Successfully Growing Edible Plants Indoors
With indoor gardening, we can extend the season year-round while eating fresh. Gardening indoors provides us the opportunity to grow edible foods in a safe way, why, because we are in control of how our foods are being grown. While it may be true that all plants may not thrive well on the inside we will take a closer look at those that dose and see how we can have much success by growing our own food crops.
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Location
The location is so important when seeking to have success growing edible plants indoors, although plant species have different light requirements all plants need some sort of lighting in order to survive. Know the light requirements of those edible plants that you intend to grow and give them what they need.
If natural lighting from the outside is not sufficient, grow lights can always be installed, these lights can be purchased from your garden center or hardware store. Grow lights are not hard to install just follow the instructions and you’re all set to go, but if there is sufficient light that is coming from outside (6-8 hours) then your edible garden plants will benefit greatly. A good location would be a south or west-facing window that receives much sunlight or a kitchen window sill is also a great place to install your edible garden. Below we will be discussing what else is needed to grow edible foods indoors.
What you will need for this project is as follows:
1. Plant pots, Clay, Plastic, netted basket, or Ceramic, the choice is totally up to you, I prefer however to use a decorative pot to give that added flavor, make sure plant pots have drain holes to allow excess water to escape, trays should be placed under pot/pots to catch excess water.
2. Good garden soil is a must to ensure that you are giving your plant a head start. Garden soils can be purchased from your plant nursery or garden center.
3. Organic fertilizers will provide the nutrients that your edible plants need to grow healthy. Before applying read and follow the manufacturer’s directions for the best us.
4. Organic pesticides should be considered if you notice garden insect pests, these homemade remedies may also offer some help. Before applying read and follow the manufacturer’s directions for the best use.
5. The soil should be somewhat moist and not water-saturated, too much water can lead to root rot and other issues. Get to know your edible plants watering needs and give them that. No more no Less.
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Growing vegetables and fruit trees from your porch and patio
You can also grow fruits and vegetables on your porch and patio area, many plant nurseries sell dwarf tangerine, lime, and other fruit trees that can be placed in these areas as long as areas are getting the right amount of sunlight anywhere from 4 to 8 hours to ensure proper plant growth.
Imagine how impressed your families, friends, and neighbors would be to see fruits growing from your patio, porch, or even from some other area of your yard in pots while bearing fruits, this would be really really neat. What do you think, can you see it? I know that I can.
Planting Instructions
Remember to always find out, as much as possible about which edible plants you desire to grow, water requirements, soil type, lighting, fertilizer, and known pest. You can now grow potatoes, carrots, beets, onions, mushrooms, etc… from your patio or porch. Rosemary, garlic, chives, thyme, basil, mint, sage, oregano, lemon balm, parsley, cilantro, and lemons can be grown indoors.
The final word
Indoor edible plants are a great way to garden, especially if you don’t have yard space but still want to grow your own herbs, vegetables, and fruits. Edible garden, now that’s smart gardening.
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About the author
Norman loves being in the garden, both at home and for his job....
he is 'Natures Little helper' being outdoors, growing his vegetables and flowers from an early age.
Now having spent over 22 years in the profession he want to give some of his knowledge to others...
his vast array of hints and tips you will find scattered over this site will help you no end growing plants in your garden.
Hi,
I love to cook with fresh herbs; however, they aren’t always available–especially in the winter months. Sometimes our local grocery store will sell fresh herbs, and I do bring them home and I have planted them. My problem is that they do not last very long and if they do grow, it’s difficult to keep them growing once I use them. Maybe having more plants would help solve this problem. What do you recommend? Proper lighting is also a problem. You suggest using a growing light. Do you recommend a certain one? Thanks for your help.
Hello Kathy it is so good to meet you and thanks for commenting. chives , basil and rosemary are a great start. When it come to grow lights you can try HPS bulbs, MH bulbs, HID bulbs and a few others. Go with the HID this should give you good results. Hope this helps, have a good day.
Hello Norman,
I just want to clarify. So, instead of sun for outdoors, we can use bulb which generates the growth? By the way, would it be more expensive to get grow lights than regular bulbs? By the way, the locations tips are very useful. What matters most is the position where the plant is for sufficient source of growth like light.
Hello Tar so good to see you again and thanks for commenting, Grow lights were specially design so that plants could get the right amount of lighting they need in order to survive. The regular bulbs that we use can not work because they were not design for the purpose of helping plants to survive.
