Growing Vegetables Indoors For Fresh Produce Year Round
Perhaps you’ve done some container gardening on the balcony or patio, and you’ve even planted some vegetables along with flowers and herbs. But what if you’ve enjoyed the experience so much that you don’t want it to stop throughout the winter months? Is it possible to create a container garden inside as well as out?
It certainly is, to a limited extent at least, however, there are some prerequisites. You may not be surprised to find out that the most important of these is sunshine. Should you have a sunny window, preferably facing south, this will be the first ingredient in your container garden’s successful outcome. You might also need a fluorescent lamp that you can concentrate on particular veggies, such as tomatoes and peppers, to produce enough light so they won’t grow spindly or fail to bear fruit.
To a certain extent, it’s possible to prepare the pots in much the same way you would for an outdoor garden, with the right soil mix, plenty of drainage, and so forth. But these pots are likely to be somewhat more compact, and being indoors throughout the winter, they may not have as much humidity as they need. One way to work around this may be to place your pots in large trays instead of on saucers, sitting on a layer of pebbles, and keep water in the trays. This should not only help them access water as they require it, but it will intensify the humidity around them also. Another distinction between outdoor and indoor containers is going to be that you’ll require less fertilizer, considering that vegetables will grow more slowly in the house.
The choices of plants will naturally be more restrictive than in an outdoor container garden. However, you can grow tomatoes, radishes and small peppers, various types of lettuce, and all sorts of herbs. Together with the standard herbs like sage, basil, and thyme, you can plant parsley, chives, and cilantro also. You should be able to plant these in six-inch pots on a windowsill.
Radishes will almost certainly be the fastest growing vegetable to start with. Get a six- or eight-inch pot and sprinkle seeds on the moist soil, then cover with another 1/4 inch of soil. To make the seeds sprout quickly, try a “greenhouse” effect, either by setting some glass over top of the container to preserve moisture or stretching some plastic wrap over it until the seeds have sprouted.
Small peppers, tomatoes, and many types of lettuce will grow in the house, but must have sunny, warm surroundings. With the peppers and tomatoes, you’ll need to keep an eye open for whiteflies and aphids, and get rid of them with insecticidal soap or another form of insect killer when they first emerge. You should be able to harvest both peppers and tomatoes about ten weeks after planting. Carrots with small roots may also be grown inside.
Your choices of vegetables will be more limited with indoor pots than with outdoor, and you’ll have to ensure appropriate conditions for their development. But you can still have at least a partial garden to keep you during the winter months, and remind you of all the possibilities for your outdoor container garden in the coming spring.
If you’re serious about indoor gardening, you might want to think about hydroponics gardening using water instead of soil. Click here for some helpful advice on hydroponic greenhouse systems.
