Valuable tips for running your sustainable indoor garden

Indoor-Gardening Blog

8 min readApr 28, 2022

Get tips and tricks on how to make your own indoor garden as sustainable as possible.

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How to use an indoor garden in the most sustainable way?

To make an indoor garden as sustainable as possible, you first have to make the decision to really want to do it. In some cases, making an indoor garden sustainable means spending more money or investing more time in the garden.

At the beginning, therefore, is always the decision to actually contribute to a better environment. The goal is therefore not only to plant a garden, but to produce little waste, use little or no electricity, compost, produce little CO2 and efficiently manage the garden.

Sustainable Garden — Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash

How to make your indoor garden as sustainable as possible

After the decision has been made to manage the indoor garden sustainably, one should start planning the garden. The planning should take into account that the selected plant system is fully functional and produces as little CO2 as possible.

Incidentally, this also applies to the delivery of products. Anyone buying a smart garden, for example, should not have it sent from overseas, but should rather rely on local dealers and specialist stores.

The elements of the indoor garden should, as far as possible, be made of plastic-free or recycled materials. Of course, this is not always possible. However, if you can avoid plastic products, you should make the effort and buy plastic-free products.

Those who want to build a greenhouse with heating should also pay attention to sustainable solutions in this area. Photovoltaic systems, consisting of small solar panels, are ideal for all people who want to heat their greenhouse without electricity from the socket or gas. The same applies to LED lamps in indoor gardens. In fact, LED lamps are much more energy efficient than comparable spotlights. Full spectrum LEDs are therefore the better choice with regard to this point of view.

Building a sustainable indoor garden

Next, you start with the construction. Those who build hydroponic indoor gardens should pay attention to the sustainability of the substrate. This should be reusable and should not be able to rot.

Therefore, when purchasing substrates and other elements for a hydroponic system should always pay attention to reusability. When setting up the system described in this book for a hydroponic indoor garden, technical equipment is needed. Instead of buying new equipment from a store, you can rent it and save money and reduce waste.

How you can maintain and operate your indoor garden sustainably

After the indoor garden, mini raised bed or greenhouse is built, the first thing to do is to wait.

The plants start to grow and will soon produce the first organic waste. Composting this or disposing of it correctly is the key to using the garden sustainably. Furthermore, electricity consumption should be kept in mind. Electricity should come from renewable sources as much as possible and consumption should not be excessive. Those who can should also find natural ways to insulate the garden and thus ensure that less electricity is consumed.

Spraying pesticides should also be mentioned at this point. In many greenhouses, as well as some indoor gardens, they are used. Fertilizers as well as pesticides should be of natural origin or should not be used.

The importance of seasons for indoor gardens

Seasons have a variety of effects on indoor gardens. Seasons determine the temperature and light conditions. While in summer the temperature is higher and the plants should not overheat, in winter care is taken that the plants are not too cool and get enough light. In summer, for example, compared to autumn, the sun shines more often, which allows the plants to grow better.

Maintaining light and dark phases is of utmost importance when growing plants in an indoor garden. Many plants need an average of eight to ten hours of sun per day to grow. In winter or on overcast fall days, this can become a problem. The seasons dictate the behavior of the amateur gardener. The hobby gardener must ensure that the plants are well cared for and healthy all year round.

The meaning of the seasons is different for each amateur gardener. For example, the seasons have little effect on heated greenhouses and certain box gardens. The same is true for many indoor hydroponic gardens. These can be operated year-round with full-spectrum LEDs, and in many cases don’t even necessarily need sunlight. On the other hand, anyone who builds a raised bed from flower pots or operates a greenhouse without heating must constantly deal with the seasons, as certain plants may only be sown, pruned or harvested at certain times.

Therefore, many amateur gardeners develop a kind of calendar, in which they can record when to sow the plant, when to fertilize and when to harvest. These calendars help many to keep track of the plants and care for the indoor garden.

In summary, the seasons can be almost ignored by some amateur gardeners, while for others they are of the utmost importance. Those who want to harvest vegetables, herbs and salads around the year, should choose systems that are hardly dependent on the seasons.

Lack of sustainability in indoor greenhouses

Many people buy indoor greenhouses because they assume they are a sustainable alternative to store-bought vegetables. For most greenhouses, this is true. However, there are some pitfalls that you can run into when buying and managing greenhouses.

Sustainable heaters for indoor greenhouses

Greenhouses that operate solely by solar radiation are preferable to any other greenhouses that require electricity to generate heat. Greenhouses that require electricity are mostly used to grow vegetables and other plants around the year. Certainly, it is pleasant to hardly have to pay attention to the seasons and just turn on the greenhouse heater.

What most hobby gardeners forget at this moment, however, is the CO2 they generate by starting and operating the heating. Anyone who wants to run a sustainable greenhouse should therefore avoid heaters of all kinds as much as possible. However, not all heaters are the same. There are different types of greenhouse heaters, which are more or less environmentally friendly. Details can be found in my book.

Environmentally friendly insulation of an indoor greenhouse

Another factor to consider is the insulation of the greenhouse. If the greenhouse is not sufficiently insulated, a lot of energy escapes unnecessarily, which then has to be added back in the form of, for example, a solar-powered greenhouse heater.

Especially when it gets cold outside and you have your greenhouse on the terrace, it could happen that the plants freeze and die. Common insulations are conventional bubble wrap, cut cover tarpaulins or even special mats.

These ensure that the temperature in the greenhouse remains constant. When choosing insulation, you should also focus on sustainable materials and reduce your own plastic consumption as much as possible.

Compost avoids unnecessary waste

The less waste a greenhouse generates, the better. A greenhouse produces a lot of organic material. Reusing this is the name of the game. A compost is the solution. Many amateur gardeners would rather throw away organic material than go to the trouble of building a compost. However, in order to garden sustainably, this should be done as a matter of urgency.

All materials in a greenhouse should be used as long as possible. If possible, you should also choose not to use plastic products, and products made of wood.

The use of rainwater can also help to cover the water consumption of greenhouses. Especially in warm regions, a lot of water is needed for greenhouses. Capturing rain and using it for the greenhouse could improve the sustainability of the system and reduce the ecological footprint.

The choice of the right fertilizer

Anyone who builds a greenhouse will sooner or later have to deal with the issue of fertilization. Fertilizing one’s plants is not a bad thing if sustainable fertilizers are used. If you want to reduce your ecological footprint, you should avoid synthetic fertilizers. Natural fertilizers are perfectly sufficient and are less harmful to nature and humans.

Avoid pesticides

Finally, pesticides should also be mentioned in this regard. These are neither sustainable nor healthy. Nevertheless, they are used in many professional greenhouses as well as in the greenhouses of hobby gardeners. If possible, one should try to do without pesticides in any form.

If pests are found on the plants in the greenhouse, you should remove the infested plants or treat them with natural means. Reach for the spray bottle with pesticides is not always necessary or beneficial.

Conclusion — To use an indoor garden sustainably is possible

However, the most important aspect is to eat all the plants you grow, or at least use the fruits and compost the rest of the plant.

Anyone who sets up an indoor garden, builds a mini raised bed or plans a greenhouse can only live sustainably if they don’t throw away the fruits of their labor. Otherwise, all the work was for nothing. Only when this is given can the facility be described as truly sustainable.

Building a sustainable indoor garden is not easy. It takes a lot of thought and a lot of work to reduce your ecological footprint and produce less carbon dioxide.

However, if you are willing to think a little around the corner, you can manage to develop a system that filters more carbon dioxide out of the air than it produces.