Indoor Gardening - My City Magazine

How does your garden grow? If you don’t have a yard or a patio, no worries – you can have a garden and grow fresh veggies and herbs inside your home! Here are some tips to get you growing indoors:

General Indoor Growing Tips

Use a good quality potting mix, not garden soil.

Containers should have good drainage and be sized for the particular plant. For instance, shallow and rooted greens only need about a two-inch depth, but deep-rooted tomatoes will want at least 12 inches of soil.

Sunny windows often do not provide enough light for healthy, stocky plants. If there is not enough light for the plant’s needs, you might want to use some type of supplemental lighting; either a plant light or a full-spectrum fluorescent light.

Don’t place plants so close to the window that they are subjected to drafts or near a heat source that could dry them out.

Tomatoes

Tomatoes can be grown inside by starting a new plant from seed. Tomato seeds germinate fairly quickly. Once seedlings are three to four inches tall, move them to their “permanent” pot and make sure they have at least ten hours of light per day. Start feeding with a water-soluble organic fertilizer when you move the seedling to its new pot. Once the plants start getting flowers, you will need to gently shake them periodically to allow the pollen to fall from flower to flower. Without pollination, no fruit will form. The plants can become top-heavy and staking may be necessary.

Lettuce

Quick-growing and shallow-rooted, lettuce won’t need a deep container. It will also continue to regrow if you use the “cut-and-come-again” method. Choose a container that is two to four inches deep, and fill it with dampened soil. Sow your seeds and gently press them into the soil surface. Mist to keep the seeds moist and you should see germination within about one week. Allow the plants to grow at least four to six inches tall before you start harvesting. Cut or pull the outer leaves and allow the center of the plant to continue growing.

Herbs

Growing herbs indoors makes harvesting easy and is a great idea if you don’t have a garden, patio or balcony. It also extends the season for annual herbs, so you’ll have fresh produce all year round.