The San Francisco Bay area is well known for many things, its mild climate being one of them. One of the things that draws so many people to this area is the fact that there is a relatively predictable weather that is pleasant and nearly perfect. It makes an excellent catalyst for gardens of both the floral and vegetable variety. However, if you are living in the city, planting a garden in the parking lot of your apartment is simply not a viable option—and the local authorities would probably have quite a few things to say if you tried.
Take heart, though. Just because you don’t have a plot of land to till and love doesn’t mean you can’t still enjoy gardening on a smaller scale. Indoor gardening can be very rewarding, add a breath of life to an otherwise simple or bland home environment, and in the cases of a vegetable garden, provide you with a small sampling of your own home grown produce.
Unorthodox Gardens: Bringing the Outdoors In
If there is one major advantage of indoor gardening over the outdoor variety it is having a controlled environment for your plants. As wonderful as San Francisco weather is, we all know how unpredictable even the mildest weather can be at times. Inside your apartment, you won’t have to worry about wind gusts knocking your plants over, unusually dry periods causing your plants to shrivel, or a late frost coming in and killing your seedlings just as they were beginning to thrive. You also won’t have to worry about those pesky weeds taking over since there will be no wind or animals to carry their seeds into your soil.
Your biggest indoor garden disadvantage, however, will be a lack of natural sunlight. If you are trying to grow a small vegetable garden indoors, you’ll also have the problem of limited natural pollination owing to the lack of wind and bees. Both of these situations can be remedied though, by taking your plants out a few hours every week and using a cotton swab to carefully pollinate the flowers by hand. Window boxes are excellent for plants that enjoy high light, but be careful not to put any plants in a window box that require only low to medium light as they may scorch.
You’ll have to decide which types of plants you’d like in your indoor garden and how you’d like to configure them. Do you want large green plants in decorative containers or long troughs of perennials to add vibrant color along the borders of your room? Make sure your containers are large enough to allow the roots plenty of room to spread out but small enough that you can easily move them around and set them outside when they need a little fresh air and light.
If you are moving to the San Francisco Bay area, why not let Zippgo help you with your moving boxes needs? If you are interested in gardening, then you obviously have a bit of green in you and our green moving boxes are leaps and bounds above traditional cardboard moving boxes in terms of environmentally friendliness. Since they are plastic, they can be reused up to 400 times before being sent off for recycling, unlike cardboard that may give you 2 or 3 uses before it falls apart. We’ll even deliver our green moving boxes to you to take one more stress off your shoulders!