Something to Read: ‘The Indoor Water Gardener’s How-To Handbook’

“The Indoor Water Gardener’s How-To Handbook.” Photo: Satya Nelms

My grandmother loved her family, God, birds, plants, and a good story. The last time I was in her house, over the summer, I was there for her funeral. I trailed a finger along her bookshelves looking for something well-worn. I wanted to find a book with turned down pages and notes in the margins. Maybe a bookmark still holding her place, or a bit of tape where the book had begun to fall apart from so much use. 

“The Indoor Water Gardener’s How-To Handbook,” written and illustrated by Peter Loewer, is the book I brought home with me, along with clippings of my Nannie’s geraniums and philodendrons. It is a slim volume of only 95 pages, but it holds a wealth of information.

As the weather turns cold, and many outdoor plants settle into hibernation, it seems natural to put off thoughts of growing anything until the spring. But the change in season doesn’t mean we must stop gardening. 

I remembered my mother’s garden and her endless plant cuttings, quietly rooting in water in jelly glasses on her back porch. Why not just grow them in water? There would be no pots, no dirt and no daily watering. We started with some ivy cuttings and from then on our water garden has been growing and growing.

Loewer’s book illustrates how simple and easy it can be to create a lush indoor landscape.