Now I have seen in some cases where using regular bulb may work for a while depending on what species of plants were being grown on the inside, but when it comes to herbs especially, we should go the right way and install the right lighting.
If price is a concern what you can do is check around to see which hardware store has the best prices. You may be surprise of the deals you may find. Hope this helps, Thanks again and have a good day.
Just viewed you site and found it to be very detailed and gave me very good advice on how to grow indoor plants.
Do these type of plants have to be transplanted into a larger area once they begin to show fruit or is it just harvest and replant type of plant. I have only done edible plants out doors and they seem to always get so large and I don’t think they could be confined to a pot.
Hello Dwight Murray it is so good to meet you, and thanks for commenting. Indoor gardening is awesome especially when you can pick your herbs from you kitchen counter top. One way to control plant growth besides harvesting is to lightly prune plants, that way you can keep them at the height that you want. Pruning can not only control the height of a plant put it can also control a plants out growth. There is a section on my website that talks about pruning just follow my ULR gardenofedengardencenter.com . Hope this helps. Thanks again.
That is a great idea!
I love fresh herbs and store bought basil, for example, doesn’t last long. It tends to get moldy quick. I’ve tried keeping it on the counter at room temp, and also in the fridge but it turns brown.
Basil would be perfect for indoor or outdoor gardening. Lemon balm and kale are great too, they grow pretty well on a patio.
Hello Jo it is so good to meet you and I am so glad that I could help, it is good to be able to cook with herbs grown from your very own hands, wishing you the best of success and have a good day.
Hey Norman,
My wife and I love to hit the farmers markets in the summertime. They have some in the winter but it just isn’t the same. We love the fresh herbs and other great edible plants that we get in the summer.
That’s why this is such a great post. While we won’t be able to produce everything the markets give us, we can at least focus on the plants that we love to eat the most. I love how you showed what is needed along with how to do it.
Thanks for the post,
Jim
Hello Jim it is so good to meet you, thanks for commenting and I am glad that I could help. Growing edible plants are such a delight and they are very beneficial to us. Thanks again for commenting all the best to you and have a good day.
Hi enjoying your gardening tips as I love gardening myself and I agree growing herbs indoors is a great way to get some greenery going especially in the winter as little grows outside where I live.
Are there any herbs that grow quicker than others that may be more productive indoors? I know some herbs take quite some time to grow before they can be used without damaging them to badly.
Hello Steven it is so good to hear from you and happy new year. Growing herbs indoors is just so cool, as far as which herbs grow fastest I would go with basil, cilantro, parsley, chives and oregano. Hope this helps, wishing you the best of success with your indoor gardening.
Wow! I love it when I find an article that gives me the information I need. For months I’ve been trying to figure out how I can grow herbs for me to use in the kitchen but the thought never crossed my mind to get pots and grow them inside. I have plenty of natural light in my kitchen, in which I will utilise to grow my parsley, mint and basil.
But I’m left wondering whether there will be too much light? Do herbs need shade? Or can they be kept in direct sunlight? Also, I’m wondering because they’re growing indoors will they will be affected by the seasons? Or will they be able to grow all year long?
Hello Amberlee it is so good to meet you and I am glad that I could help, growing fresh herbs from you kitchen counter is so cool. Just the thought off cooking with fresh herbs grown from your kitchen with your own hands, how awesome. Herbs requires 4-6 hours of sunlight light each day so this is not a problem. They can grow year round as look as they have the required light that they need. Hope this helps, wishing you the best of success my dare lady with your indoor edible garden. Thanks again and have a good night.
I love growing indoors. I personally like to grow chillies in my house. It doesn’t take too long to grow either, only a few weeks. I like to make curry and use my own chillies I have grown. I grow all varieties of chillies and try to get my friends to eat the really spicy ones!! I love your website, loads of information and quirky little ideas. Keep up the good work!
Hello Dowlehead it is so good to meet you and thanks for sharing your story, I am glad that I could help, keep up the good works , all the best to you and have a good day.
I really enjoy your enthusiasm about gardening indoors. I especially appreciate your article on fighting depression with fruits and vegetables. I’ve actually started going vegetarian and I hear that people have a lot more energy that way. Are there any studies that you would mind citing that I could take a look at regarding antioxidants helping depression? I think it would really help me.
Hello Melody it is so good to meet you and thanks for those kind words here is a site that you can check out. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov.> NCBI >Literature> PubMed Central (PMC). Hope this helps, thanks again and have a good day.
