Late spring and summer often seem to be bursting at the seams with things that are green and growing, and the urge to bring some of that freshness indoors is nearly impossible to resist.
If you’re digging into a garden plot for the season, you may be well-supplied with backyard cuttings for your space. But think beyond cut flowers — indoor garden projects can inject a sense of the natural world into your home and bring summertime style to your interiors.
One of our favorite indoor garden ideas comes from Shane Powers, multidisciplinary designer and style director, who offers simple yet impactful garden projects for decorating and styling interiors in his recently published book, “Bring the Outdoors In.”
“Often when you are styling interiors, you’re always putting a bouquet of something somewhere or bringing some kind of natural element into it,” Shane said.
“It often adds a beautiful softness to the image or creates an organic contrast to what’s going on in the decorations.”
With “Bring the Outdoors In,” he combines his years of photo styling on editorial shoots for international magazines like Vogue Living, Bloom and Blueprint, experience working as an editor of craft assignments for Martha Stewart Living, design work for a variety of clients and, recently, the development of his own indoor garden collection for West Elm to achieve a great look using a range of live and dried plant materials.
“I feel like sometimes craft books, the craft kind of ends up standing out on its own, and you’re kind of like, ‘How do I integrate this gracefully into my house?'” he said. “I wanted each project to feel very seamless within the interiors that we shot them.”
Instead of labeling them “gardening projects,” Shane refers to them as three-dimensional still lifes made with easy-to-find materials that require minimal maintenance.
“There’s no project in the book more difficult than repotting something from the hardware store. It’s more about thinking how you style (the elements) together,” he said.
Our pick? A feathery asparagus fern atop a mound of moss, which looks like a landscape in miniature, modern in a simple pot. It could be used as a welcoming tableau at the foot of the stairs or on an entryway table, and was inspired by elements found on a forest floor. Shane shared his how-to:
Mounded moss
Materials
Twelve-inch square or round planter, drainage stones, horticultural carbon, potting soil, asparagus fern, moss, small paintbrush.
Assembly
1. Put an inch-thick layer of drainage stones at the bottom of the planter. Add a thin layer of horticultural carbon.
2. Add the soil, leaving 2-3 inches (depending on the thickness of the moss you use) at the top to be able to fit the asparagus fern.
3. Position the asparagus fern (Shane recommends placing it a little off-center to create asymmetry), then cover the root ball with the soil.
4. Once the fern is situated, surround it with pieces of moss. Shane recommends breaking up the moss into pieces and reassembling them to make a beautiful mound shape.
5. The moss tends to collect a lot of dirt after the previous step, so dusting it off with a paintbrush will clean it up.
6. The plants need low light (not direct sunlight), perhaps from a north-facing window.
Care
The asparagus fern and moss should be kept in low light. The moss should be misted daily. Also, give the fern just a little bit of water once or twice a week.
