How to Garden Indoors & Grow Your Own Food Year Round E-Book

Kim Roman

• Herausgeber: Creative Homeowner
• Kategorie: Lebensstil
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2022

Seitenzahl: 319

Beschreibung

No room to garden outside? No problem! A complete guide filled with a host of valuable information and DIY projects, Ultimate Guide to Indoor Gardening shares all the knowledge on how to grow a variety of foods inside your home. From growing vegetables, microgreens, and herbs to hydroponic gardening, troubleshooting, and more, learn to grow fresh produce all year-round, no matter where you live. With expert tips on composting, working with grow lights, choosing a growing locale, container gardening for both root and above ground vegetables, the basics of fermentation, and so much more, this must-have resource is a one-stop shop on everything you need to know about successful indoor food production and how to maximize your indoor space!

Leseprobe

Dedication

This book is dedicated to my grandchildren: Katelyn Falk, Luther Falk, and Reece Roman; my sons: Jeremy Roman and Matthew Roman; my daughter-in-law, Crystal Roman; and my husband, MSgt Tim Roman, USAF, retired. Family is everything!

Special Thanks

My sincerest thanks to Katie Elzer-Peters of TheGardenOfWords.com and Shawna Coronado of ShawnaCoronado.com for believing in me. Also, to Catoctin Mountain Park for allowing us to take photos at historic Camp Misty Mount in Thurmont, Maryland. If you’re looking for unique volunteer opportunities, try www.Volunteer.gov. Very special thank yous go out to my multi-talented daughter-in-law, Crystal Roman, of www.CrystalRomanPhotography.com, and Guy DiRoma, who kept me in check and sane along the way.

Copyright © 2022 Kim Roman and Creative Homeowner

This book may not be reproduced, either in part or in its entirety, in any form, by any means, without written permission from the publisher, with the exception of brief excerpts for purposes of radio, television, or published review. All rights, including the right of translation, are reserved. Note: Be sure to familiarize yourself with manufacturer’s instructions for tools, equipment, and materials before beginning a project. Although all possible measures have been taken to ensure the accuracy of the material presented, neither the author nor the publisher is liable in case of misinterpretation of directions, misapplication, or typographical error.

Creative Homeowner® is a registered trademark of New Design Originals Corporation.

How to Garden Indoors & Grow Your Own Food Year Round

Editor: Colleen Dorsey

Designer: Freire Disseny + Comunicació, Llara Pazdan

Indexer: Jay Kreider

Print ISBN: 978-1-58011-867-5eISBN: 978-1-63741-052-3

Library of Congress Control Number: 2021938131

We are always looking for talented authors. To submit an idea, please send a brief inquiry to [email protected].

Creative Homeowner®, www.creativehomeowner.com, is an imprint of New Design Originals Corporation and distributed exclusively in North America by Fox Chapel Publishing Company, Inc., 800-457-9112, 903 Square Street, Mount Joy, PA 17552, and in the United Kingdom by Grantham Book Service, Trent Road, Grantham, Lincolnshire, NG31 7XQ.

For a printable PDF of the patterns used in this book, please contact Fox Chapel Publishing at [email protected], with 9781580118675 How to Garden Indoors & Grow Your Own Food Year Round in the subject line.

Foreword

As we climb our way out of the pandemic, it certainly has left us with some great opportunities. An understanding of food insecurity has now become “mainstream” and not just for those living in food deserts. Not only city dwellers, but also those in suburban areas, saw empty produce shelves. Where would we get fresh food if our supply chains were cut? How would we feed our families? Through adversity, new ideas are born, and old ones can suddenly make even more sense.

Kim Roman learned long ago through her work with Mel Bartholomew, the founder and creator of Square Foot Gardening™ and the SFG Foundation, that thinking outside the box can result in solutions to real-world problems. Having become a Square Foot Gardening Certified Instructor in 2010, Kim not only worked directly with Mel, but also worked closely with the Square Foot Gardening Foundation on our national best-selling gardening book, All New Square Foot Gardening, 3rd Edition. Her input has been invaluable.

