If youre living in the middle of the Amazon jungle, the last thing I would recommend for you to do is try your hand at indoor gardening. After all, why try to compete with mother nature and come out looking like an amateur? But if, like most of the population of the western world you dont actually live at the foot of a rain forest then I would really recommend looking into indoor gardening. As a jungle substitute of course.

Why would you go for an indoor garden - as opposed to an outdoor one of course? The reasons are pretty simple really. You dont need to get too mucky grubbing around on your hands and feet in the dirt. Youll almost never need to brave the harsher weather elements that nature will throw at you for trying to compete with her. It will make your house look nice, and you feel good. And ultimately in the grand scheme of things, its good for you.

Its difficult to imagine how indoor gardening could be good for you, but really it has nothing to do with the gardening itself, more with the plants instead. If you hark back to the good old days of high school and peer pressure, you might just remember vaguely hearing something in science class about plants and photo-something-or-other.

To refresh your memory, its a procedure called photosynthesis, where plants remove carbon dioxide from the air, and release oxygen into it instead, thereby removing pollutants from our environment. If youre living in a jungle theres not too much of a problem with that, but living as we are in our singular little houses, indoor plants are the next best thing. Thus the indoor gardening.

When planning your lovely miniature rainforest - substitute indoor garden - you have a variety of stunning plant options to choose from. Ones that the outdoor gardner might not be privy to. I wont go into a list of possible indoor plants right now as the list is longer than my arm, but if you are interested I would suggest you take a look around in your local plant nursery.

Youll get a good idea of what types of plants there are for you to choose from, and what types are a no, no. They just wont grow indoors! Youll also find with indoor gardening that some plants can be temperamental and will flat out refuse to grow anywhere within a walled-in and roofed area! A simple and easy place to start with would be try your hand at herb gardening. Simple to grow, useful in the kitchen, and best of all not the prima donna type.

Gardening, of any kind, just doesnt get any better than indoor gardening, especially if youre not an outdoorsy type of person and dont want a close encounter with the wormy kind. Or any other type of crawly insect that resides in your outdoor garden, not your indoor garden. The benefits of indoor gardening just keep growing!

To your gardening success!
John Smythe