Creative Ideas for Indoor Gardens

Having an indoor garden helps to improve one’s mental and physical well-being. Besides including potted plants in your indoor garden, having an arrangement of dish gardens or a group of hanging kokedama could make your space more interesting.

For beginners, it will be good to start with one type of indoor garden before moving on to more advanced arrangements. After gaining more experience, you may also take it one step further by constructing an indoor landscape! Read on to find out what type of indoor garden appeals to you.

Terrariums

Terrariums are miniature ecosystems encased in containers which are either lidless or sealable. They are generally low-maintenance.

An open terrarium is created with a lidless container and is suitable for plants that are less able to adapt to a humid environment such as Elephant Bush (Portulaca afra) and Panda Plant (Kakanchoe tomentosa).

An open terrarium

Photo credit: Jacqueline Chua

A closed terrarium on the other hand is created with a sealable container and suitable for plants that can adapt to high humidity. The water is released by the plants through transpiration, and is circulated and returned into the soil, ready to be absorbed by the plants again. The plants to be kept in these containers should be resilient enough such that the poor ventilation does not result in the growth of fungus and mould. Some plants suitable for a closed terrarium include Nerve Plant (Fittonia albivenis), Mat spike-moss (Selaginella kraussiana) and Peperomia sp.

Suggested materials for making a terrarium

Suitable plants (e.g. Nerve Plant, Mat spike-moss and Peperomia sp.)
Glass jar or plastic container
Potting soil
Gravel
Coloured stones for decoration

Video tutorial

Make Your Own Soda Bottle Terrarium

Dish Gardens

Dish gardens make use of dishes or shallow containers to form miniature landscape gardens. Maintenance for your dish garden depends on the type of plants in it and whether the dish has drainage holes. For dish gardens without drainage holes, a layer of gravel is recommended as the base layer to serve as a reservoir for excess water that flows from the soil layer.

Dish Garden

A dish garden

Photo credit: Joanne Phang

Alternatively, you can also create a succulent-themed dish garden. A unique contrast to the usual foliage-heavy indoor gardens, such a dish garden is easy to maintain as it usually only needs watering about once a week, depending on where it is located. Succulents usually do better in a balcony setting or in a room by a bright window and protected from the rain. They need some air flow so that the fungus and mould do not grow on them. The succulents arranged together in a dish garden should have similar requirements for light and water. Some succulents you could consider having for your dish garden are Sea Urchin Cactus (Astrophytum asterias), Lawyer’s Tongue (Gasteria obliqua), and Walking Sanseveria (Dracaena pinguicula).

Suggested materials for making a succulent-themed dish garden

Succulents (e.g. Sea Urchin Cactus, Lawyer’s Tongue, and Walking Sanseveria)
Small shallow planter trough (with drainage holes at the bottom) or a transparent dish without holes
Pumice (comprising 50% of the media in the trough or dish)
Potting mix (comprising 50% of the media in the trough or dish)
Akadama, gravel, and/or coloured stones (for top dressing to improve aesthetics)

Video tutorials

Kokedama

Kokedama, which literally translates to “moss ball” in Japanese, is a Japanese variant of bonsai. It is made by moulding the root ball into a circular shape with the plant sticking up from the middle. The outer parts of the root ball can be covered by sheet moss or sphagnum moss. You can also use coco fibre to wrap these balls instead of sphagnum moss as coco fibre is cheaper (also, sphagnum moss may not be as environmentally friendly).

A kokedama displayed on a bowl

Photo credit: Jacqueline Chua

Kokedamas hung by the window

Photo credit: Joanne Phang

The kokedama is then wrapped with twine and can be hung up or displayed in a bowl. The amount of light and water that the kokedama requires is dependent on the plant species. Some species that grow well as a kokedama would be Window-Leaf Monstera (Monstera obliqua), Wandering Jew (Trandescantia zebrina) or Lipstick Plant (Aeschynanthus pulcher). For example, a kokedama with Window-leaf Monstera needs more water and partial shade. Generally, the kokedama can be watered by either spraying the moss-covered portion with water regularly or soaking in water for about 30 minutes once a week.

Suggested materials for making a kokedama

Window-Leaf Monstera, Wandering Jew or Lipstick Plant
Sphagnum moss or coco fibre
Potting soil
Twine

Video tutorial

Create a Kokedama in 8 Steps

Learning More

If you are a gardening newbie, visit NParksSG, our refreshed YouTube channel that serves as a one-stop repository for some 300 video resources. It covers topics ranging from types of soil needed for your garden and how to plant, harvest and even cook your edibles.

For more information about the flora and fauna found in Singapore, visit NParks Flora and Fauna Web.

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Text by Joanne Phang

Photos by Jacqueline Chua and Joanne Phang

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Creative Ideas for Indoor Gardens

National Parks Board