Having an urban jungle within your own four walls sounds very tempting. But what exactly does this term mean? This is exactly what we want to look at together with you in this article. If you are already familiar with the term, then you are probably wondering how much effort it actually takes to maintain an urban jungle at home. Is it really that easy to implement or does it take more effort than expected? Finally, we have of course also prepared a selection of plants and furnishing ideas with which you can start your personal urban jungle.
What does Urban Jungle mean?
The term Urban Jungle is actually self-explanatory. In the German-speaking world, we might say urban natural paradise or something similar. But since Urban Jungle sounds much more beautiful and mysterious, we use this term. Mysterious is pretty good. Because by nature, rain or primeval forests carry mysterious things. One dreamy plant grows next to the other. Between them you can hear and see the most diverse inhabitants. Together, flora and fauna are a well-rehearsed team and don't let anyone disturb them.
With an urban jungle, that's exactly what should happen in the apartment. An urban plant paradise that wants to be cared for in your home. There should be (room) plants that are coordinated and do not disturb each other.
How much effort is an urban jungle?
Of course, an important question is whether the urban jungle in your apartment means a lot of effort. Maybe you don't have that much time to take care of your little plants because of your work or your family. Or maybe you just don't want to spend as much time per day/week tending to your plants. Whatever your reason, the answer is: depending on the combination of plants, it is sometimes more or less effort. There are many plants that require little care and still create a green realm in your home. And the nice thing about it is that you don't necessarily have to be one of those people who have the perfect green thumb. On the contrary: If your personal urban jungle consists of easy-care indoor plants, then you still have a beautiful natural paradise in your home with little care.
How do I start the Urban Jungle at my home?
So you're ready to walk through an urban jungle in your apartment and dream of the green leaves and colorful flowers in another world. Then let's go! Get your individual plant kingdom at home. Now you may be asking yourself: How do I implement this project in my own life? And can I place the plants anywhere in my apartment, i.e. does it matter whether I realize the Urban Jungle in my living room, bedroom, hallway or bathroom? Of course it's not quite that simple. You have to pay attention to a few things. We now want to show you what these are.
Location conditions
The location is the basis for plant care. The different rooms in your apartment are very different in terms of humidity, temperature and lighting conditions. This means that depending on the room in which you want to put your plant world together, many plants are more or less suitable for this. It is very important that you pay close attention to how much light there is at the location. If there is little influence from sunlight, only plants that do not need as much sunlight for their photosynthesis can grow there.The same goes the other way around, of course: a lot of sunlight means that you can place plants that can tolerate a lot of light in this location
Tip: Think about where in your apartment you want to creatively design your urban jungle. And check what site conditions prevail there. Then choose the right plants that are suitable for these light conditions. Of course, the same applies to humidity and temperature. Because you can only use plants with similar site conditions for your urban jungle.
For more tips and tricks on caring for your darlings, please read our article "The basics of houseplant care".
Furnishing ideas: ways to showcase indoor plants
Once you have decided on a place where you would like to implement your urban jungle, then there are of course a wide variety of ways of staging it for the viewer. The more different things you try out in your home, the more it might actually look like an urban natural paradise. After all, in the jungle, the plants live together in very different places.
Arrange: This is the simplest and most common way of staging your plants in your home. Simply plant the plant in a suitable flower pot and place it in its place, such as a window sill, living room table, shelf or, in a classic way, on the floor. A small disadvantage: If you have pets or small children at home, and the plants could possibly be poisonous for them, then you should definitely put them out of reach.
Hanging: Hanging plants, the so-called flower or plant baskets, is a nice alternative to the classic method of putting them down. You can either buy these ready-made in a hardware store or garden center or if you are very creative, you can also make them yourself. For this you actually only need a strong string or a thin rope (depending on how heavy the flower pot you want to hang up is). On the Internet you will then find various instructions on how to knot a good and safe construction for the pot. You can then use a hook to hang the whole thing from the ceiling.
Floating: Floating on the ceiling is very similar to hanging. For this method, you can very well use plants that do not need soil for their growth, as they filter their nutrients and moisture from the air. Tillandsia (air plants) are one of them. You can easily tie the tillandsia to a small piece of wood with a string and then hang it up in the room. From afar, it looks as if the plants are floating in the air.
For more furnishing ideas, we have our article "Furnishing the living room with plants", which contains even more information on this topic and may also be of interest to you.
Good friends - bad friends in the plant world
As already mentioned, the plants for your urban jungle must also get along with each other. There are indeed plants that cannot grow so well next to other plants. To ensure that this is not the case and that you make the right and suitable choice, we would like to introduce you to three of our plants that can definitely become "good friends".
Ornamental asparagus
Delicate but undemanding. Originally native to Asia and Southeast Africa, the ornamental asparagus has now also found a place in our house as a houseplant.It requires little to medium bright lighting and is happy with a normal room temperature of 18-24 °C. In addition, the location should have a room climate with 40-55% humidity.
Dieffenbachia
Because of its decorative leaves, the Dieffenbachia is particularly popular and gets along well with ornamental asparagus. The nice thing is that both plants have the same site conditions. The Dieffenbachia also does not like it particularly bright, but rather medium light to shady. The humidity should also be between 40-55% while the temperature should range between 18-24 °C.
Ufo Plant
The UFO plant is the third in the group. With its ufo-like leaves, it is a real eye-catcher and rounds off the ensemble of ornamental asparagus and Dieffenbachia very nicely. It also has the same site conditions: low to medium light conditions, a temperature between 18-24 °C and a humidity of 40-55%.
Tip: If you water these "Three Good Friends" twice a week and fertilize every two weeks in summer, then they will be completely satisfied.
The world in urban jungle fever!
Berlin, Germany
Amsterdam, Netherlands
Honolulu, Hawaii
Canggu, Indonesia
Marrakech, Morocco
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