How to Turn Your Home into an Indoor Jungle Part 1: Know your space Step 1: Know your light
Plants Indoors
There is a growing trend (pun intended) to bring more plants into our homes. There are many wild claims about the benefits of growing plants, from increased longevity to lower stress levels. Some people claim they can improve the air quality in your homes (though recent studies and reviews of former studies have implied or stated directly that these claims are overblown). Whatever your reason for wanting to green up your living space it can often be a daunting task to figure out where to start. So, in a new series I am starting I will outline some helpful tips to start making room for more life.
In this first installment, I will discuss what I think are the first things to consider, things I wish I had thought about or known about when I first started collecting and growing indoor plants. So, we are starting with the basics to help make the transition easier from an indoor desert to an urban jungle.
What to know first when growing houseplants
There are a lot of things to consider when growing plants indoors. And the first thing to keep in mind for the greatest success is to get to know your space. Look around the room or rooms you wish to green up. Don’t think just because you’ve inhabited a place for a while means you know it well. Often, the things that are important to your plants go unnoticed in our busy day-to-day lives with their endless distractions (like reading blog posts about growing plants instead of noticing the light quality and humidity of the space you are occupying).
What do I need to know to grow houseplants?
When you first start really looking, noticing, and feeling what a particular space is like you should keep an eye out for a few key qualities. How much and what kind of light does your space receive? How warm or cool the room? How much does that change from day to day as well as throughout the year? And one of the most elusive to beginners, what is the humidity of the space you are working with?
I’ll touch on each one, in turn, starting in this blog with light. Light is often the easiest to start with and will help us get a better understanding of the other two major elements.
Light for houseplants
The amount of light a room gets changes throughout the day, as well as throughout the year. Also, the further from the equator you live the more dramatic this change becomes. This can also vary a lot over the whole room. Bright floor-to-ceiling windows may let more direct sunlight spread throughout much of the room, some furniture or other obstructions may cause other areas to receive constant shade. Start noticing where, if anywhere, there is direct light entering the room. Try to make a note of what time the light shows up, and what direction it travels. Knowing which direction the windows face will make a big difference. It may also be helpful, if you are having trouble seeing where the light is, to start by looking where the light isn’t. Check out the shadows in your room, where does the light not reach?
Tips for knowing how much light a space has
Another helpful tool would be to check out online what time the sun rises and sets at various times of the year to see how many hours of daylight you will receive both during the long hot days of summer and the colder shorter (often cloudier) days of winter, and what the spring and autumn might look like. This has helped me successfully grow cactuses indoors in Berlin because I can adapt my actions to the natural growth habits of these plants.
How to know how much light you have
Once you get a sense of where the light is and where the light is going, it will be helpful to figure out what kind and quality of light you have. Thankfully, there is a simple test that can easily set you right. It’s what I like to call ‘The Reading Test’. In the middle of the day, turn off all artificial lights. Now try to read something like a book or a newspaper. Try this in several areas in the room. Notice how easy or difficult it is to read. If you find reading comfortable, most likely you have medium indirect light. If your eyes are straining or you find yourself wanting to turn the lights back on you’ve got yourself a low light situation. If, on the other hand, you start to reach for your sunglasses you most likely have bright indirect or even direct sunlight. You can repeat this at various times of the day and throughout the year to really start getting to know your space.
The Reading Test For Plants
‘The Reading Test’ is a great way to get a feel for the amount of light in your space without having to use a light meter to start measuring lux and lumens. (If you have a light meter, then, by all means, use it!)
As you get a feel for how the light moves and changes throughout your room or rooms, you start to get a better idea of what kind of environment you have. Once we’ve mastered our environment, we can begin to fill it with plants that will not only live but thrive.
In the next installment, I will discuss how to start figuring out the humidity levels and what that means for your future indoor jungle.
What next?
Go check step 2 on How to Turn Your Home into an Indoor Jungle: Part 1: Know Your Space Step 2: Know Your Humidity and get more tips on how to turn your home into a beautiful indoor jungle on my new book LEAVE IT THE FUCK ALONE Out Now!