Kim’s passion is finding ways to solve hunger by working in her suburban community and in the inner cities in the state of Maryland, where she resides, and around the world. With her extensive gardening knowledge, she is making real inroads in teaching people with limited resources how to feed themselves. Thousands of new gardeners under her tutelage as a Square Foot Gardening Certified Instructor are now equipped to grow nutritious food as a result.

As one of our top Certified Instructors, Kim is helping us further our mission around the world to help end world hunger “one square foot at a time.” She walks the walk by working with at-risk youth, the homeless, victims of sexual exploitation, veterans, and those who have limited access to healthy produce. Some of the organizations Kim has worked with include World Relief (an international and development agency), Gardens for Heroes (which provides gardens for wounded veterans and their caregivers), and The Samaritan Women in Baltimore (which helps to provide housing for victims of sexual exploitation), just to name a few.

With her years of research and hands-on application in the field, Kim has gained extensive insights into the needs of others and how to tackle finding real solutions—so much so that the SFG Foundation named Kim an official SFG Ambassador to our mission and method. This accolade is given only to the most valued and experienced Certified SFG Instructors, as they play an important role in providing advice and strategic guidance to the Foundation. Kim, with the help of the Square Foot Gardening Foundation, traveled to Africa with her home church (Abundant Life Church, Glen Burnie, Maryland) and taught SFG and composting at a remote church in Kenya with Convoy of Hope. She taught them the principles of composting and how to grow their own food. Think of how many of those villagers can now teach others to help themselves and how that knowledge can expand and change lives.

We are so proud and excited that Kim has written How to Garden Indoors & Grow Your Own Food Year Round to help people grow nutritious, healthy food indoors. This thorough guide will no doubt encourage countless readers that they can grow their own food in limited space or in a cold climate.

In these unknown times, and by thinking outside the box, Kim guides her readers in a fun, easy way that includes lots of tips, fresh new ideas, photos, and real “how-to” practical learning for growing food indoors. How to Garden Indoors & Grow Your Own Food Year Round covers every aspect of getting off to a great start, from setup, to seed starting, to pests, hydroponics, and more. Take control of your own food destiny and know that even if you don’t have a yard or a place to grow, or you simply want to extend your growing season, you can successfully grow your own produce indoors and have a real sense of food security for you, your family, and your community.

Steve and Laura BartholomewDirectorsSquare Foot Gardening FoundationA 501(c)3 Non-Profitwww.squarefootgardening.org

Preface

A fun question on social media is, “What’s your superpower?” I used to answer, “I grow big food from tiny seeds.” However, an even greater superpower I have is teaching small-space, high-intensive edible gardening so others can confidently grow at least some of their own food. I’ve been teaching classes, seminars, and “lunch and learns” at various venues near my home in Maryland since 2010.

When the pandemic hit in early 2020, I was inundated with requests for classes. Because we were soon put under stay-at-home orders, in-person classes weren’t an option, so I had to develop a new plan. Thankfully, I quickly pivoted to online classes and consultations and then to on-demand videos.

People were afraid of what the future might hold, and it felt good to empower them by alleviating at least some of that fear and anxiety. It was great to be able to expand my reach from Maryland to as far away as Peru. In a short time, hundreds of students became more secure growing their own nutritious, organic food at their homes and community gardens.

Even before the pandemic, a common theme frequently crept into conversations with potential students, especially those who needed to depend on community or allotment gardens: “I really want to start a garden, but I’m afraid someone might steal my food.” Sometimes I heard, “My landlord, or Homeowners Association (HOA), won’t let me grow food. Can I garden indoors?”

Initially, I recorded three basic gardening classes to teach people various small-space methods and get them up and running quickly. These were followed by more specialty classes on advanced techniques like vertical gardening, growing tomatoes, and fall and winter gardening without a greenhouse, and I planned on adding more periodically. I thought about a class on indoor gardening but hesitated.

Then, around 2017, I volunteered for a faith-based organization and was asked to explore different indoor food-growing methods, since our clients were mainly apartment dwellers with little access to reliable transportation to get to a community garden. The next year, I also started volunteering for a nonprofit that gave gardens to wounded veterans. One of my tasks was to research indoor options for growing fragrant herbs on structures that could be wheeled from room to room in a veterans’ assisted living facility in southern Maryland. As a military brat and veteran of the United States Air Force, this mission was near and dear to my heart.

