Beat the Winter Blues with Greens

An Indoor Garden to Cure the Winter Doldrums

by Wes Kisting

If you love to paddle as much as I do, and you live in an ever-changing climate like the Midwest, I'm sure you know what it's like to suffer from the winter doldrums. You know the feeling: that nagging, aching, indescribable restlessness that makes you pace around your living room like a caged lion, dying for the warm weather to come back so you can finally go paddle.

Well, this year I finally stumbled upon an inexpensive, satisfying little winter hobby that has done wonders for my mid-winter morale. No, it's not quite as adventurous as kayaking. No, it won't keep you in tip-top physical condition. And no, it doesn't give you a great tan. But it will work wonders for your soul by soothing your wanderlust just enough to make the winter months bearable.

What is this hobby? Indoor gardening! Yes, I know it's not glamorous or sexy. But as I've recently discovered, the pleasing site of colorful petals, buds, chutes, and leaves can have a miraculous effect on your mood. So, too, can the wonderful smell of fresh potting soil and fragrant blossoms. But best of all, it requires no high-dollar gear, and can take up as little (or as much) space in your house as you like. If you're interested, keep reading and I'll explain how my wife and I built a cheap, attractive plant stand and then cultivated a delightful little corner of summer and sunshine, right in our living room!

Gardens Need a Place to Grow

An indoor garden needs a good place to grow, and since it's going to be indoors, you might as well make its growing place an attractive part of the display. My wife Anna and I designed a very simple, lightweight stand to hold our plants. Since we knew it was going in our living room, I opted to build it out of clear Mahogany boards. Even then, the total cost was only about $60, though you could easily build it for less than half that cost by using standard pine lumber instead. It's up to you, but I highly recommend the Mahogany. It gives an attractive, fine-furniture look to the display.

To build the stand, you will need the following materials:

two 1" x 4" boards, 8 feet long
two 1" x 4" boards, 4 feet long
two 1" x 2" boards, 8 feet long
one sheet of 2' x 4' x 1/4" plywood
eight wood screws, 1-1/2" long
sixteen wood screws, 1-5/8" long
25 feet of 1/4" dia. twisted nylon rope
ten 1-3/8" screw eyes
one 24" fluourescent plant light (with fixture)
one 24-hour automatic timer

Note that this list of materials does not include the wood needed to build the hood around the flourescent light. You may find a plant light that comes already equipped with a hood, or you may opt to build your own hood out of another material, so I did not include it here. If you would like to build it out of wood, ours (see picture) is built from three 1" x 4" boards (just under 4 feet long) plus two scraps of left-over wood which we used to close off the ends.

Putting the Pieces Together

To put the plant stand together, study the picture (above) and the diagram (below) carefully. The diagram provides all of the basic dimensions, but since some variation will likely result, it's best if you "fine-tune" the measurements to meet your own criteria. We opted for a stand and shelf of these dimensions because it made for a perfect fit in the corner of our living room. Now that we've finished assembling it, we really think it is an ideal size for folks with limited space or who live in a small apartment.

Here's a few important notes to help you during the construction process:

