Apartment Garden Blues (Blog): Displaying Leaves Indoors
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- Published on Sunday, July 13 2014 07:12
- Written by Alexandra Martin
A lot of us live in apartments I like to call “caves.” There is just zero light inside, and you just can’t grow plants without grow lights. Grow lights can get in the way or take up too much space, so we cave-dwellers just do without plants inside. But you can bring some of the outdoors inside for very little work and money.
You could buy or pick flowers to display in a vase and replace them every few days, but an easier and cheaper solution is to collect a leaf or two while you’re talking a walk outside. Find a tree with large, thick leaves, and pick one off. Rubber plants and magnolia trees have perfect leaves for this. Sometimes they’re hard to get off, and they can have a sticky milky substance in the leaf stem, so be careful to not make a mess. Other plants and trees may have really pretty leaves you'll want to display, but they may be thin and delicate and won't last long. Just remember that the thicker the leaf is, the longer it will last.
If you can't find any good leaves on your walk, harvest a few leaves from your own garden. Pothos plant leaves are great. The same rule applies – the thicker the leaf, the longer it will last.
Place the leaf or leaves in a tiny vase filled with water, and you can keep a piece of the colorful outdoors in your dark home for six to eight weeks! No light or care required!
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Alexandra is a professional writer from Southern California who grows vegetables, herbs, lots of aloe vera and one giant Boston fern in her balcony garden. She also grows dracaena, pothos and English ivy indoors. She loves traveling and birdwatching in addition to gardening.
