Hanging Garden Care for Beginners

One of the best ways to reduce indoor pollution and include the beauty of the great outdoors in your apartment home is by cultivating a hanging garden. Hanging plants use space well  and add to any decor, whether it’s modern or more traditional. Such plants are typically easy for apartments dwellers to maintain as well.

Water Plants Several Times a Week

Plant your hanging plants in containers with drainage holes for optimum drainage. Most plants should be watered when the soil is dry to the touch or a couple times a week. Water from the top using water that is room temperature to prevent the soil from developing a crust, which can cut off air circulation to the plant’s roots. Keep the soil moist but don’t water it to the point that it’s soggy. Mist your plants when the humidity in your apartment is low in the early part of the day. Never water plants in direct sunlight.

Use a Good Soil Mix and Fertilizer

Most hanging plants flourish in well-drained soil. A good soil mix is a combination of  1/4 potting soil, 1/4 pine bark mulch or sphagnum moss,  and 1/4 peat moss added to coarse sand, aquarium gravel and charcoal chips for drainage. Feed your plants with a good fertilizer every two weeks. Most fertilizers contain a mix of nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium. For lush, green plants, choose a mix rich in nitrogen. If you want to enhance a plant’s blooms or root system, then a selection of a fertilizer with a high concentration of phosphorous is the best choice. For the overall health of plants, or to prevent curling leaves or yellowing, pick a mix that is higher in potassium.

Keep Your Plants Pest-free

To keep your hanging garden free from pests, bathe your plants’ leaves in a solution of one tablespoon mild dishwashing liquid mixed with a pint of lukewarm water. Put the pot of the plant in a plastic baggy and turn the plant over, dipping the leaves in the soapy liquid. Allow the plant to drip dry before returning it to its designated spot in your apartment.

Prune and Propagate your Plants

To encourage growth and keep plants healthy, they need to be pruned and propagated in the spring and summer. Pruning supports compact growth and therefore more lush foliage is produced. Take premium pruned pieces or cuttings and plant them in small containers holding a rooting medium of one-half peat moss and one-half coarse sand. Keep the medium consistently moist. Or, you can place the cuttings in an aquarium tank containing the suggested rooting medium. Place a glass lid over the tank to ensure that the plants receive the needed moisture. Plants typically root in about three weeks. Once rooted, the plantings can be transplanted to the aforementioned soil mix and placed in an area where they will receive the necessary amount of light.

Make Sure Plants Receive the Required Amount of Light

All plants need light in order to develop and grow. Check out the lighting requirements for your hanging basket plants to make sure you situate them in the proper areas of your apartment where they will receive the right amount of light for cultivation.

Caring for a hanging garden is a worthwhile pursuit. Use the above tips to produce a hanging garden of your own.