The thought of creating an indoor gardening class was always in the back of my mind. Let’s face it; I have been doing and researching indoor gardening for quite a while. The scope of the class kept expanding, and soon the class was turning into an entire course. Then, out of the blue, I was approached by Fox Chapel Publishing and asked if I’d like to write a book on indoor gardening. Thus, How to Garden Indoors & Grow Your Own Food Year Round was born.

I hope that the information in this book will save you time and effort by taking advantage of my years of research, experience, and mistakes!

Kim RomanOwnerSquare Foot Gardening 4 U“Confidently Grow Your Own Food!”www.sfg4u.com

Contents

INTRODUCTION

GALLERY OF INDOOR GARDENS

PART 1: GETTING STARTED

CHAPTER 1: ADVANTAGES TO GARDENING INDOORS

CHAPTER 2: BEFORE YOU START

CHAPTER 3: SITE PREPARATION

PART 2: WHAT PLANTS NEED

CHAPTER 4: LIGHT

CHAPTER 5: AIR

CHAPTER 6: SOIL, WATER, NUTRIENTS, AND WARMTH

PART 3: INDOOR GROWING METHODS

CHAPTER 7: CONTAINER GARDENING

CHAPTER 8: HYDROPONIC GARDENING

CHAPTER 9: VERTICAL WALL GARDENS AND GROWING SPROUTS, MICROGREENS, AND BABY GREENS

PART 4: WHAT TO GROW

CHAPTER 10: PLANNING AND GROWING

CHAPTER 11: PLANT PROFILES

CHAPTER 12: SEED STARTING

PART 5: TIPS AND TROUBLESHOOTING

CHAPTER 13: WATERING, COMPOSTING, AND GENERAL TIPS

CHAPTER 14: PESTS, CRITTERS, AND DISEASES

Resources

About the Author

Photo Credits

Introduction

Why Indoor Gardening?

You’ve spent the spring, summer, and early fall outside in your garden, but with late fall’s blustery arrival, your plants start dying, and you decide to wrap up for the winter. Perhaps you’re part of a community garden (a.k.a. an allotment garden) that closes from October to April. It’s, indeed, a sad time. Heavy sigh. You still want access to inexpensive, organic food without the grocery store prices, but what can you do?

The solution is simple. Grow indoors!

Whether you choose indoor gardening as your year-round preference or only use it in the cold months, How to Garden Indoors & Grow Your Own Food Year Round shows you how easy it is to grow nutritious food no matter your circumstances. This book is your one-stop shop to learn about simple indoor edible gardening even if you have limited space and resources. My promise is to give you clear, concise instructions on several different methods of indoor growing without a lot of technical jargon so you can choose which method(s) work best for you and your situation. (The exception to this is the section on hydroponic gardening—there’s just no escaping technical jargon there!)

For the purposes of writing this book for you, I limited my personal growing space to a small section of my home office, plus the top of a small cabinet in my tiny eat-in kitchen and a few larger plants in a spare bedroom. The office space is a little less than 4′ × 9′ (1.2 × 2.75m) in floor space, the kitchen tabletop is about 23″ × 41″ (58.5 × 104cm), and the desk in the spare bedroom is a little less than 2′ × 5′ (61 × 152.5cm). I present several different growing methods and, when possible, show you commercially available options alongside similar DIY projects for you to construct. This demonstrates that even if you have just a small area in which to grow, you can enjoy an incredible amount of fresh food in less than 43 square feet (4 square meters). And if lack of space is not your main concern, this book is still for you: indoor gardening is scalable to suit your needs.

Finding Your Why

Here’s a question for you: Why do you want to try indoor food gardening?

It’s important to ascertain the answer to this question upfront—don’t skip past it by saying to yourself, “Oh, I’m just interested and think it will be fun!” With a clear why, you’ll remember your overarching goal or goals, which will keep you motivated when you experience a setback. Once you’ve come up with your why or whys, you should physically write them down on a piece of paper and tape it to a wall or put it on your refrigerator for motivation.

