Intended for recreation and educational purposes, garden and arboretum compartments intended for Lorath starships and installations are designed to feature a variety of methods in which to plant, grow, and display various forms of plat life in an artificial environment.
Hydroponic gardens found aboard starships and in installations have been developed from traditional [[faction:lorath:technology:lorath_hydroponics] techniques. Hydroponic gardens found in starships and installations are designed for purposes ranging from the growth of supplemental foods, to the recreational growth of various forms of plants for display or ingestion.
Hydroponic garden areas are designed to place the plant growing portion of the compartment separate from seating and observing areas which can be arranged adjacent to the growing area to allow for recreational observation of the plants grown within the hydroponic garden. Hydroponic gardens can also include special display planters which can provide a better presentation of a plant grown in the hydroponic garden.
Designed and presented to be used as an in-starship or installation botanical garden, arboretums are intended to provide visitors, botanists, and horticultural enthusiasts a location in which plants can be raised and observed. Arboretums can be geared to focus upon the raising of plants, or can be designed with a layout favoring presentation of plants for recreational observation.
Intended to be installed upon small starships and in small installations, compact gardens use a combination of geoponics and hydroponic technology to grow simple and resilient plants for display, or minor supplemental food sources. Compact gardens are built into a space two by two meters to five by five meters. Floor space of the compact garden can be designed for the growth of grasses, compact gardens can also include planter shelves. Ceiling spaces of compact gardens include lighting elements which promote plant growth. Often, compact gardens are installed purely for gardening hobbyists aboard ships or installations.
A grand novelty of design, the contained biosphere display centralizes around a completely sealed and suspended holding tank comprised of transparent durandium. Within the transparent holding tank, a miniature biosphere is self contained and sustained. In some designs, such biosphere containers include self-replenishing power supplies which can provide artificial light to maintain plant life photosynthesis within the biosphere container.
Biosphere display areas include lounge seating surrounding the biosphere container. Lounge seating can also double as teaching areas for recreational education, as well as simply providing a seating area where individuals can observe the biosphere container.