Green Living: Smart Gardens

By Apurva Gupta, Chief Marketing Officer, Rivali Park CCI Projects The potential of the Indian realty domain towards facilitating a sustainable and green living has remained totally untapped. It has been observed that contemporarily realty projects tend to consume multitude of resources and hence tends to generate an alarming amount of waste during the development stage. Hence in order to evade and safeguard the environment from bearing any negative impacts of these lifecycle phases of the project, realty developers today are on the look-out for offering sustainable approaches that can contribute towards attaining a greener eco-system. This is exactly where the concept of green homes and smart indoor gardens is gradually gaining prominence. Smart gardens laying importance on landscaping are nothing but an exceptional way for augmenting one’s personal spaces. Additionally, in current times the modern-day wellness-minded community of millennial buyers are keen on filling their spaces with plenty of greens and are looking for spaces to add indoor gardens. Hence realty developers have comprehended that offering green and sustainable amenities is a great way to target prospective buyers. Gone are the days when gardens were those usual small spaces in the outdoors which were very limited to any kind of modern embellishments. However, this concept has perceived a radical transformation presently. The gardens which were primarily only an outdoor affair, today has made its way into indoor spaces as well. In fact, modern-day gardens are more suited to welcome and create an indoor-outdoor lifestyle. Today there has been a tremendous increase in the popularity of growing and nurturing plants using indoor smart gardens. The broad avenues of indoor gardening: Contemporarily indoor gardening has become a novel way to highlight one’s home decor. If you have tried all ways and means to up the look of your abode but still feel there’s some missing element, you must try and bring in some lovely plants to the indoor setup. Fresh plants and flowers are sure to bring an optimistic aura and an atmosphere that will boost your mood and health. Indoor gardening will surely lend a fresh appeal to your interiors with the fragrance of fresh flowers and plants growing indoors. Nevertheless, if your home follows a modern look, having an old-fashioned garden will look really archaic. These days the term indoor gardening is gradually picking up traction. If you are an enthusiast of indoor gardening, the areas like living room, bedrooms and even the kitchens are great spaces for gardening. Lend your persona spaces a green vibe by bordering your entryway with lush green planters. You can add an all-green symphony to your living room with the installation of a living green wall. Growing a vertical wall in the bathroom may be an amazing idea if you are looking at altering the look of your bathroom. Further you can also consider growing micro greens in your kitchens to not just pepping up the look of your kitchens but also contribute to the nutritional needs. Adding a live herb garden and edible plants can leave your kitchens spilling over with greenery. Mason jars can be functionally used for indoor herb gardening. You can make use of all the available vertical space by hanging small baskets of plant stands. Below mentioned are the various types of smart gardens that will accentuate the indoors and well as outdoors: Vertical Gardens Gardens in modern times come with a lot of smart variations like indoor gardens, vertical gardens, speciality gardens, woodland gardens and water gardens to name a few. One of the biggest promoters of green design and sustainability, the vertical gardens are today the most popular gardens frequently witnessed either in homes or in commercial and hospitality segments. A vertical garden is nothing but a green wall that is partly or totally covered with green foliage. These gardens can be utilized either indoors or outdoors and can be either free-standing or attached to the wall. These new and ground-breaking gardens work well if you have a bare wall. You can grow these vertical planters on the wall and see the wonders for yourself.  Vertical gardens will only grow vertically, thus leaving a lot of space for horizontal growth in the gardens. All you have to do is to choose a wall on which you want the green plantations to grow and build a frame with a plastic sheet where you want your plants to be placed. Since these gardens need to be watered on a regular basis, many vertical gardens come with an in-built irrigation system.   Garden Patio’s Patio sets have been tactfully designed to enhance the gardens in the most attractive way. Hence if outdoors is what you favour you might as well think of investing in a good and durable set since these come with a plethora of  advantages. Available in a wide variety of materials and hues like oak, cane and wicker, these will absolutely redecorate your gardens. Wooden patio sets made from different types of wood are very popular currently. Teak patio sets have been used for centuries and is still popular because of the durability of the material. Try adding accessories like umbrella’s, and lights to further add onto the ambiance.   Aero garden farms: This is an exceptional option for people scouting for a larger scale gardening operation. This type of indoor garden looks quite impressive in the kitchen and is probable of providing a significant crop of useful herbs, vegetables, and salad greens. Alternatively, this can be placed at any nook and corner of your house, offering a nice splash of greenery to an interior space. This technically advanced farm comes equipped with built-in WiFi and features which can be monitored with a smartphone or tablet. Herb Gardens: These innovative gardens can easily brighten up any space. In this type, the rails are simply screwed to the walls and the pots are hung from the rails. The functional aspect of this garden type is that the pots can be taken down to trim or water your herbs, thus allowing you to customize the look of the arrangement. This is the most creative take on an old-style indoor herb garden that looks absolutely great. Aqua sprouts Garden: This is a fairly inexpensive compact option that amalgamates an aquarium and a grow bed into the same system to generate a small home aquaponics system. You have to pump water on a time to time basis into the aquarium to the grow bed in a typical flood and drain system, letting the microorganisms and plants to deal with waste products produced by the fish in the aquarium. The plants utilize the waste as an essential fertilizer which perits them to thrive. These are armed with a light bar and optional LED grow light, lending you the elasticity to make use of this indoor smart garden in any area of your home, with the help of supplemental lighting. Water Gardens Knowing the fact that the sound of water adds to the appeal of any green spaces, water garden is another form of smart garden. Although gardens will occupy a lot of space but are best options for outdoor gardening. These include fountains, waterfalls, streams and small ponds. Rooftop Gardens A remarkable alternative for modern gardeners, rooftop gardens is the most popular form of gardening when it comes to smart gardens. The only difficulty in rooftop gardening is to deal with extreme climatic conditions. Mediterranean Gardens These types of gardens are great if you wish to highlight a part of your patio. If you prefer to have a Mediterranean garden, you can make use of terra cotta pots. Today DIY gardens are also popular among most people who admire gardening. It is not always essential that gardens be categorically huge and vast spaces, one must bear in mind that smartly-designed compact gardens will look equally pleasing with the up-to-date design touches. They should be designed to be an extension of one’s personal space.