My why may not match yours, but you might still see parallels. One of my on-demand classes at www.sfg4u.com is called Fall and Winter Gardening Without a Greenhouse. I do a good bit of growing outdoors year-round here in Maryland, Zone 7b. If you’re farther north, just look at my friend, Niki Jabbour, who grows outdoors all year long without a greenhouse well up into Canada. She even wrote two books on it—The Year-Round Vegetable Gardener and Growing Under Cover. I love extending my outdoor season, but I have to admit, crop choices are a bit limited. My personal why is expanding the choice of what’s available for me to grow during the colder months.

You are limited to cool-weather crops when you’re growing outdoors in the fall, winter, and early spring, Your choices for outdoor growing are basically lettuces, greens, and root vegetables. Indoors, when you provide a nice, warm room and supplemental light, you can include many warm-season crops like tomatoes, eggplants, peppers, and tender herbs that wouldn’t survive in your outdoor winter garden. Do they grow as big and bountiful as they would outdoors in the summer? Not really. Do they grow as quickly? Not always. But a fresh, homegrown tomato in the dead of winter is always a joyful treat.

Does your why match mine, or do you have a different why? If you’re still stuck, here are some common reasons for cultivating an indoor garden, and not just in the cold months:

• You don’t have anywhere to garden outdoors.

• You have space outside, but your Homeowners Association (HOA) doesn’t allow edible gardening.

• You’ve gardened in the spring, summer, and fall, and you want to continue to provide your family with nutritious, organic produce in the warmth of your home, even in the worst weather.

• You have an outdoor fall and winter garden but want to expand your choices.

• You’ve always liked to be prepared “just in case.”

If you still haven’t found your why or whys, head on over to Chapter 1 for more ideas. Then write them down, like I directed earlier, so that they can motivate you in the lows.

Learn from My Mistakes and from My Friends

My business tagline is “Confidently Grow Your Own Food!”, so this is the perfect time for me to tell you what I tell all my garden class students: never get discouraged when gardening. You can do everything one hundred percent perfectly and still have a crop failure. It happens whether you’re a brand new gardener or a seasoned expert. You can be disappointed, even pout and stomp your feet a bit, but never give up. Your victories will be entirely worth it. I had a Sun Gold cherry tomato plant that I brought indoors to overwinter. It reliably produced fruit for a full year, much of that time while indoors. The vine grew to a whopping 11 ½′ (3.5m) in length! Start small and add to your indoor garden a bit at a time. It will probably become a fun and addictive challenge for you to grow more and more food indoors as the years go by.

Frankly, you can learn a lot from my mistakes and missteps, and let me tell you, there have been quite a few through the years. But taking the time to learn about and choose the right method or methods will save you time and money by not purchasing unnecessary gadgets and containers, buying or making the wrong growing medium, etc. And nothing is worse than a costly error that results in a damaged wall or floor due to water or mold, especially if you rent or lease your space. We’ll cover this too.

I also contacted some gardening experts to help me explain things to you at different points in the book. No matter how much research I’ve done, I always feel better when I can ask someone I trust and who has the knowledge for clarification on sticky points, especially when the information online is conflicting.

So, sit back and relax while I help you “Confidently Grow Your Own Food . . . Indoors!”

PRODUCT AND RESOURCE DISCLAIMER

You’ll notice that I’ve included a few commercially available products throughout the book. These are not endorsements of the products, and they represent just a small sample of what’s available on the market. If products have been given to me by the manufacturer to try, I disclose that fact. If something doesn’t live up to my expectation, I tell you that too.

The Resource section at the end of the book lists helpful contact information and product sources as of the writing of this book. Of course we all know, things change, people leave, and companies fold, so forgive me if you have trouble contacting a particular organization.

Gallery of Indoor Gardens

There’s nothing like seeing someone else’s thriving indoor gardening to whet your appetite for your own tasty homemade crops! People around the world, in all kinds of climates, and with all kinds of spaces and budgets love indoor gardening. Here are some personal success stories from individuals and families who have learned and grown with their own indoor food gardens. Get inspired to start work on your own!

