4 Tips to Grow Ornamental Plants in the Backyard

Nowadays, ornamental plants are highly favoured by people, apart from being a hobby, these plants can beautify the corner of a room or yard. Ornamental plants can create a comfortable, refreshing environment and a more pleasant atmosphere.

In addition to their aesthetic value, ornamental gardens also have health benefits, such as improving air quality and reducing indoor dust.

Research has shown that ornamental plants can reduce indoor dust by up to 20 percent. The effectiveness of ornamental plants as air purifiers also has a good impact on overall body health.

The water vapour produced by ornamental plants will create humidity that can catch and absorb dust in the room. In addition, the composition of the water from ornamental plants can also balance the humidity level of the air, especially in the heat of the dry season.

Ornamental plants can also improve focus and concentration because excess levels of carbon dioxide or CO2 in the room can make you more easily tired, tired and lethargic. This condition can certainly interfere with the smooth running of activities and reduce the level of daily productivity.

With ornamental plants in the room, CO2 will be absorbed and replaced by oxygen or O2 that the body needs so that it can more easily focus on continuing activities.

There are several groups of ornamental plants commonly used to decorate the interior or exterior of a house, such as the following types of ornamental plants:

1. Leaf Ornamental Plant 

You can find many types of ornamental plants here with unique leaf shapes, such as suplir, taro red star, aglaonema, dieffenbachia, kuping gajah, paku tanduk rusa, and saka asparagus plumosus.

1. Flower Ornamental Plants

This type of plant certainly relies on the attractiveness of its flowers, such as roses, jasmine, orchids, euphorbia, and adenium.

1. Fruit Ornamental Plants

Ornamental fruit plants can usually also be consumed or used as food ingredients, such as krismil (decorative tomatoes), nagami oranges, olives, long mulberries, amazon nuts, and decorative lava bust pineapples.

1. Tree Ornamental Plants

Several types of trees can be used as ornamental plants that are unique and good outdoors, such as banyan, Japanese bamboo, yellow bamboo, and areca nut.

1. Ornamental Roots

The unique shape of plant roots can be used as an ornamental plant that will further beautify your room or yard, such as Ficus benjamina, Ficus elastica, Canarium spp, and so on.

Tips for caring ornamental plants to grow lush

There are many types of ornamental plants that can be chosen with specific care methods. No need to worry because caring for ornamental plants will not be difficult if you truly love plants.

Here are tips on how to care for ornamental plants to help them grow lush and beautiful:

1. Use the right planting medium

Before adopting ornamental plants, you should first find out the planting medium that is suitable for the plants to be planted. Using the wrong or unsuitable planting medium can cause the plant to wither and die. Different plants require different planting media. Some use Malang sand, coconut coir, charcoal pieces, soil mixed with organic fertilizer, and so on. This planting medium must also be adapted to the placement of ornamental plants, indoors or outdoors.

1. Pay attention to watering frequency

All plants need water, including ornamental plants, because if the ornamental plants are not watered, the soil will dry out, and the leaves will wither and die. However, before watering the plants, it's important to determine the appropriate watering frequency. Water with proper technique and pay attention to soil moisture. Avoid both underwatering and overwatering, especially excessive water that leads to waterlogging in the pot, as it can cause the roots to rot. To ensure the proper growth of ornamental plants, it's advisable to water them regularly.

1. Replace the planting medium regularly

The planting medium for ornamental plants needs to be replaced periodically. This aims to improve plant growth. Growing media that has been long, the nutrition is reduced. Ornamental plants that grow in nutrient-deficient planting media will inhibit growth and are easily attacked by pests. Therefore, periodically it is necessary to replace the planting medium with new media. In addition, routinely provide fertilizer. Ornamental plants usually need lots of nitrogen and potassium to survive. Besides using chemical fertilizers, you can also use natural fertilizers made from kitchen waste in the surrounding environment. Provide fertilizer regularly according to plant needs.

1. Take the plants outdoors regularly

Apart from needing water, ornamental plants also need sunlight. To fulfil these needs, ornamental plants that are usually placed indoors should be taken outdoors to receive sufficient sunlight. At least once every two weeks, the plants should be placed in an area that receives direct sunlight. Even though there are some ornamental plants that can survive indoors without direct sunlight, it's still beneficial to expose them to sunlight occasionally so that these plants can grow more optimally. Adequate sunlight intake helps ornamental plants thrive and last longer. (Nisa)