Indoor Greenhouse Part I
I had a problem.
I wanted these.
But I have these.
As many of you know, a lot of beautiful houseplants are toxic to our pets. My kitties seem especially prone to taking a nibble out of anything that comes through the door so I knew I’d have to get creative to ensure the safety of my houseplants and my cats.
I found a couple of solutions online.
Convert half of my IKEA Billy bookshelf into a greenhouse.
Purchase a new display cabinet and turn it into an indoor greenhouse.
Project 1: Bookshelf Conversion
Cost: $20 for grow lights, $9 for hygrometer
Difficulty: Easy
Time: 1 hour
The most difficult part of converting my bookshelf was figuring out where to put the books, old cd’s and other paraphernalia I had along the shelves. After that it was as simple as purchasing some grow lights, adding a hygrometer and using an old spice rack to add different heights on one of the shelves. At some point I will add a fan for extra ventilation but for now I just open the doors every day.
Despite the gap between the glass doors, the humidity hovers around 60% throughout the day. I run the grow lights for somewhere between 4-6 hours and am still experimenting with how much light these plants need. So far they’re everyone seems happy with the current combination of ambient light (this shelf sits close to an east facing window) and grow lights!