Tessa Agrey

Edson, Alberta, Canada | Website: www.hopeinnovation.ca

In my garden: tomatoes, peppers, lettuce, kale, beans, basil, strawberries, arugula

There are so many reasons I pursued indoor gardening. For one, I wanted to make sure that I had a food source that I controlled so that no matter what happens, I can eat. For another, fresh produce is so expensive and goes bad so fast. I was wasting hundreds of dollars a month buying food and never eating it because it would go bad before I had the chance to. Now I can simply pick what I need, and the rest continues to grow more leaves and fruits instead of growing mold!

Now that I grow my own veggies, they taste so much better. It feels like I am discovering new foods. My lettuce is no longer bitter and watery, but has flavor. I have never tasted tomatoes that are so juicy and sweet. It’s also a true mood booster to have living plants in my home, especially during the long, freezing, snowy months of winter.

In the photos you can see my hydroponic setup with grow lights, the Eden Garden by my company, Hope Innovations. I love this system because it doesn’t require seed refill pods, there’s no transplanting necessary, and it grows produce super fast—I’m harvesting leafy greens every three weeks!

Lan Huynh

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania | Instagram and YouTube: @Plant4Table

In my garden: lettuce, herbs, peppers, cucumbers, eggplants, cherry tomatoes, peas, strawberries

My indoor garden is completely hydroponic. I use three different systems: AeroGarden, Gardyn, and iHarvest. I live in USDA plant hardiness zone 7, which means I can only grow things outdoors about five months out of the year. I enjoy growing hydroponically indoors because it allows me to garden year-round.

Having a garden indoors is an amazing experience because we always have lettuce, herbs, peppers, and cucumbers available just a couple steps away from the kitchen. Our meal ingredients are always fresh and nutritious! I especially prefer to grow lettuce indoors because it prefers cooler temperatures—it doesn’t do well in the summer heat. We stopped wasting store-bought lettuce that we couldn’t use up fast enough.

Celie Brayson

Ullesthorpe, Leicestershire, United Kingdom | Instagram: @milestone_cottage

In my garden: dill, parsley, arugula

Coming from the concrete jungle, this was our first attempt at growing anything, inside or out! We wanted to start becoming as self-sufficient as possible, so we used pallet wood, old coffee jars, and a couple of pots found in local charity shops to create this wall herb garden. We also designed the garden to fit aesthetically with our ongoing home renovations.

We absolutely love indoor growing and found it to be a great starting point for us as novices. We planted everyday things that we knew we’d use, such as dill, parsley, and arugula.

Our indoor herb garden, as we usually call it, has given us the confidence boost we needed to carry on growing! We now have a live patio allotment currently on the go, filled with potatoes, carrots, lettuce, and onions. Next stop, full garden allotment!

Andreas Chrysomallis

Amsterdam, The Netherlands | Instagram: @andreas_chrysomallis and @fermentationart

In my garden: various edible flowers, dill, chives, parsley, beets, radishes, carrots

This is an indoor garden that I set up in my apartment in Amsterdam. Due to the pandemic, I had some extra time, so I decided to start the whole process from scratch. I followed an old traditional method—I germinated different kinds of seeds wrapped in wet paper towels. I placed these bags in the sun for 10 to 15 days, and then I began to plant them in the soil.

As a chef, I love to use fresh herbs, edible flowers, and mini vegetables in my dishes, so this was a great opportunity to grow my own and explore indoor gardening. I have a variety of edible flowers; my favorites are violets, nasturtium, and marigolds. In the herb section, I have dill, chives, and parsley, which I also use daily in my home cooking. Lastly, I have a variety of mini vegetables; my favorite are beetroots, radishes, and carrots.

Felicia Feaster

Atlanta, Georgia | Instagram: @fafeaster

In my garden: mini tomatoes, lettuce, beans, peas, habaneros, mint, thyme, oregano, Swiss chard, kale

Though I’ve done plenty of outdoor gardening, this is the first year I have tried to grow seedlings indoors. Growing an indoor garden and starting plants from seeds is uniquely satisfying and taps into the nurturing side of gardening: you have a front-row seat to the delicacy and magic of seedlings sprouting and growing every day. It feels like my personal little plant nursery where I can nurture these baby plants until I introduce them to the outside world of my deck garden.

