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Who doesn't love a garden with flourishing plants in their home? Especially after this pandemic, people are becoming more concerned about the quality of the air they breathe. Also, plants are undoubtedly the best decor you can give to your balcony or terrace. There are various plants that you can grow in your balconies, keeping in mind the weather and other conditions.
More and more people are becoming fond of growing plants. This trend can be attributed to the awareness that the air in cities is not breathable. Additionally, with the growing trend of interior and exterior decor, plants are in much more demand as they add the extra layer of natural and colourful beauty to your home. Just one thing to remember - plants that you grow need to be relatively easy to maintain.
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You definitely do not want your plants to die! However, many people often complain about plants dying soon after they get it from a nursery. Before finalising any plant to buy, consider the conditions in your balcony or terrace area. A lot of factors need to be taken into account before bringing a plant home. A few of the most important ones are discussed here below. Consider these before you buy a green member for your family.
Any plant that you bring home can flourish only if they are meant to prosper in the existing conditions of your home. Before making the purchase, analyse the time at which you receive sunlight in your balcony, terrace, or patio. Some balconies, because of the direction they are in, receive a healthy amount of morning sun but remain in the shade for the rest of the day and vice versa.
Once you have done your analysis, choose plants that blossom in full sunlight, partial shade, or complete shade. Putting a shade-dwelling plant in full sunlight means that it will die soon. Similarly, placing sun-loving plants in the shade inhibits their growth. Areca Palm, for example, grows best in indirect sunlight and Bougainvillea grows best in direct sunlight.
Before buying, consider the mature size of the plant. If the plant grows too big or dense after a while, you might want to reconsider as it would require periodic pruning if kept in a balcony. To keep your balcony sorted and appear decluttered, you should choose plants according to the size of your balcony. A regular-sized balcony can hold up to 25 well-grown plants for the balcony to not look cluttered.
Additionally, plants need to be potted in pots that allow them ample room to grow to their natural size. For regular balconies, you should opt for pots not more than 2 feet in diameter. If you buy a small pot for, say, Monstera plant, which grows tall and spreads, you will curb its potential to grow big. Similarly, buying a big pot for a plant like Aralia would also prove counterproductive as it does not grow that big.
The pot in which you will grow your plant is as important as the plant. It would help if you always got a pot with a drainage hole at its bottom. This lets excess water to drain and promotes better circulation. To avoid the excess water from wetting your balcony floor, you must also remember to buy trays to place the pots on. There are mainly two types of pots - ceramic and plastic.
Ceramic pots are a good option for plants that run a risk of getting the roots rotten because of excess water. As ceramic is a porous material, it absorbs some of the water that you give to your plant. Such pots require you to water your plants more frequently. These pots are less durable than plastic but more durable than earthen pots.
Plastic pots, on the other hand, retain water for a long time. If you are planning to grow plants that require to be watered once in a few days or you cannot water your plants every day because of your schedule, plastic pots are best for you. Plastic pots are also highly durable.
If you have some time every day to invest in maintaining your plants, you can bring home any plants that are conducive to your balcony's environment, such as Monstera, Poinsettia, Lily, et al. Every few days, you also need to assess the health of your plant.
Sometimes you need to change the pot in which the plant is kept or hoe the soil for maintaining the health of the roots. This will give your plants the much-needed longevity. So, plan to buy adequate plants for your home according to the time you can take out for them.
Growing and maintaining a kitchen garden can be therapeutic. You do not necessarily need a backyard or front lawn to develop a kitchen garden. Plants like mint or pudina, coriander or dhania, cherry tomatoes, curry leaves, eggplant, etc. can be easily grown in a balcony, using adequate pots.
To make this happen, you need to assess your balcony for sunlight and space. Also, you need to be aware of the right kind of soil these plants require. Considering these factors will enable you to have a healthy growth of these veggies and fruits.
You can easily buy the ready-made potting mix from a nursery or online. This mix generally contains soil, compost, and cocopeat. If you are absolutely new to gardening, you may take assistance and learn from an enthusiast or a professional gardener for a couple of months initially. Additionally, it would be best if you kept a bag of organic fertiliser handy in case the plants need it.
At least once every week, you must spend some time with your plants to maintain them. A few basic tools that you need to have to maintain your balcony garden include hand trowel, shears, water sprinkler, and gloves.
A hand trowel is used to poke small holes in the soil and to weed it. This practice should be done once every few weeks because it lets more air to reach the roots and loosens up the soil for more nutrition to be absorbed.
Use shears to cut worn-out leaves or to make the plant appear more pretty. A water sprinkler is the most important tool you need as, unlike other tools, you would be using it every day. Gloves, on the other hand, are not the most important but can save you from getting your hands dirty with mud.
Tulsi, also known as Indian Basil or Holy Basil, is a common houseplant in India for centuries. It is known in India for its cultural significance and medicinal properties. It is also used in Indian and Italian foods to add flavour.
The Tulsi plant grows best in fertile soil with a pH of 6-7.5. It requires to be watered daily in summers, sparingly in winters, and minimum during monsoons. It also needs a few hours of direct sunlight every day in order to blossom fully.
Areca Palm can add 6 to 10 inches to its height every year until it reaches a mature height of 6 to 7 feet. This plant can grow indoors and outdoors. Its biggest quality is that it releases negative ions, which attach themselves to dust, bacteria, and other allergens. This way, the air around this plant gets purified.
