Cats and dogs love dirt, they dig in it, play in it and if a cat’s litter box isn’t clean they may find a back-up location in your potted indoor house plants.

Some pets will leave the dirt in the indoor house plants alone but are irresistibly drawn to the leaves, either to nibble on or bat at.

There is no fail-safe plant but there are some tips and tricks you can follow to make your pets leave the plants alone.

Taking care of indoor house plants:

Keeping pets away from indoor house plants: The biggest problem and the most damaging to an indoor house plant is a cat deciding to use the dirt as a litter box. Once a cat has done this once, the odor is there and it is going to be hard to stop them from going back.

To prevent this from happening in the first place, cover the dirt in larger pots with lava rock or wood chips. A cat will not like the feel of either of these materials on their paws and will not feel comfortable using the pot as a bathroom.

Fresh herbs can make a world of difference in your meals. Instead of buying them at the grocery store and getting too much at once or a bunch that isn’t as fresh as it could be, grow your own.

Grow a variety or just your favorite, in a window box or on the kitchen counter yielding an indoor herb garden.

It is an easy introduction to indoor gardening.

Planning an indoor herb garden:

To start your own indoor herb garden you have two options: You can go to your local nursery and purchase some seedlings or grow your own from seed.

Either way is fine, but if you are a novice the seedlings are the way to go.

Planting indoor herb garden:

Once you have your seedlings at home, you can replant them or for the first season you can leave them in the small plastic pot that they come in.

If you do decide to replant them, do not pack in the soil too tightly and place a small amount of gravel or woodchips at the bottom of the pot for good drainage, hence creating a beautiful indoor herb garden.

There are part-time indoor gardeners; these are the ones that live in an area with cold winters – too cold for their outdoor plants to survive in.

By transplanting or bringing the plants indoors, they can survive the colder months adding greenery inside the home and encouraging indoor gardening. There are some considerations and preparations that should be made before you decide indoor gardening.

Part-time inside gardening:

The most important point to think about before bringing a plant indoors and encouraging indoor gardening is whether the plant will survive being an inside plant.

If the plant has high or very high light requirements and your house does not get a lot of light in the winter time – it may not be a good solution. As a back-up you can invest in an artificial light source to supplement the natural light for the inside gardening plant.

How will you get the plant indoors?

If the plant is already in a pot that will fit inside it is easy enough to move it indoors. But if the plant is in the ground you need to find a pot large enough to contain the root system and one that will not be too difficult to move.

There is a solution for you if you love the look of plants indoors but don’t have the time or a green thumb to take care of them. An indoor garden terrarium is a self-contained plant habitat.

Once you have set-up the indoor garden terrarium and closed the lid (on the jar or other container you have chosen) the plants inside create their own eco-system – all you have to do is enjoy it.

Indoor garden Terrarium selections:

The choices for indoor garden terrarium containers are only limited by your imagination. Traditionally a smaller aquarium is used with a lid but a glass jar or other container will work nicely too.

Plastic will work as well, just make sure that it is a clear plastic or you won’t be able to admire your handiwork once it is completed. Whatever size or material you choose for your indoor garden terrarium the most important factor is that it does not leak.

You need the water and moisture to stay inside for it to work and you don’t want a mess inside your house.

If you love an outdoor plant but it is too big to bring indoors you have the option of taking a cutting from that plant.

Once you have taken a cutting, you can start a new plant that is smaller and more appropriate for an indoor garden.

Depending on the type of plant you are taking a cutting from there is a few methods you might want to try.

Knowing about the outdoor plant to plant in your indoor garden:

Taking a cutting from a plant is also known as propagation.

Hard wood: If you have a hardwood plant that you want to propagate the process is slow but easy to do as the cuttings are quite hardy. Take the cutting (about 5 inches worth) when the tree is dormant (in the middle of winter) and place the cutting cut-side up in a pail of sand.

Fill the pail with water and wait until spring. Then submersed side will have little nodules that will turn into roots once planted.

Soft wood: When you are taking a cutting from a soft-wood plant, it will require more care and attention. Taking cuttings from soft-wood yields quicker results and you do the actually cutting when the plant is in the active growing phase.