My indoor growing setup, situated near a long window in the hallway between my kitchen and my bedroom, is a combination of “hacks” in which I am using two hydroponic growing systems to grow edibles and also sharing their light with other nearby seedlings. I use mason jars and vintage coffee mugs to grow some of the seedlings, as well as special seedling bags in my hydroponic gardens. Because I work for HGTV, aesthetics are important to me, so I do like having some cute plant labels, vintage containers, and ornamentals mixed in to coordinate with my home. Once the seedlings are established, I transplant them to my edible containers on my deck, right outside this window, and begin an often losing battle to keep the squirrels out of them.

I am lucky as a frequent garden writer and editor for HGTV to receive trial plants to test. For example, right now, I am growing PanAmerican Seed Kitchen Mini Tomato Red Velvet, from a series of plants designed to be grown in a sunny windowsill for people without a garden.

Jessica Doyle

Sewell, New Jersey | Website: www.theoutsidersfarm.com

In my garden: snowbird peas, various herbs, various mints, kale, spinach, various melons, various tomatoes, June-bearing strawberries, bell peppers, lemons, limes, eggplants, carrots, and more

I work pretty simply. I grow my plants in containers, both store-bought and self-made. In the dark winter months, I grow them under grow lights and in a greenhouse, if necessary. Otherwise, I grow all of my plants in my house with natural light.

I started indoor gardening because it was easier to watch the seedlings and see how each plant grows and reacts to lights, water, and soils throughout the day. My children and I love to watch the plants grow all the way up from seeds and eat the fruits, vegetables, and herbs right from the containers.

I love to grow organic vegetables, fruits, herbs, and melons. My favorites to grow are watermelon, cucumbers, limes, blueberries, and rare types of mints. Some of my special plants include berries and cream mint, ambrosia muskmelon, patio snacker cucumbers, and calamondin (miniature oranges).

Eilidh McKnight

Glasgow, Scotland | Instagram: @the_scottish_garden_allotment

In my garden: tomatoes, chilies, herbs, pea shoots, spring onions, microgreens, mushrooms

I initially started indoor vegetable growing because in Scotland there is such a short outdoor growing season. I decided to start experimenting with indoor growing, and I found it extends the scope of what I can grow here hugely. I have been growing various vegetables and herbs indoors for a few years now. I love the freedom it gives me to grow fresh food that would otherwise be out of season.

Currently I am growing in soil, but I plan to build a hydroponic system with integrated grow lights next. The kit I’m currently using is a small, heated propagator to start tender seeds, with grow lights to supplement light during the winter. In summer, my plants thrive on my kitchen window, which is ideal for cooking. I even built a small shelf across the window to maximize the space!

In this particular setup, I am growing pea shoots and spring onions to be used small (at right), and I also have a couple of tomatoes and chilies under the light (at left). My favorite things to grow are tomatoes, chilies, and herbs; I find that these are comparable in size to houseplants, which makes them very accessible. In the future, I plan to add potted citrus trees and increase the amount and variety of food I grow indoors over winter.

Tatiana Serdyuk

Aurora, Ontario, Canada | Instagram: @mdm.sll

In my garden: microgreens, lettuce, tomatoes, pea shoots, and much more

My husband and I pursued food indoor gardening as a secondary activity to our passion for cut flowers. Where we live, summers are generous but winters are long. Growing microgreens, leafy lettuce, and dwarf tomatoes indoors can be a nice distraction from bad weather.

Early on in our gardening journey, the only space we had was on a small stair landing where I could hang a couple of grow lights and fit two shoe trays to catch water runoff. Today I have more growing space than I ever dreamed of, but I will never stop rooting cuttings on windowsills or setting up salad bars by the kitchen sink, and I still rely on my original full-spectrum grow light from the stair landing.

My secret to success is choosing produce that’s ready to harvest within 14–50 days. When choosing seeds, I also look for labels such as “dwarf/miniature,” “hybrid,” or “suitable for containers.” Chances are, those plants have been bred to stay compact or hybridized to be self-pollinating.

