Bring the Outdoors

Bringing nature indoors is easy to do. Here are six ways for you to incorporate living plants in your living areas!

Fresh Flowers

Obviously, fresh flowers are the most basic way to bring your garden indoors. Having seasonal flowers all over your home brings a sense of warmth and color to your life. Fresh flowers are a beautiful addition to any décor. From a huge bouquet to a simple single flower you can add a touch of your garden anywhere.

Ferns and Greenery

Don’t forget that it is not only fresh flowers that add some natural inspiration indoors. I have found that ferns make for beautiful cut arrangements as their delicate greenery bring in a lot of interest. Other forms of greenery with neat shapes or textures or even colors can be a fun way to bring your garden inside. Decorative red cabbages, the dull green-gray of shade plants, the purple leaves of Wandering Jew, and the huge green leaves of a Cana lily can all be wonderful additions to your home’s décor.

Live Plants

Potted plants are another way to bring nature in naturally. Some are both useful and decorative. A pot of lemongrass can help to ward off bugs like flies and mosquitos. Set at a doorway or window it can be a great advantage to your home. Indoor plants can also be a way to bringing your garden inside. Some plants just grow better indoors under controlled conditions. Having those plants in the chill of winter can lessen your yearnings to get outside in the dirt. Edible plants can also be grown indoors. I like to regrow my green onions and harvest them over and over again. Celery works well with this method too!

Herb Gardens

Another kind of living plant that grows well indoors is an herb garden. Herbs are easy to grow in any sunny spot like a windowsill. They are also very useful in cooking and making your home smell great. I like to keep a small herb garden right in my kitchen. That way I can harvest them when I need them and they also add to the natural feel of my home!

Window Boxes

Your garden can decorate the outside of your home as well. Window boxes are a great way to make your home look inviting while adding a natural element. I like to grow colorful flowers in my window boxes to add a splash of color to my grey brick. I find that flowers add a lot of appeal to the outside of my home and I also get to show off some of my gardening skills where the neighbors can see it and appreciate it.

Living Walls

Another method to decorate the outside of your home naturally is with living walls. Traditionally this means letting ivy or other vines creep up the sides of your home. Although I personally find this very appealing, many home owners frown on that because of the damage it can do to the home’s structure. You can build a trellis to let the vines grow up as well which is a good compromise. I love the smell of my climbing jasmine in bloom and the wisteria that drapes across my porch. However a more modern way to grow living walls is in a frame or modified pallet. Filling the frame with dirt and then succulents or other plants makes the living wall more like a decoration. You can also grow moss on your home’s walls. I have seen the moss grown in fun shapes and even in words!