Multiple stems emerge from the base of Areca Palm. It is not only a beneficial plant to purify the air but also an ornamental plant that can enhance the aesthetic appeal of any place they are kept at. You can easily prune any offset or extra growth in this plant. It should also not be overwatered.
Jade plant, a variety of the succulent plant category, can be easily grown in almost any climatic condition. It does not even require highly fertile soil. People believe that jade plant brings good luck, especially in the financial sense. Its presence at home or office is considered auspicious. Feng Shui recommends everyone to have a jade plant at home.
It grows equally good indoors and outdoors. It is an evergreen plant with thick branches and small, thick leaves. These leaves also have many medicinal benefits such as treating acne, warts, and even diarrhoea. Because of its almost zero-maintenance, it is a trendy plant in Indian homes.
Poinsettia is one of the most beautiful plants that you can grow to deck up your balcony or patio. Traditionally a popular Christmas present, Poinsettia can grow up to 8 to 10 feet tall under ideal circumstances. Its red leaves on the top are not flowers, as mistakenly believed by many, but bracts.
These plants can adorn balconies, indoors, hallways, etc. The sale of Poinsettias in India is growing each year, mainly because of their ornamental value. In case you have a pet dog or kitten at home, you should keep this plant at a place where they can't reach it as the leaves and sap of this plant can cause irritation to them.
Golden Money Plant has beautiful and glossy heart-shaped leaves that can brighten up your indoors and outdoors alike. The best thing about this plant is that it can be trained to grow on a moss stick, string, or even spill over the edge of a hanging planter or edge of a shelf.
This plant can also grow without soil. It can support its growth using its aerial roots in water vase. It is also a great air purifier. NASA puts this plant among the top 3 houseplants to remove formaldehyde and carbon monoxide from the air. It is also pretty low-maintenance and requires minimal watering.
Ficus Black is an evergreen plant. As a balcony plant, we recommend growing multiple ficus plants as they can make a corner of your balcony look really lush. It has simple, waxy leaves that exude yellow or white latex when broken.
Its leaves are tolerant of strong winds and can succeed in partial or full sunlight. In winters, the plant requires extra care as the frost can damage its leaves. You can hoe or add organic fertiliser in it during winters.
The plant also has a lot of medicinal benefits. The bark, root, and leaves are boiled in oil to apply on wounds and bruises. The juice of the bark is also known to aid in liver diseases like jaundice. All in all, this is a complete plant for your home.
Song of India, a very popular plant in Hawaii, is native to the islands in the Indian Ocean. It has striped, narrow leaves, spirally arranged on the stem. This plant grows slowly, which is its best quality. The slow growth makes it low-maintenance and ideal for a houseplant.
Additionally, this plant does not outgrow its pot. This means that if you grow it in a small pot and keep it on your tabletop, it will grow accordingly. Similarly, if you buy a medium to big size plant and place it in a big pot, it can grow up to 6 feet in a few years. It is a perfect plant for a novice gardener. Taking out a stem and placing it in a jar of water will enable it to grow roots and flourish.
Coming home in the evening and having your tea in the balcony that is filled with the fragrance of this beautiful plant can be meditative. It can take away all the stress that you might have. This flower is a part of many Indian traditions and is extensively used in making perfumes.
It is a nocturnal plant, which means that it becomes active at night and gives out maximum aroma then. It is famous for its lovely white flowers that are tubular in shape have six petals when developed fully.
This plant requires a decent amount of sunlight and warmth to blossom. It grows best in soil that has a pH between 6.5 and 7. Additionally, it requires to be watered every day for the plants to blossom well.
NASA considers ZZ one of the best air-purifying plants. It is effective in removing benzene, xylene, and toluene from the air. It is not a very big plant and also grows slowly, which is an advantage as it can grow well in small pots indoors and big pots outdoors. It is also very low-maintenance as it can tolerate being neglected for a few days and sustains in low-light conditions.
There is one disadvantage of ZZ - its leaves are toxic. They are not poisonous as some people believe but are toxic. You should keep children and pets away from this plant and should always wash your hands after handling it to avoid skin irritation.
From using the plant on a wound to rub its gel on the face in winters, aloe vera has been a big part of arguably every household. It is one of the most useful plants in the world, with numerous medicinal and commercial uses. It is a natural antiseptic and is used on wounds and burns.
In Ayurveda, aloe vera is used to treat constipation and worm infestation. It is commonly used in mouthwashes, sunscreens, blood-sugar medications, among many other medicinal products. Having this plant at home is like having a pharmacy. It is an easy-to-maintain plant but should not be grown in icy conditions.
We should all know how to take care of the plants at our home. Many plants that die could have easily been saved by doing a few simple things routinely. This video is an easy guide for beginners or new plant parents. In this video, you will learn about:
1. The right way to water your plants
2. The appropriate amount of light required
3. Maintaining these plants on a regular basis
Your balcony plants will take care of the dust and toxins in the air outside. An air purifier will enable you to breathe fresh air inside your home. Check out the list of ten best air purifiers in the Indian market and give your home the freshness it deserves.
The best way for you to choose the right plants is by analysing the kind of ambience you need at home. Once you decide the things that you want or how the appearance of your free space should be, it will be easier for you to buy the right plants.
The plants enlisted by us are all highly beneficial to your health as well as helpful for the decor. We hope this guide helped you in making a better decision about the plants that will grace your balcony!
Author: Rudraveer
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