Dhanya Venugopal

Bayonne, New Jersey | Instagram and YouTube: @aromas.awake / aromaS awake

In my garden: salad greens, peppers, chilies, tomatoes, onions, zucchini, cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, beans, green peas, mint, lavender, cilantro, strawberries

As people who love cooking, growing our own vegetables brings us a lot of joy. I also love sharing cooking recipes and garden adventures on my YouTube channel! Since we always live in rented apartments, the only way we can grow plants is to have an indoor garden. And since we move around a lot, we try to keep our costs as low as possible by buying inexpensive stands (from Ikea) and pots (from Dollar Tree).

Our current apartment does not get any direct sunlight, so we use a single Spider Farmer SF-1000 light fixed on a tripod, which we reposition between the plants to get the proper amount of light.

Emily Kichler

Highland Heights, Ohio | Instagram: @thecompost.xyz

In my garden: kale, collard greens, bok choy, basil, celery

I was inspired to start an indoor garden by the mutual aid work going on in my area. I really wanted to grow something fresh that I could bring to a community fridge over the winter, using a minimal and affordable setup and repurposed or thrifted pots. I was interested to see what was possible with a small budget.

I started growing in early 2021, expecting to have some produce for the winter. With two clip lamps and 5000 Kelvin, 800 lumen LED lights, I started from seed a number of kale, collard green, and bok choy plants. I also grew some basil (from seedling) and celery (regrown from a stump). With this setup, I didn’t get veggies in time for a winter harvest, but I was able to start harvesting in late spring. With higher-lumen bulbs, longer grow light hours, and/or more clip lamps, I know I could grow the veggies a bit faster next time. Overall, growing veggies is always a humbling learning experience.

Lorna Kring

Sechelt, British Columbia, Canada | Website: www.gardenerspath.com

In my garden: basil, green onions, cucumbers, radish sprouts, tomatoes

I have a couple different setups in my home. My countertop grow kit is an economical and easy way to jumpstart cool-weather greens like kale, lettuce, spinach, and Swiss chard or tender, heat-loving annuals like basil, cucumbers, and tomatoes. They are excellent medicine for the garden lover who can’t wait for spring.

Sprouts are another great countertop option. All you need is a mason jar and a perforated lid. The result is bright, zesty, and packed with nutrients.

I also like to hold my cucumbers and tomatoes indoors until outdoor overnight temperatures are consistently above 50°F (10°C). I’ve set mine up on a couple of folding tables next to a west-facing window in the family room. I also have some basil and citrus trees overwintering in a different west-facing window.

PART 1

GETTING STARTED

In this part of the book, we’ll discuss several great reasons you’ll want to garden indoors. If you read the Introduction and still haven’t figured out your why, this chapter will help.

We’ll also cover the important planning steps you’ll need to take before you even start your garden so you can work smarter, not harder. Ultimately you’ll save time, money, effort, and frustration.

Finally, we’ll strategize how to more evenly distribute the weight of your containers and prevent damage to your floors, walls, and table. This is a no-disaster zone!

Many of us have likely brought herbs indoors over the winter, but have you ever grown food crops? It’s time to start!

CHAPTER 1

Advantages to Gardening Indoors

The biggest advantage of indoor gardening is not having to deal with the weather.

One only needs to do a quick online search to come up with many reasons to grow food indoors. Let’s walk through a few of the most common ones here.

Better Weather

Most people complain about the cold, but frankly, the summer heat and humidity affect me even more, and I know many of you readers feel the same. Indoor gardening isn’t just for wintertime! With indoor gardening, not only can you save yourself the pain of facing the elements, but you can have a great deal of control over the “weather,” i.e., the temperature and light, in your indoor garden.

About the only downside of indoor gardening is that your body won’t be producing as much vitamin D as it would if you were outside in the garden absorbing the sunshine. So make sure you’re still getting enough safe sun exposure.

Local Eating

Another weather-related factor is the lack of availability of certain foods during the winter months at your local grocery store. Granted, nowadays you’re able to find almost anything you want in your local market at any time of the year, but at what cost to your pocketbook and the environment? Your winter tomato has traveled who knows how many thousands of miles to grace your dinner table. I’m an advocate of eating seasonally and purchasing locally, but growing indoors means that in many cases, with proper planning, you’ll be able to eat what you like at almost any time of the year.

