by Ted Sherman

Created on: August 31, 2010

You can go natural with live green in your dorm room in ways that can make your life there healthier and more pleasant. The methods are easy, and a room that once looked too much like a bare prison cell can be transformed into a miniature Garden of Eden.

Considering some great greening ideas could begin the task:

1. If you have a large window that brings significant sunlight into your room, and can be opened and closed easily, set up an indoor-outdoor garden. Install a large flat board as a brace on the sill, preferably one you can bring inside when the weather gets too cold.You can buy the garden ingredients in any chain store with a do-it-yourself garden department, such as Home Depot.

First, depending on the length and width of your window sill, buy a wooden or plastic planter box. Fill it within an inch or two of the rim with organic potting soil and fertilizer. Then, depending on the size of the planter (or planters), start setting in plants that produce air-cleansing oxygen. Some of the best are small palm trees, ficus, rubber plant and English ivy.      

2. Additionally, if you have space in the boxes, plant multi-season blossoming plants. These could include African violets, Poinsettias (nice for Christmas season), miniature orchids, begonias and small blooming cactus. If you want plants that trail down or can be trained to climb, choose some varieties of ivy. After all, you’re in college where ivy-covered walls are honored by musical themes and football leagues.

3. If you want to add tall plants that bloom seasonally, there are roses, lilies and taller palm varieties. If you want a quick-growing tall plant, get some bamboo shoots. You can also mix in seasonal cut flowers, but they last only a week or so and require cleaning up after their blossoms fade.

4. If you want some plants that can provide food, along with the fresh oxygen, and if you have room in your window sill garden and other parts of the room, plant some easy to care-for small vegetables, such as cherry tomatoes, radishes, peppers and cucumbers.

5. Try some small herbs and fruit plants will not only help green your room, but also provide attractive colors, pleasant odors and quick, healthy snacks. So include lemon verbena, sage, parsley, thyme and chives.

To go totally green in your dorm room, grow plants that breathe oxygen into the air and clean it. Set up as many as you can as soon as you begin living there, and your room will indeed become a garden of fantasy.

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