Winter is for a lot of things, but for most of us, winter does not include gardening. Sure, temperatures dip and the days shorten, but that doesn’t mean you can’t grow delicious, beautiful produce all season long indoors.
Winter Gardening? Indoors?
Not only will growing indoors benefit you and your family by providing fresh vegetables and herbs, but it’s also a great way to beat the winter blues if winter isn’t your idea of a good time.
What to Grow Indoors
Now, it’s important to keep things in perspective. Indoor winter gardening won’t give you corn or squash, but you do have options:
- Radishes
- Carrots
- Greens
- Microgreens
- Potatoes
- Sprouts
- Mushrooms
- Peppers
- Tomatoes
What You’ll Need
To grow indoors during the winter, you’ll need:
- A window or windows with southern exposure OR supplemental lighting AKA grow lights
- Medium-large containers OR hydroponic system
- Soil
- Starts or seeds
Which Containers Are Best?
There are lots of options when it comes to containers but we consider ourselves naturalists on this topic and we love a simple terra cotta pot. You can go round or rectangular, whichever works best for your windowsill and space.
Getting Started: Seeds vs. Starts
It’s important to keep in mind that it IS winter and try as you might, it’s ultimately impossible to replicate the summer weather so plants will naturally grow slower and not as big and strong as they would during the winter. For these reasons, it’s typically best to start your garden with plant starts versus seeds. If you’re unable to find starts of everything you want to grow, starting from seeds is a-okay too.
Fertilizing
Remember the whole ‘plants grow slower during the winter’ thing? Because of this, fertilizing your garden may actually do more harm than good. If you do choose to fertilize, make sure to dilute your fertilizer with water and only fertilize once every 4-6 weeks.
Watering
When growing indoors during the winter, you won’t have to water your plants as frequently as you would during the summer because too much can cause stress and/or root rot which makes it hard for plants to bounce back. Check your plants weekly by feeling the top inch of the soil. If it’s dry, give your plant a drink, if the surface still feels moist, give it a few more days.
Light
A sunny window with no draft goes a long way, but yes, this does limit your space. No worries there because there are other options. Grow lights can be set up on any table or shelf and help supplement the lack of warmth and sunlight.
Our Pick: Barrina Grow Lights for Indoor Plants ($29.99, shop here)