All Indoor Garden Designs
are not Created Equal

Some indoor garden designs have big advantages over others. For example, a design that positions the exhaust run high in the garden area will be able to control the indoor garden temperature better than a design that places the exhaust run low to the floor in the garden area. Luckily, good indoor garden designs are easy to come up with because they always follow the same rules (like the example above). Be sure to watch my Affordable Build video for some great ideas (to the right--->)

Some of these rules include: using a grow light that is strong enough to make your garden grow appropriately, using an exhaust fan that is strong enough to exhaust your garden and control the temperature, making your exhaust run as short and straight as possible, beginning your exhaust run high in the grow room as possible (to exhaust the hottest air first), introducing cool fresh air into the grow room from ducts low to the floor,

using oscillating fans to help the leaves in the garden exchange their gasses (breath), using a digital timer to control the lights, using an exhaust fan thermostat to control the grow room temperature, and providing enough access to the garden itself to allow for pruning, bug checking, foliar spraying, hydroponic system maintenance, and other necessary garden activities. Consider how these rules apply to the following different garden types and different design layouts....

Different Garden Types

• window gardens


• no dig gardens


• container gardens


• raised bed gardens


• hydroponic gardens


• square foot gardens


• permaculture gardens

Indoor Garden Designs

Consider your indoor garden area. The area you want to garden in usually falls into one of two categories, either a grow room or a grow box. Consider weather you are growing tender, young seedlings or clones, slightly more mature plants growing aggressively in the vegetative stage, or fully mature plants that you want to be aggressively flowering....then use that information to help you select a grow light.

Use your garden grow light and your garden area to calculate your fan exhaust. After choosing an appropriate exhaust fan, follow the next link to help organize your garden area based on your best exhaust setup.

While your exhaust fan controls the temperature, humidity, and to a lesser degree the CO2 levels, it is equally important to have an oscillating fan for air circulation. Every indoor garden design should have both... the air circulation in your garden is just as important as the air exhaust, though for different reasons. Adding an indoor/outdoor thermometer will help you monitor and control the temperature in your garden area better.

You may want to go one extra step and add a charcoal filter, also known as a Carbon filter. Carbon filters are the most  effective way to improve your indoor air quality. They remove dust, screen out small bugs, and absorb fumes and odors from plants and chemicals. If you add a Carbon filter to your garden design, your exhaust fan will need to be a centrifugal fan. The other type of exhaust fan I sometimes recommend, the squirrel cage fan, is usually not strong enough to pull air effectively through a Carbon filter.

Fine Tuning the Grow Room

Now you have a good idea of your whole garden design layout. Once you have your indoor garden area set up, adjust for temperature. Set your digital timers and, if you have one, the thermostat for your exhaust fan. Let the garden run for a day or two to make sure everything is just right for your plants... temperature is the main concern, but humidity should also be kept within an acceptable range (50% +/- 10% is ideal).

Finally, you are ready for the plants. In your new area you can set up any type of garden you like (for example, a container garden in soil, or a flood and drain hydroponic system). Each garden type has its own special considerations when it comes to providing water and nutrients to the plants. Each type of garden will also have a certain amount of maintenance required to keep it growing healthy. The garden area will require enough access to allow pruning, for example, and hydroponic systems will need enough access to allow for nutrient solution changes and daily checking/adjusting.

• organic gardening in soil
• a container garden in soil
  
• hydroponic gardening systems
• organic hydroponic systems

Leave the garden designs page and
Check out Homemade Hydroponic Systems

Learn about some Common Problems with
Hydroponic Systems

Learn How to Grow Hydro
(managing your hydroponic nutrient solution)