Fewer Pest and Disease Problems

Indoor gardening doesn’t mean that you won’t have any problems, but there will be fewer kinds of bugs to contend with. For instance, moths won’t be hovering over your plants and laying eggs that will become hungry, hungry caterpillars to decimate brassicas like your cabbages and kale. Also, if you set up your indoor garden correctly, your plants shouldn’t experience as many disease problems.

Relatedly, while they don’t bother your plants, I don’t know about you, but I get eaten alive by mosquitos in the summer months. For me, that is the biggest deterrent to gardening at any time of the year, so I’m grateful not to have to battle them.

An advantage to growing indoors is not having to deal with pests like mosquitos.

You also won’t have to contend with deer, birds, squirrels and other critters stealing your harvest just as something yummy ripens. The benefits just keep rolling in!

Money Savings

You’ll save money by gardening indoors. . . eventually. Start-up costs will put a dent in your budget initially, but if you factor those costs over the life of the hydroponic kit or other growing apparatus, you’ll soon find that you’re saving money over what you’d pay at the grocery store or farmer’s market for fresh, organic produce. This is especially true if you learn how to start your own plants from seeds rather than buying transplants—see Chapter 12 for more about seed starting.

Food Safety

You’ll know exactly what’s in/on your food and can use organic methods if that’s important to you. For instance, did you know that the apples you buy in the grocery store might be as much as ten months old? Not only have they been sprayed with pesticides, but also with coating chemicals to extend their lifespan. Other produce is sprayed with fungicides. Even if the produce you buy has been pre-washed at one point in time, think of how many hands and machines have touched it since then. Was the machinery properly cleaned? Did the workers handle things in a safe manner? When unbagged produce is misted at the store to keep it fresh, do you know when the water hoses and emitters were last sanitized? Growing your own food means that you have complete control over the entire process.

Fun for the Kids

How many children really know and understand where food comes from? Indoor gardening is a great way to spend quality time with your children and grandchildren while integrating different school subjects and life lessons.

Children love the wonders of the garden, and you can teach them a lot while getting them involved.

Once, my then five-year-old grandson was asked to draw food in his pre-kindergarten class. He did nothing more than color the piece of paper brown. The teacher thought he hadn’t understood the assignment and said, “Reece, you’re supposed to draw food.” He said, “I did! I drew the soil in my Oma’s garden. There are seeds underneath that will make food.”

Adaptability and Accessibility

If you or a loved one is older or has a medical condition that makes it hard to venture outside, indoor gardening is a great way to keep active in comfortable, climate-controlled surroundings. You’ll be able to grow your crops at the right height without bending over or reaching up too high.

In fact, during the writing of this book, I experienced a health scare due to a side effect of a new medication. Extreme fatigue meant I wasn’t able to keep up with my outdoor garden. However, I was still able to produce a good amount of food in my indoor garden without physical exertion.

Empowerment

Finally, you’ll feel extremely strong by pushing the envelope. Nothing is more empowering than feeding your secret rebellious streak as well as your stomach by defying Mother Nature, especially during the winter months, by growing your own food.

The customizable aspect of indoor gardening will also allow you to tailor your work to your needs and give you a sense of personalization that will connect you even more with your work. While my garden teaching career has been based on small-space, high-intensive methods, which are presented in this book, you can scale these methods up or down based on your desires and your available space to create just the garden for you.

THE AIR QUALITY MYTH

Why didn’t I mention in this chapter that growing an indoor garden would improve the air quality in your home and provide additional oxygen? You’ve probably heard that plants purify the air of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and provide the room they’re in with fresh oxygen. I really hate to burst your bubble, but that’s just not true. In 2019, the Journal of Exposure Science Environmental Epidemiology debunked this myth when they analyzed twelve different studies on the subject spanning thirty years.

Modern ventilation systems mean we never have to worry about oxygen production and removal of VOCs in our indoor air. In order to make an appreciable difference in air quality, you would need at least ten plants for every square foot (0.03 square meter) of room space.