No Yard? No Worries. Here Are 7 Surprising Indoor Gardening Ideas

Terrariums are glass containers for growing tiny, low-maintenance indoor gardens. Their glass sides let sunlight enter and keep moisture from leaving, creating a warm, humid environment to support houseplants that don’t do well in the dry air inside a home. There are two types of terrariums: open-sided and closed. Open-sided terrariums are best for plants that like drier conditions, like succulents and air plants. Closed terrariums are best for moisture-loving tropicals like ferns, African violets, and mini orchids. Other popular terrarium plants include spider plants, mosses and ivy.

Hydroponics is a method of growing plants without soil and it’s a great way to grow an indoor garden. In a hydroponic garden, plant roots sit in nutrient-enriched water and grow bigger and faster than their potted brethren that extract nutrients from dirt. Hydroponic gardens are a great choice for indoor herb gardening because you can grow a lot of plants in a small space, with no mess and minimal effort. It can sit on your kitchen counter and keep you in fresh basil, chives and oregano year-round. Hydroponic garden kits come with grow lights, so you don’t even need a sunny windowsill to have a bountiful harvest.

Bonsai seems like an obvious choice for indoor gardening where space is a challenge. And who doesn't want a little indoor zen garden in the form of a tiny tree. But let’s be honest. Bonsai, the ancient Asian technique for pruning trees and shrubs into miniature versions of themselves, is not easy. Keeping a bonsai tree thriving for years is to indoor gardening what running a 5-minute mile is to runners: proof you’ve moved out of the recreational tier of your pastime. Bonsai is also traditionally practiced on outdoor plants, which is why bonsai have a rep for dying when you bring them indoors.

Most plant people give bonsai a try, because it’s easy to fall in love with a tiny tree that fits in a pot on a tabletop. You can get bonsai kits or you can prune and pot up your own bonsai plant. Bonsai trees need to be planted in a specially designed shallow pot filled with a soil mixture of hard-baked clay, pumice, lava rock and soil that retains water but is well-drained.

Watering needs vary with the type of plant you’re training to be a bonsai, but the rule of thumb is water when the soil is dry. Fertilize your bonsai tree regularly. Before you start pruning your bonsai into a perfect Zen masterpiece, take a class or read a book about how to do it. It’s an art form that takes years to learn. The best bonsai trees live for decades and are heirloom plants passed down to others. Don’t have that sort of patience? Get an artificial bonsai tree.

Air plants don’t need soil to grow, so you can put them in places in your home where a potted plant won’t fit. You can attach air plants to a piece of driftwood, hang a collection of air plants in a wooden frame strung with wire, or glue them to a magnet and put them on the fridge. Just as their name implies, they absorb nutrients from the air, through their leaves. They don’t need much sunlight, so they do well in an indoor garden.

If you’re short on floor space, hang containers of plants indoors. You can pack a lot of plants into a tight space if you go up with them. Suspend plants from anchors placed in the ceiling, wall-hanging planters, over-the-door hooks, a ladder leaned against a wall, or macrame hanging plant shelves. For a dramatic effect, choose plants with colorful foliage or a trailing habit so their branches flow over the sides of the container. Spider plants are a good pick for indoor hanging plants, as are pothos, philodendron, polka dot plants and hoyas, also known as wax plants.

If you’ve got precious little space for indoor plants or just want the biophilic design hipness of a living wall, hang a vertical garden. You can grow houseplants or veggies without taking up any floor space. Vertical garden kits are rectangular frames that mount on an interior wall and hold rows of potted plants. Some come with drip irrigation systems and built-in grow lights, so they’re very low maintenance. Others need a spot by a sunny window and hand-watering. Vertical gardens are a great way to grow an indoor herb garden, lettuce and other edible greens, or ornamentals year-round.

Kokedama, also known as moss ball indoor gardening, is a method of growing plants in a ball of moss. Like bonsai, it’s an ancient gardening technique that originated in Asia. You can make your own kokedama by putting a handful of soil and peat around root ball of a houseplant, wrapping all of that in moss, and then tying it together in a tight ball. Or you can buy a pre-made moss ball with a wire frame and put a plant in it. Kokedama looks dramatic and it helps plants live their best life because the moss exterior holds moisture and nutrients against the roots of the plant. This keeps them consistently fed and watered. When the moss ball feels light, submerge it in water to give the plant a drink.