Indoor garden

[Sonny1318]

After playing around with adding real plants to my snake set up. I decided it would be cool to add an indoor garden instead. My snakes take up a wall in my living room. And now in the corner of my dining room I added this. Top shelf are Brazil philodendrons, the two in the middle are a ponytail palm and a money tree. The bottom are dumb cane. I had them spread thru out the whole house and thought this would really look cool instead. I grew them all from 4” pots. The grow lights are LED full spectrum. All the species are from the Central America region. And are all super easy to care for (kinda like ball pythons). And have similar enough light and soil requirements. As I have mentioned, I unfortunately have some serious health problems. And the balls and plants are easy enough to care for that it’s not putting burden on me. Keeps my spirits up so I can continue to feel “productive”. And my wife can take care of if I’m not doing well on any particular day. Thanks for looking. I also included a updated snake set up picture.


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[C.Marie]

Such a pretty garden bet it is very soothing to just go water , and pick off the dead leafs

[Sonny1318]

Such a pretty garden bet it is very soothing to just go water , and pick off the dead leafs

After an extremely bad industrial accident , I developed a rare nerve disease. Even a foundation that specializes in my condition, recommends keeping plants as good therapy. I imagine my pet rock collection (my snakes) hopefully helps a bit too. Lol


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[artgecko]

Nice plants! Have you considered trying linear / tube type LED fixtures so that you get more light coverage? I've seen some really good setups where they hang the LED fixtures on the underside of each wire shelf so that they light the plants below evenly.

If you end up enjoying the plants a lot, you might consider getting into planted terrariums. This is a good forum to go to to look at some nice setups. They specialize in dart frogs, but I have some planted terrariums with geckos also and have heard of people using these setups for amazon tree boas, etc. The downside to planted terrariums is that they aren't cheap to start and it can be hard to find plants that are easy to maintain. If you can get the terrariums used, that helps, and it is not impossible to start one without spending a lot of $$, but the lighting tends to be expensive.

[Sonny1318]

Nice plants! Have you considered trying linear / tube type LED fixtures so that you get more light coverage? I've seen some really good setups where they hang the LED fixtures on the underside of each wire shelf so that they light the plants below evenly.

If you end up enjoying the plants a lot, you might consider getting into planted terrariums. This is a good forum to go to to look at some nice setups. They specialize in dart frogs, but I have some planted terrariums with geckos also and have heard of people using these setups for amazon tree boas, etc. The downside to planted terrariums is that they aren't cheap to start and it can be hard to find plants that are easy to maintain. If you can get the terrariums used, that helps, and it is not impossible to start one without spending a lot of $$, but the lighting tends to be expensive.

Thank you very much. I went at checked out the site you recommended. I originally had planned on incorporating plants into my snake set up. That’s why I went with those light fixtures and that style bulb. But ended up going in this direction instead. The shelf is located close to a lot of indirect light, so I also got that going. And I would love to have a massive terrarium. Maybe someday, right now I just very grateful for what I have. Again Thanks.

[Prognathodon]

My indoor garden is at my office. I’ve got both windowsills in my office, plus a satellite cubicle (not shown), and a shortened shelving unit from Ikea with an LED aquarium light.





The black hood on the front of the rack keeps the glare out of my eyes when working at my computer. The three in front of the rack are going home shortly, going to try a bio-active desert setup for my sand boa.
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[Sonny1318]

My indoor garden is at my office. I’ve got both windowsills in my office, plus a satellite cubicle (not shown), and a shortened shelving unit from Ikea with an LED aquarium light.






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I love it, thanks for sharing. The pebbles make it look so cool. I might have to pick some up, they really add something.

[Prognathodon]

I love it, thanks for sharing. The pebbles make it look so cool. I might have to pick some up, they really add something.

I started using it to prevent eroded craters from watering, the appearance is a nice bonus. And the books say that top-dressing also helps keep moisture in. I use aquarium gravel, and the pots with larger drainage holes get bigger chunks in the bottom to keep the soil from falling out. I finally used up most of the stuff from a retired 10-gallon tank, and had to buy a couple new bags (I don’t try to save every little bit when re-potting). The small bucket of extra gravel makes a good doorstop.


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[Sonny1318]

I started using it to prevent eroded craters from watering, the appearance is a nice bonus. And the books say that top-dressing also helps keep moisture in. I use aquarium gravel, and the pots with larger drainage holes get bigger chunks in the bottom to keep the soil from falling out. I finally used up most of the stuff from a retired 10-gallon tank, and had to buy a couple new bags (I don’t try to save every little bit when re-potting). The small bucket of extra gravel makes a good doorstop.


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I was looking at “gravel” at Home Depot, some Mexican gray pebbles?? I think they would look nice. And yes I’ve read they can be helpful in that regard. You sure do have some beautiful plants, most of those are succulents correct?? Beautiful collection either way. I have a very large balcony and have a bunch of different kinds of marigolds out there. I used to plant honeysuckles. But between the squirrels eating them and watching praying mantis’s attack the hummingbirds they attracted. I went with the marigolds.

[Prognathodon]

I was looking at “gravel” at Home Depot, some Mexican gray pebbles?? I think they would look nice. And yes I’ve read they can be helpful in that regard.

Whatever kind of gravel/pebbles you like should be fine. Some of my plants have tumbled glass that I had in an old aquarium. Most of my plants aren’t very big, so I have pretty small stuff - one bag was 1/8-1/4”-ish, the other was 1/4-1/2”-ish.

You sure do have some beautiful plants, most of those are succulents correct?? Beautiful collection either way.

Thank you! Yep, all of my garden is made up of cactus/succulents. Most of them came from Home Depot or the local pharmacy/convenience stores. Typically the first thing I do is get them into bigger pots, so the poor things have some room to grow. The little cactus in the middle row on the shelving unit is in that relatively big pot because it had such a big root ball. I just re-potted it a couple weeks ago and it’s already got new growth.

I’ve killed a few of my plants, most have held up pretty well. I may even try lithops again, I recently learned that I was watering them too much/at the wrong times, as they like it really really dry!
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lithops



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