A functional design layout can be kept extremely easy for an indoor garden. For a small indoor garden, all forms and shapes work to create whatever ambiance and comfort-level is needed. No matter how small, any indoor space will do whether it's in the ranch-style home, a farmhouse, an apartment, in a townhouse or condominium, a precise, unique design and style can be transformed for your delight.

When one thinks of a “garden”, it invokes images and visions of carpet smooth green lawns, rows of herbaceous brush, pruning cutters and soil, mulches, manures and the delights of horticulture. With a small space, we apt to cram in every long-established component of a big outdoor garden, but reduced in dimension.

Every type of design element and technique can be merged to create an effect of stimulation, especially in planting a garden. Your garden may require minimum planting as it might provide a sculpture and water. If it's lit at night, the magical effect can be valuable, on those rare occasions; a massive beauty is establishing a closely packed jungle in an indoor space.

Artificial mixtures can be arranged with very little difficulty. Most mixes consist of a mishmash of organic matter, such as ground pine bark and sphagnum peat moss, and inorganic material, like washed sand, vermiculite, or perlite. Materials commonly used for indoor plants are a fusion that includes sphagnum peat moss and perlite vermiculite.

Sphagnum Peat Moss is always available bagged or baled. Such materials as Michigan peat, native peat and peat humus are usually too decayed to supply necessary drainage and structural characteristics and should be prevented. Most sphagnum peat moss is acid in response, with a pH ranging from 4.0 to about 5.0. It usually has an extremely low fertility level.

Vermiculite is a lightweight, sterile, mica product. When mica is heated to about 1800°F, its platelike makeup expands. Vermiculite will detain large quantities of water, air and nutrients needed for plant development. Its pH is normally in the 6.5 to 7.2 range. Vermiculite is on hand in four particle sizes. For horticultural mixes, sizes 2 or 3 are normally used. If at all likely, the larger-sized particles should be managed, since they give enhanced soil aeration. Vermiculite is available under a combination of trade names. It collapses with time and loses its positive characteristics.

Perlite is a hygienic material produced by heating volcanic rock to about 1800°F. The result is a very porous, lightweight material that is white in color. Its key value in medium mixtures is aeration. It does not hold nutrients and water as well as vermiculite. The pH is usually within 7.0 and 7.5. Perlite can produce fluoride burn on some undergrowth plants, especially on the tips of the leaves. The burn develops from the tip up into the leaf. Fluoride burns can be disallowed by adding 1 1/2 times the suggested amount of lime when mixing the medium. Artificial mixtures are usually very low in minor elements or the like; therefore, it is crucial to use a fertilizer that contains these trace elements.