Recently I have wanted to try my hand at growing an orange or lemon tree indoors. Is it really this simple? I often wondered if it were even possible – I mean, it’s a tree, in your house! albeit a small tree.
You’ve certainly inspired me to start working on an indoor herb garden. I absolutely love cooking with fresh herbs; thyme, basil and rosemary – mmm the smells alone are worth growing them. Perhaps this will be the first step to a true indoor garden!
Hello and Nehpets it is so good to meet you, growing indoor edible plants are so cool and awesome. Just to be able to pick fresh herbs from your kitchen counter grown with your own hands is so cool. You can purchase dwarf orange and lemon tress place them in a 15-20 gallon growers pot and keep them lets say on your patio or porch area that gets the most sunlight, these areas will work wonders and you will be eating the fruits of your labor.
Hope this helps, all the best to you and have a good day.
Your page is beautiful! The green menu and the fact that you are promoting edible plants is ideal! It’s nice to have the links in your page so that once I’ve read one article I can quickly jump to another page like the “how to grown herbs” or “herbs that contains healing wonders.” The splits between your paragraphs and the planned or unplanned balance of the photos on your page are great.
One point though when you say: “For example like this decorative pot with basil, makes a good centerpiece” I can assume ou mean the plant sitting in the centre of the table that is yellow/green but I actually don’t know where you are talking about because the picture is quite far away from your text, or when you say “…this picture here to the right.” There is no picture to the right so I don’t know which one you are talking about. Your description of “herbs in these nice little basket pots placed…” is good because there is only one picture with baskets and you specifically say at the top and there is only one top.
Your pictures are very lovely though and show off what your content is talking about.
Hello FrozenRozen it is so good to meet you, I am glad that I could help and thanks for pointing out to me that observation that you made I will go back and make the correction. All the best to you and have a good day.
I love the idea of being able to grow vegetables or fruit from my porch or patio! Is there an optimum temperature to be able to do this? Would I struggle to grow them if it was too cold?
I would absolutely love to try growing tangerines or limes, I had no idea you could buy dwarf versions of these fruit trees. Thank you!
Hello Louise it is so good to meet you, as long as you have sufficient sunlight lets say 4-8 hours you are good to go, when in comes to growing herbs on the inside the same applys, or you can purchase grow lights to help you with this.
70 -90 degrees fahrenheit is good. Hope this helps, all the best to you and have a good day.
Growing indoor plants that are edible, not only sounds fun but also a cheap way to grow some of the healthy food we need. š
It’s certainly an awesome method for those who have very small and even no front and backyards.
I really appreciate the steps you’ve highlighted for growing these edible plants indoors. I’ve been wanting to grow my own herbs for a while now, since I tend to create a lot of dishes that require herbs. It’s definitely going to be a money saver in the long run.
Neil
Plant pots, Clay, Plastic, netted basket, or Ceramic are not that hard to find and it’s a start for growing indoor edible plants. It’s sometimes tiresome to go out to farms to cultivate fruits and vegetables. Using this article, I have a great idea on how to plant my edible plants that I need for food. Imagine plucking some vegetables from your indoor comfort and cooking them. That would be so easy. I have embraced this method and the steps are so easy to follow.
An indoor garden has so many benefits, we should take advantage of them, thanks so much for stopping by and commenting. All the best to you and have a good day.
Thank you for posting this! I love using fresh herbs in my cooking but since I cook just for one person, it’s hard to keep the remaining herbs fresh until the next time I use them. I love the idea of growing them indoors for use whenever I need them! I’m going to pick some up the next time I’m at the greenhouse!
Growing indoor edible foods has its advantages, I am so happy to help.
This article made me want to try again with my garden. I had them started indoors and once they got too big I moved them outside. I must not have been careful enough because they didn’t last till the end of the week after that. Now that I know that I can leave them inside until it’s time to harvest them I’ll try it that way.
First, I’ll need to get all the items you listed, especially that lighting system since I don’t have a room that gets 6-8 hours of sunlight. I took a look at the aerogarden system. That looks really cool, I would like to try it once I’ve have some success the traditional way.
Once you have a nice size supply of these herbs how do you store them? I love cilantro and want to try that next, however, I don’t use a ton of it and I wouldn’t want all of my hard work to go to waste.
I am so happy that I could help, so sorry to hear of your misfortune with your edible garden, indoor garden is possible once you know how you will be on your way to reaping a good harvest continually. Well, one way is just to cut what you need to use. This link will also show ways to dry and preserve herbs, hope this helps, and please let me know how it goes.
https://gardenofedengardencent…