There are more than a few secrets to getting your food to grow indoors no matter what part of the year it is. Well-drained soil, plenty of light (even grow lights), and the right amounts of water are crucial to the success of indoor gardening. The general “rules” of container gardening apply here, too. Make sure the container is deep enough for the plant, use fresh potting mix, and make sure the container has a drainage hole.
Again, this is all simple enough in the summer. Your plants sit by the open windows and enjoy a nice breeze while they bask in the sunlight. But let’s talk about winter. How can you get food to grow indoors without that lovely breeze or the open windows or the 12 hours of sunshine? Light, indoor varieties, and warmth. Sometimes, also humidity. A hydroponic garden can truly thrive in a dry winter with a mister.
Hydroponic gardens are a whole separate beast of indoor gardening, but they are a wonderful thing if you love fresh produce. Depending on your system, soil may not even be needed, and you can grow a compact food garden right in your living room without any mess. For those who take a more disciplined approach, closed system hydroponics could be the right solution for growing an indoor garden. Or, if you simply don’t want to give up fresh produce in the winter, it’s great too!
In the articles below, we share everything you need to know about indoor gardening. And you can learn even more about it in our How to Grow a Vegetable Garden: 10 Things Every Gardener Needs to Know Before Starting a Food Garden freebie. Enjoy!
Most of us don’t think very much about how to grow hot peppers indoors. After all, peppers are sort of known for their love of sunlight and summer temperatures. But who would we be as gardeners if we didn’t at least try? Here’s a bit of a spoiler, you can indeed grow hot peppers indoors, […]
Nice as it would be, we don’t all have space to grow a garden outdoors. Or, even if we do have space, we may live in a cooler climate with a limited growing season. That’s not an end to garden dreams; it just means we may need to be more selective about some of the […]
Although I don’t always feel like it before I’ve had some caffeine in the morning, physiologically speaking, I am human. No surprise there. And I spend most of my awake time in light of some kind, whether that’s sunlight or the soft light of the bulb in my reading lamp or those dreadful fluorescent lights in the grocery store. Plants, on the other hand, need more than just the light from my cozy lamp or a candlelit dinner to thrive. Of all the possibilities, sunlight is the best kind of light for growing plants.
When I first started gardening, I never expected that gardening lights would be something I’d consider. People have planted gardens for thousands of years without any lighting other than the sun. Even houseplants can thrive with just the sunlight coming through the windows.
If there’s one thing I can say about gardeners, it’s that we have some very different ideas of what it means to grow vegetables. Some of us take a very scientific and organized approach. Others of us are just happy to get some warm soil in our hands and hope for the best with whatever those seeds were we just tossed in the ground.
Summer is heaven for gardeners. The flowers are all in bloom, the tomatoes are ripening on the vine, we have enough hot peppers to make salsa for an entire year. We can even get food to grow indoors on a sunny windowsill – small pots of our favorite herbs, a few containers of lettuces, and those tasty cherry tomatoes.
I’m going to guess you might be a little surprised to find Disney World mentioned in the first sentence of a post about hydroponic produce. The theme park and entertainment empire are much better known for princesses, anthropomorphic mice, and the live-action movie version of Mulan, which I thought was an okay movie. However, there are plenty of reviewers on Rotten Tomatoes who very much disagree with me.
