I am completely new to gardening and need some advice with my current setup.
I’ll just describe my current situation:
Last weekend I was at a friend’s house and they have a pretty large Aloe plant, I decided it would be cool to try and propagate my own plant from the mother. So I split one of the new shoots (the largest of the leaves being about 7 inches, 5 total), I got a very small amount of roots. I decided that keeping it moist would be a good idea (which I now know was a mistake). I wrapped it in wet paper towel around the roots and put it in a ziplock bag. It remained here for over 24 hours until I returned home. After getting home I potted it in regular potting soil with plenty of water (another mistake I now realize). After researching more and learning these mistakes I removed the plant from the pot and let it sit out to dry for 24 hours just sitting on a plate. I then took the plant and repotted it in a mixture 50/50 regular potting soil and sand. It is looking pretty sad now and today I cut off one of the leaves that was getting quite mushy as I didn’t want the (what I assume is) rot to spread.
I live in the Chicago area and don’t have any good areas to place the plant near a window. I decided that I wanted to try an indoor artificial lighting setup. I am also interested in attempting to grow some other plants in the same setup. I don’t have much space to work with as I share a house with 4 other guys and want to have something setup in my room. I found a small shelf that just turned out to be a perfect size at Home Depot. I also found a small 18â€