7 Vegetables You Can Grow Indoors In Winter
Winter doesn’t have to mean the end of your gardening days for the year. While the harsh winds and the frost can spell trouble for summer vegetable crops that are grown outside, you can still have a good harvest of herbs and vegetables in spite of the snow, ice, and cold weather.
It is possible to grow edible plants during the cool weather months. You can just take your gardening indoors and follow a different set of rules than you would with traditional gardening.
Today, we’ll be talking about seven vegetables you can grow indoors in winter. Let’s get started!
The Key to Indoor Growing
Growing vegetables indoors, is a great way to keep your fresh vegetable gardens going especially during the winter, but it can require a different approach than if you were to grow them outdoors in the warmer temperatures of spring and summer. Here are five things you need to remember when growing edibles indoors in the winter:
- Instead of using garden soil, use a good quality potting mix. It contains peat moss, vermiculite, and perlite which means it can absorb moisture well while resisting compaction.
- Use containers that have good drainage and are the right size for the particular plant you are growing. Shallow root veggies can be planted in two-inch deep containers while deep-rooted plants such as tomatoes should be planted in at least 12-inch deep pots.
- Place containers in south-facing windows since these spots receive the most hours of direct sunlight during the winter. If you don’t have an area like this, you might have to use ambient light such as supplemental lighting to ensure that your veggies and leafy crops receive an adequate supply of light throughout winter – grow lights can also be used to start your seedlings indoors before early spring.
- Avoid putting your containers in areas where any harsh winter draft can cause freeze burning. You should also keep them away from dry conditions like heaters which can dry them out.
- Finally, pick the right plants to grow indoors in winter. Not all vegetables are hardy enough to survive the winter weather no matter how hard you try to control the growing environment. You need to pick the right crops that can survive this method of gardening to be successful. Also shade-tolerant vegetables will do the trick.
7 Veggies to Grow Indoors This Winter
Garlic Chives
Garlic greens or chives are flavorful herbs that you ca substitute for scallions. The best part about them is that while garlic bulbs require a particular temperature to grow, these do not.
All you need is to plant individual cloves of garlic in one inch of water and they will sprout in about a week. You can start harvesting them when they grow eight to ten inches long. You can also grow many different kinds of root vegetables
Culinary Herbs
Herbs like rosemary, thyme, oregano, cilantro, lemon balm, and basil will happily grow indoors in winter. They don’t need a lot of hours of sunlight and they will even thrive in small pots placed by the window in your kitchen.
Lettuce
Lettuce is incredibly easy to grow indoors even when the frost is biting outside. These cold-resistant vegetables will grow happily in window boxes or planters placed in a sunny spot.
You can find leaf lettuce seeds in most gardening stores that you can plant in potting mix. Within a week, these will start sprouting. In about a month, they’ll grow big enough to supply you and your family with plenty of salad greens in the winter.
Don’t wait for the head to become hard or the lettuce will have a bitter taste. Butterhead lettuce types are never going to grow into tighter heads like what you can buy at your local grocery store.
Kale
Much like lettuce, leafy vegetables, or broad leaves vegetables, kale is also easy to grow and is a cold-tolerant plant. You can grow them in the same way you would lettuce. However, you need to space them farther apart since they need more room to grow. If you don’t like kale since it can be an acquired taste you can plant mustard greens, or swiss chard instead.
Arugula
These sharp and spicy leafy greens offer a wonderful bite to any salad, wraps, and even soup. These cold-weather plants do well in cooler temperatures which means you can easily grow them even in the winter.
Just make sure to put them in a south-facing window and avoid exposing them to heat sources so the soil doesn’t dry out.
Beans
Beans are extremely easy to grow regardless of the kind of weather you have. A great addition to the delicious greens we’ve discussed would be green beans or pole beans. If your home needs a little pop of greenery to break the gloomy winter vibe, keep a planter of beans indoors.
You can grow them in the winter in a pot fitted with bamboo poles so the beans can climb up. You can let them grow on mini trellises made from wooden frames with twine stretched across. It.
Peppers
Peppers grow best in potting mix. Simply plant one or two seeds in a pot and keep the growing medium moist but not soaking wet. Place containers in a south-facing window or provide additional light to keep them growing.
If you’ve started growing peppers late in the fall, you can expect them to grow fruits in about three months.
For More Options You Can Grow
- Alpine strawberries
- Brussels sprouts
- Bok choi or Chinese cabbage
- Asian greens
So you see you can grow indoors in winter whether you choose veggies or herbs or both you don’t have to wait for spring to enjoy fresh veggies and herbs again.
Do you have any suggestions or tips for growing your own vegetables indoors in the winter? Please leave them in the comments below I’d love to hear them.
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