Table of Contents
- Indoor Water Garden Ideas – Add a Touch of Green to Your Room
- The Easiest Indoor Water Garden Ideas
- Steps for a quick and straightforward indoor water garden:
- Use Your Creativity
- Here are the steps for the Creative Water Garden:
- There Are Many Other Indoor Water Gardens Ideas
- Add Fish to Your Indoor Water Garden Ideas for Even More Beauty
- Steps for making a water garden aquarium:
- Indoor Water Garden Ideas: The Wrap-up
- FAQ
Water gardening is not new, but it is a popular trend today. It can be used effectively to grow fruits and vegetables. Or you may want to simply add to your décor with a unique water garden that you have designed, like those in this article of indoor water garden ideas.
Water gardens use hydroponics, a method of growing plants without soil. Plants simply get their nutrients from water rather than soil. This system is easy to use with no weeding. Some water garden ideas are so maintenance-free that all you need to do is occasionally add or change the water.
Indoor Water Garden Ideas – Add a Touch of Green to Your Room
The simplest water garden needs only a glass container, such as a tall glass, a glass canister with a cork lid, a small aquarium, or any other glass container of your choosing. You can be creative in the type of container you pick. Some crafters like to browse in store’s kitchen storage areas or in pet departments where it is possible to find unique glass bowls, glassware, and other containers. Aquarium and fish stores sometimes have clever glassware for this purpose. Clear glass bottles from an antique shop are also attractive options for your plants to grow.
It is essential to know that there are aquatic and semi-aquatic plants. Aquatic plants thrive underwater – both the roots and the plant. On the other hand, semi-aquatic plants need their roots in the water, but the plant itself floats on top of it.
One aquatic plant that looks beautiful because of its long roots is the water fern. Garden stores may carry other species, but it must be an aquatic plant for the indoor water garden since its roots will be completely submerged in the water. Semi-aquatic plants will not work.
The Easiest Indoor Water Garden Ideas
The indoor water gardener may want to begin their ventures in hydroponics
by simply making a water garden with a lid. This project can be completed in about fifteen minutes. Equipment needed is a glass container with a lid, one or more aquatic plants, aquarium gravel, and distilled water.
Steps for a quick and straightforward indoor water garden:
1– Wash jar and gravel with hot water to remove unwanted dirt or other substances.
2– Place gravel in a jar or glass until it is about one-fourth full.
3 – Fill almost to the top with distilled or spring water. If you want to use tap water, fill the container, and let it sit for twenty-four hours before adding plants. Allowing time to sit is important to let the chlorine escape.
4 – Rinse any soil off the plant. If it has been potted until now, be sure that there is no soil on the roots.
5 – Tuck the long roots into and under the gravel in your water garden, making sure that it is planted in a shallow way so that the roots do not suffocate.
6 – Put the lid on your jar. Now, you can place it on a desk, a table, bookshelf, or anywhere you like.
7 – Fertilize in about 7 days. You can buy the right fertilizer at a gardening store.
This type of water garden thrives best with indirect sunlight. A windowsill is usually too hot with too much direct sunlight.
Use Your Creativity
Another indoor water garden idea that you may want to try is a Creative Water Garden. It is basically the same as the water garden described above, but it allows you to get more creative in designing this garden. You can use rocks that you have purchased or gathered outside or use gravel in a color that coordinates with the room’s décor. Small to medium-size shells are one option, as are beads, sand, or multi-colored marbles. Glass works best, and metal should not be used because it can rust, affecting your plant.
The beauty of this water garden is in the choice of plants and the décor that you add. The possibilities are endless. Floater plants like duckweed work best. The roots are submerged, but the tops float on the water surface.
Here are the steps for the Creative Water Garden:
1– Wash the container and decorative pieces and rinse well.
2 – Fill the jar one-third of the way packed with gravel or decorative elements.
3 – Pour distilled water up to the top of the container.
4 – Place your plant into your water garden. Allow the roots to float while the plant is out of the water. It is important not to get the top of the plant wet, or it might become damaged.
Step 5 – Set the water garden in indirect light.
Remember to fertilize the plant in about 7 days and enjoy your creation!
There Are Many Other Indoor Water Gardens Ideas
There are several ways to make a pond to place on a screened-in porch or patio in warm weather. You can buy the pieces individually, but it might be easier to purchase a patio pond kit. Patio pond kits typically include a container and an air pump to circulate the water.
Ponds use floater plants that stay on top of the water with their roots in the water below. Water lilies are beautiful and popular for this type of water garden, as are others, such as yellow canna or water hyacinth.
Some suggestions for a pond container other than kits sold at gardening centers are aquariums or any container with significant width because they allow more plants in your pond. You will find that pumps can be costly, but they can be found with adequate research at lower costs of around $10.
The advantage of incorporating a pump is that they keep your pond cleaner without much algae buildup, plus the pump makes a relaxing white noise sound as it operates.
Add Fish to Your Indoor Water Garden Ideas for Even More Beauty
Another type of water garden that children and adults enjoy is the water garden aquarium. This type of garden has both plants and one or two fish. A tall, narrow container makes a beautiful aquarium, but your choice of what to use is limitless, as long as it is made of clear glass so you can enjoy your plants and fish.
Steps for making a water garden aquarium:
1 – Wash the container and gravel in hot water, making sure to rinse very well.
2 – Place gravel at the bottom of the container, filling it up about one-fourth of the way.
3 – Place your plant that needs to have all parts immersed in water, such as Anubias barteri, planting the roots in shallow gravel. The leaves of this plant are long and beautiful. They will not only look great, but they will provide a hiding place for your fish.
4 – Keeping the fish in its plastic water bag, place it on the top of the water garden aquarium. It should remain here for about an hour, so that the temperature inside the bag and aquarium become the same.
5 – Release the fish and the water from the bag into the water.
6 – Plant the floater plant of your choice on top of the aquarium. It should leave ample room at the top for your fish to swim up for additional oxygen.
Sit back, relax, and Enjoy!
Indoor Water Garden Ideas: The Wrap-up
As you can tell, creating an indoor water garden is a simple and fun task to achieve. The possibilities are endless, they easily bring joy to anyone that gets to view them, and water gardens make for great conversation starters.
