Having a well-organized growing area is essential to your success as an indoor gardener. As much as I am calling my growing area a “plant room”, you’ll soon see that it’s really a corner of the basement.
My growing area is really tiny, but it has served me well. Years ago I had a proper room on the second floor of our house, but that caused me a lot of grief. It was always too hot or too cold, there was no proper sink for cleaning up, and worst of all, I couldn’t sneak away in the middle of the night for peaceful maintenance.
The basement never gets too hot or too cold. I have a sink and a hiding place. I used to dread being next to the water heater and thought it was a barrier to my eventual expansion plans to take over the entire furnace room, but in the winter of 2013, Toronto got hit with a severe ice storm. We lost power for almost a week! That trusty water heater though, since it uses natural gas, stopped our pipes from bursting AND kept my plant area at +7 degrees celsius. By covering my lightstands with blankets, none of them died.
My growing area is only 3 metres by 2 1/2 Metres and yet I have managed to put so much into it. I have 3 lightstands, another plastic shelving unit, part of an IKEA shelf as well as desk and a plastic drawer set.
Supplies and Tools
I’m always looking for good supplies and the pot with dome and collapsible tent are great tools to provide humid environments for finicky plants.
Building your own Watering System
Maximizing your Space
Using a clear acrylic sheet on the lower shelf of my lightstands has allowed me to create YET ANOTHER level to grow things! This area is perfect for starting babies. I put clear covered containers on large trays so I can pull them out like a drawer. I use the set it/ forget it method in which I put leaves or bloomstalks into dampened vermiculite, cover them up and don’t look at them until a few months later!
Oh those lovely Pings!!!
Throughout my plants you’ll notice adorable lime green plants and if you have read my blog, you’ll recognize my pings! They are carnivorous plants that attract insects to their sticky leaves and dissolve them! They are on the frontlines of my pest management strategy and you can read all about them in the first-ever blog I wrote: http://www.sayehsunstudio.com/2019/02/06/a-few-of-my-favorite-pings/
Want to learn more?
Of course I didn’t tell you ALL the things I covered in my video, so why don’t you head on to my YouTube channel and check out my video?
