrance. Study tables are another good place to place bamboo shoots or just a stick of flower. Total Environment, builders and designers from Bangalore introduced the concept of cantilevered terrace gardens with every apartment. Their gardens have just grown larger and include features like water bodies and wood decks, bringing the outdoors in and taking the indoors out. The projects are also noted for their creeper-covered pergolas and landscaping.

Plant types 

Choose carefully as many plants thrive when hung outside on the porch, but may very well die inside a living room. Fortunately, there is a variety of plants that do well indoors. Palms such as reed and areca are extremely versatile and do very well in low-light conditions, making them perfect for the living room.

Rubber plants are both aesthetically pleasing and resilient, and work nicely when placed in the corner of a room. Ivy is one of the most common types of indoor plants, and is perfect for hanging and stringing above windows. Snake plant (also called mother in law’s tongue) is an ideal bedroom plant. This plant is really hard to kill; it’s one of the easiest houseplants to grow.

Money plant removes formaldehydes and other volatile chemicals and can be a good addition to any room in the house. It blooms with lightly scented purple or white flowers which slowly transform into the money plant. It is also known as ‘honesty’, ‘satin flower’ and ‘moon wort’.

Placement

When teaming up a room with plants, placement does matter. While it may be tempting to put a certain plant where you feel it will be most aesthetically pleasing, it is important to take into consideration its light requirements. Always check to see if the plant you are working with requires low, medium or high amounts of light, and distribute the plants accordingly. Plants are most noticeable when placed against simple backgrounds (such as a white wall), and when hung in front of or above windows.

Many people choose to create a veritable indoor garden in a specific corner of the living room, clustering plants on the ground and hanging them above. Some plants can be extremely beneficial to the quality of the air. In order to get the most air-cleaning benefits out of your plants, ensure that there is at least one plant positioned every eight to ten feet. This can help to maximise their effectiveness in cleaning the air. While there are a great many plants that are said to have air-purifying qualities, bamboo and English ivy are among the most common, and can easily be incorporated into the living room. I’ve seen some very interesting and colourful potted plantations hanging from the balconies in Italy. The pots are of shapes varying from tortoise to a bunny rabbit and the flowers are at their colourful best. Regardless of how you choose to place your plants, ensure that they are getting good light.

Match it right

It is important to take into consideration the colours of your plants. If you choose to incorporate plants that have coloured budding flowers, ensure that the colours will not clash with other colours found within the living room. 

Choose plants according to the colour scheme that you have already established in your living room, as it is far easier to replace a plant than an expensive piece of furniture.  Anusuiya Bharadwaj from Bangalore loves to decorate her home with plants and flowers. “Each time I buy pots and plants I try to find the ideal location for them and see to it that they complement the accessories around them to make it look like a well-composed picture,” she says. Blue pottery can add a fresh dimension to a plain white wall.

Gifting

Plants are a wonderful way to celebrate a mission accomplished or a major milestone reached. With a beautiful house plant, you’ll be sending a lovely way-to-go message to your loved ones! They last long and leave fond memories.

Visit www.plantex.in, www.just­plants.in for gifting plants. Minhaaz Sheriyar of The Bamboo Store, Delhi, explains, “bamboo is a very pleasing and aesthetic element. Bamboo pots hold well and can be hung or placed elsewhere depending on the usage,” she says.
 

 Clay pots

Pros: They are widely available and the basic unglazed clay plant pots are not expensive. They are available in a variety of shapes and sizes to choose from. Unglazed clay pots are lovely for children to paint and add their personal touch to it. Give them as gifts or keep and show them off!
Cons: They are breakable, and the chards can have sharp edges, hence not necessarily a good idea for very young children. Because the clay is porous, more water is lost, and plants or flowers in clay pots need watering more frequently.

Plastic pots
Pros: They come in all shapes and sizes, last longer and are cheaper.
Cons: Sunlight can make them brittle and they don’t have the same heat insulation as clay. The very thin ones can split and break.  
Stone containers
Pros: They look ornamental but can be expensive and heavy. Reconstructed stone containers are less expensive and quite widely available in different sizes and styles. They look nice in a garden or a patio regardless of what has been planted in them, as the container itself is usually ornamental. They have good heat insulation and last long.
Cons: They are heavy and usually huge in size.  

Wooden gardening                          containers
Pros: They have good heat insulation and can be easy and cheap to make at home. Can be made to size.
Cons: They require maintenance and chemical treatment every year. Sometimes the wood can split, or the nails go rusty.

Junk and DIY pots and planters
Junk yards can offer a wealth of interesting containers. Old chimney pots are frequently seen trailing with beautiful flowers in the corner of gardens. Dublin sinks look lovely with bedding plants in them and even old bath tubs can find a new lease of life in the garden. Buckets which can no longer carry water due to holes in their base are                    perfectly designed as planters - the drainage holes are already there!
Also use yoghurt pots, mugs with handles broken off,  plastic and metal containers – you can always paint and                            decorate them.