If you have young children around an indoor garden is the perfect project to teach them about nature.

It is also an avenue to teach children about the responsibility needed to care for something on an ongoing basis.

Simple is best, even for older children – as they prove themselves and their garden thrives they can expand the indoor garden plants that they grow.

Indoor garden development:

To enrich the learning opportunity purchase clear containers to grow the plants in. If you can not find a traditional pot that is clear make sure the container you use either has a drainage hole in the bottom or layer gravel on the bottom before adding the soil. Once the plant starts to grow more the roots will become visible in the pot.

Children will love to grow their own vegetables and maybe even eat them once they are ready. Buy each child a large container that is theirs to take care of and let them pick the type of vegetable they want to grow. The easiest vegetables to grow in an indoor garden are carrots, tomatoes, and radishes. There are a wide variety of tomatoes that you can grow from beefsteak to cherry tomato.

You may have heard that it is hard to get indoor flowering plants, shrubs or trees, that’s because it is the right conditions are essential.

But if you have the patience and the correct amount of light (the brighter the better) to provide you can be successful.

In addition to having the right conditions, you will also need to choose indoor flowering plant that has a history of blooming in indoor gardens.

How to choose indoor flowering plant:

If you purchase flowering plant at a green house, be aware that the plant will be acclimatized to the optimal conditions found there.

You may have better luck purchasing at a nursery or bringing an outdoor flowering plant indoors – they will be hardier and used to changes in weather.

Look into your garden center’s return policy too, many will guarantee the life of your new indoor flowering plant for a certain period of time.

They will also give you important information on the care and maintenance your flowering plant will need.

Care to be taken for indoor flowering plant:

Humidity is important too, you can purchase a humidifier to help or you can simply place a tray of water close to the plants and as it evaporates it will create more moisture in the air.

The homeowner who wants to start a home garden that is light on the maintenance needed may decide to buy cactus and can grow an indoor cactus garden without much effort.

The indoor cactus garden growth is a good plan because they need less water than most plants and are quite hardy. Although there are still care instructions that need to be followed to increase the life and longevity of a cactus.

Caring for indoor cactus garden:

Cactus plants are used to the heat and being dry, for this reason putting them in a windowsill with full sunlight is optimal. Depending on the cactus and the amount of heat it is getting you may not have to water it for weeks at a time (once a month is the recommended watering schedule).

Cacti like coarse soil, it is recommended to use a soil that is meant specifically for a cactus instead of a generic mix. When a fertilizer is needed you should also purchase a fertilizer that is just for cacti.

When watering indoor cactus garden, you want to be careful not to over water it.

The requirements for plants are the same whether you are growing a garden traditionally or with a hydroponics garden method.

Hydroponics Garden replaces soil: In hydroponics garden method, the nutrients the plant would get from the soil are replaced by a growing medium that can be purchased at gardening supply stores.

Hydroponics Garden light needs: The need for water and light is still just as important though. Light can come from a natural source, an artificial source or a combination of the two.

Hydroponics Garden watering needs: Depending on the type of hydroponics garden system the method that your plant gets water will differ too.

Yielding best Hydroponics Garden results:

In order to get the best results from your home-based hydroponics garden, find a south-facing window to give the plants the best natural light. If this isn’t possible, you can purchase special lights that are specifically designed for plants.

Instead of using a fluorescent light, buy what is known as a discharge light. This imitates the light the plants would naturally get from the sun and will produce healthier and hardier plants.

If you have heard of hydroponics or other methods of growing plants without soil and want to try it out at home, you can.

Hydroponics is easy to care for and set-up at home. There are materials you can buy or some you may be able to find around the house.

Hydroponics changing rules of plants:

The dirt or soil that you use to grow plants in a traditional method is substituted for a growing medium (full of nutrients the plant needs to grow) in hydroponics gardening.

The growing medium is fed directly to the roots by method of a drip-feeder. The system can be automated and the gardener can control how many drips the roots receive in a specified time frame. The more of the growing medium the faster the plants grow.

Since the system can be automated, the amount of time and energy that is required to maintain a hydroponics garden is less than with a traditional garden. As long as enough water is present and growing medium the plants can be left unattended for a longer period of time.