The sides and feet of the stand are fashioned from the two 1" x 4" x 8' boards. Cut each piece to a length of 6'6" for the sides, and save the 18" cutoffs to use for the feet. Shape the feet, if desired, then attach them to the base of each side with four 1-1/2" screws, driven from the inside out to keep them invisible on the outside.
Use the two 1" x 4" x 4' boards to form the cross-members. One should be positioned at (or near) the very top of the stand. The other should be positioned approximately 16" to 20" up from the bottom. Fasten at each end with two 1-5/8" screws. Drill a pilot hole first to prevent the screws from splitting out the wood.
The diagram shows the upper cross-member positioned flush with the tops of the sides, but if you look at the picture of our stand, you can see that we opted to mount it about two inches lower. Either method is fine, but we think the 2-inch offset gives a little extra character to our stand by reducing its otherwise "boxy" appearance. We also used a sander to round off the tips of the sides where they jut above the upper cross-member.
Notice that the upper cross-member is mounted on the flat so that its width matches the width of the side pieces, whereas the lower cross member is mounted on edge (rotated 90 degrees in relation to the upper cross-member). Mounting the lower cross-member this way lends greater stiffness to the resulting frame, and also reduces the "boxy" appearance.
The frame of the hanging shelf is built from the 1" x 2" boards. Cut one 1" x 2" x 8' board in half to supply the front and back of the hanging plant shelf. Cut the remaining 1" x 2" x 8' board into six equal one-foot-long pieces to supply the two sides of the shelf and four supports for the plywood insert.
Lay out the two 1" x 2" x 4' boards and the six 1" x 2" x 1' pieces as shown in the diagram for the hanging shelf, then attach them together with eight 1-5/8" screws or some strong wood glue. We opted to screw and glue each piece so that there would be no question about the shelf's ability to support heavier pots. Drill a pilot hole first to prevent the screws from splitting out the wood. The final shelf should end up with external dimensions of 4' x 13-1/2".
Run the 2' x 4' x 1/4" plywood sheet through a table saw or circular saw and cut it down to fit into the hanging shelf frame after the frame is fully constructed. Take measurements before cutting to ensure an accurate fit.
Mount four of the screw eyes in the four corners of the hanging shelf, and mount two more in the underside of the upper cross-member of the stand. Use the 1/4" rope to hang the shelf at the desired height. Tie a knot at one corner of the shelf, run the rope up through the overhead screw eye, then down to the adjacent corner of the shelf and tie it off. Do the same thing for the other end of the shelf. Be sure to allow extra length on the rope so that you can adjust the height of the shelf later to accommodate shorter or taller plants.
Twisted nylon rope looks a lot more charming than the typical braided style, but it's notorious for unraveling after you cut it. To avoid the hassle of unraveling rope, try this: Wrap a few twists of masking tape around the rope where you plan to make the cut. Cut through the middle of the masking tape so that both ends remain wrapped securely after the cut. Before you remove the masking tape, light each newly-cut end on fire with a match and let the nylon heat thoroughly and melt together at the end. Once the ends cool, you should be able to remove the masking tape. In our case, we opted to leave the masking tape on, too, since it's hardly noticeable anyway, and since twisted nylon rope can be notorious for unraveling.

As you see in the pictures, we opted to build a Mahogany "hood" around our fluourescent plant light, and to suspend it from screw eyes and 1/4" rope like the shelf. This way, we can adjust the light to accommodate plants of different heights or changes to the height of the hanging shelf. You could buy a plant light that comes pre-equipped with a hood, or you could build one from wood as we did. If neither of these choices appeals to you, try getting creative. You could use some heavy-duty wire and heavy-weight paper to make a translucent light cover like a paper lantern. You could weave a country-style hood out of straw or some other country-basket material. You could find a clever way to drape an attractive fabric from the upper cross-member. The possibilities are limited only by your imagination, and this could be a great way to customize your indoor plant stand.

Just Add Plants

When your plant stand is complete, you can decorate it with virtually any indoor plant you like. Our indoor garden boasts some fairly exotic plant species: an amaryllis (gorgeous when it blooms), a phalaenopsis orchid (also stunning), a venus fly trap (very neat), a pink grafted "moon" cactus, an african violet, and more! Generally, we choose our plants for their colorfulness, their preference for normal room temperatures (65 - 75 degrees F), and their love of bright light (but not direct sun). So far, these species have done very well under the artificial light of our plant stand, and have rewarded our diligent care with wonderful, cheery colors.

Since we live in the city, we buy mineral water from the grocery store to use when watering our plants. City water contains chlorines and other additives that can stunt the growth or shorten the life of delicate plants. We also add a little fertilizer to the water, and pay careful attention to recommendations about how often a particular plant species should be watered. To keep the proper care instructions close at hand, we keep a handly little record book for noting down important information about every new plant we buy. Our fluorescent light is set on the automatic timer for a regular cyle: 14 hours on, 10 hours off per day. This seems to give adequate light to all of our plants. Eventually, we plan to add some decorative wooden boxes to our shelf to create different tiers of elevation. This will allow us to elevate smaller plants closer to the light, and to place shade-loving plants beneath the shelves, where they will be shielded from the fluorescent rays.

So there you have it: a delightful indoor garden, displayed on an attractive plant stand that can be built in an afternoon on a low budget. If you've been suffering from the winter doldrums, try bringing a little patch of summer into your living room. I bet it will do wonders for your spirit, the way our garden has done for us! Happy gardening!

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