Keep Indoor Plants Strong {Herb Garden Series}

My little sprouts are still going strong, but I’ve noticed that the dill was starting to lean a bit towards the windows, stretching out for sun. So I decided to try the advice Katie left in a comment on the first post about starting our indoor herb garden and build some sun reflectors to help keep indoor plants strong.

DIY sun reflectors to keep plants strong

Indoor plants (especially those which like a lot of sun) can get leggy, which means they grow long stems and few leaves because they are trying to reach out and grow towards the sun. One common way to prevent this is to rotate your plants every day or so in order to get the sun to hit all sides evenly.

Another way is to build a “reflector” so that the sun streaming in your window can bounce back and hit the plant from the back side as well. It’s super simple to do and you only need two things:

  • cardboard
  • tin foil

And maybe some tape 🙂

I broke down a cardboard box and kept two corner pieces. Then I wrapped one side of each piece in tin foil, shiny side out, and taped it to hold it down.

Because my interior window sills are so deep I wanted to reflect sun from the sides as well. I used the corners of the box which already had folds so that I could wrap the reflectors once they were in the sill. The great thing about cardboard is you can build it in any shape and size you want to fit your window sill (or wherever your plants are growing) perfectly!

I stuck them in the window behind the plants and folded them around the sides so that the back and sides were completely covered. Sunlight coming in the window now hits the plants from all sides at once as it bounces off the foil reflectors.

DIY sun reflectors to keep plants strong
Yes, it’s in the window backwards…but when it was in the right way I couldn’t get a picture from
the outside because we live on the 2nd floor…

And it really seems to have helped! The plants really enjoy their little sun-tanning panels and after just one day the dill sprouts straightened themselves out and are growing vertically again. Yay!

DIY sun reflectors to keep plants strong
It’s not the angle the picture was taken at, these poor babies really were growing slanted!
DIY sun reflectors to keep plants strong
Look at ’em, straightened right out!

And besides the dill and basil which are doing great, we have some tiny baby chamomile sprouts starting up, and we have new catnip sprouts too! I guess there were still a few un-sprouted seeds left like I thought last week. 🙂

This post is part of a series about growing herbs indoors. You can see the rest of the posts in the series here.

 

I link up at these awesome parties

Jessi Wohlwend

I believe that anyone can do crafts and DIY projects, regardless of skill or experience. I love sharing simple craft ideas, step by step DIY project tutorials, cleaning hacks, and other tips and tricks all with one goal in mind: giving you the tools you need to “do it yourself”, complete fun projects, and make awesome things!

You May Also Like

Reader Interactions

  1. Jessi W says

    12 years ago

    Yes, it totally is! Thanks for the brilliant idea 🙂

  2. Katie says

    12 years ago

    Good! I'm glad it's working. ^_^

Leave a Comment or Review

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *