Indoor plants have a lot to offer both beginner and experienced gardeners. Studies show exposure to indoor plants can aid in positive mental health and productivity. Though, it can be hard to reap the benefits of an indoor Eden if you keep killing your charges.
Von Kidd, manager of Foxglove Plantbar on Baxter Street, and Felipe Pedraza, a Plantbar customer turned enthusiastic employee, offered their best advice for keeping your indoor garden healthy and happy. Here’s a few tips from these experts:
Watch out for overwatering: “We always tell people overwatering is the frequency, not the amount,” Kidd said. “When your plant is ready to be watered, water thoroughly. It’s better to under-water than over-water.”
Bottom watering, where a plant is placed in a shallow tray with a few inches of water, is the best practice. “We prefer bottom watering,” Kidd said. “That helps with fungus gnats.”
Fungus gnats are dark, small gnats that lay eggs in rich soil. Once hatched, the larvae feed on a plant’s roots and other organic matter in the top two inches of soil. Keeping the top drier helps break the gnats’ life cycle.
But, Kidd stressed, it’s important to figure out what works best for you. At the shop, with so many plants, they use the bottom water technique. At home, she prefers to water from the top of the plant.
If you’re not sure how dry your soil is, Kidd suggested a moisture meter, or an even-lower cost version: a wooden chopstick. Just thrust the chopstick in the soil. “If it comes out clean, it’s dry, and you can water,” Kidd said. “If it comes out with little bits of soil on it, then it’s still pretty moist.”
Beware repotting: “I have plants that I bought six years ago that I still have not repotted,” Kidd said.
Repotting can disturb roots, introduce new pests and make moisture levels fluctuate. In this way, indoor plants and outdoor plants are different. Many online videos warn about the dangers of allowing plants to become root-bound, a condition where a plant’s roots push soil out of the pot, and it slowly strangles itself.
For indoor plants, repotting should be considered when other conditions such as watering, light and soil are not improving the plant’s condition.
When repotting, the plant should not be moved from a small 4-inch pot to a 3-gallon tub, Pedraza said. “You only want to move up 1 to 2 inches at a time,” Kidd added.
Lighting, lighting, lighting: Foxglove Plantbar contains enviable walls of Instagrammable draped leaves. Growing and maintaining this wall of green meant installing special lighting, Kidd said. While the bulbs themselves can be simple LEDs, the placement and amount will vary depending on the plant and the environment. Plantbar’s focal point of a giant monstera has eight bright LEDs shining on it to meet its light requirements.
It’s usually the plants on the lower end of light requirements who suffer without cause. “Low light does not mean no light,” Kidd said.
If you want to supplement your lighting, it’s as easy as popping in an LED in a floor lamp and pointing it near any sad plant stragglers. Low-light plants will not want to camp out directly in the beam, but will prefer placement off to one side or another.
Pick an easy plant: For folks with a brown thumb when it comes to indoor plants, pothos and philodendrons are a good place to start, Kidd said. Lemon lime philodendron in particular are forgiving plants. “If I forget to water them for three weeks, they’re like, ‘Hey, we’re thirsty, but we’ll bounce back,’” Kidd said.
If you’re interested in more exotic, yet still easy-ish indoor plants, Pedraza recommends picking a variety of monstera that piques your interest. Pedraza loved gardening and outdoor plants before he began visiting Foxglove Plantbar as a customer in 2023. “I came in here and saw that giant monstera and I was like, ‘I have to have one,’” he said.
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