Start growing seeds indoors with helpful tips on growing vegetables indoors for beginners and how to make an indoor herb garden.
Where I live, frost or snow can cover the ground for up to six months of the year. Fresh vegetables, fruit, and herbs aren’t readily available, unless you want to pay dearly for produce trucked in from who knows where. What are we to do to break free from the confines of canned and frozen vegetables?
The way I see it, I have two options: Head to the grocery store and purchase overpriced, questionable produce, or use the resources I do have (even if favorable outdoor conditions isn’t one of them) to grow whatever I can at home. For the past several years, I’ve chosen the latter and taken steps to turn my home into a greenhouse.
Growing vegetables inside is nothing new, of course. Many people keep fresh herbs and greens in a kitchen windowsill year-round, and I start some of my plants inside toward the end of winter with the goal of planting them outside come spring. What I’m talking about here is turning things up a notch – producing at least some of what my family eats all winter long.
Growing Vegetables Indoors for Beginners
Like any gardener, I easily become overly enthusiastic with a new project. I’ve learned to stop and think. The first step to launching your indoor-growing adventure is to make a plan. Because you’ll likely need to purchase containers, soil, seeds, and more, first figure out what your goals are and what you can accomplish with the limited space you have. Are you strictly growing lettuce for fresh salads throughout winter, or are you intending to start all manner of seedlings to be transferred into the garden? Maybe both?
Plan Ahead
Formulate (realistic) goals with the members of your home. Try for consensus based on the produce and herbs people in your household can’t live without during those cold months, and then structure your plan around what inputs those particular plants need. These conversations must be met with their own degree of reality check. What you want to grow and what you can grow may not be the same. Not all plants will produce fruit in a home. Everyone should be prepared for failure.
Do your research by reading the numerous books that deal with growing plants indoors. Peter Burke’s Year-Round Indoor Salad Gardening and Kim Roman’s How to Garden Indoors & Grow Your Own Food Year Round are two of my new favorites. You can also contact your local extension agency to glean professional tips.
Contain them! I decided to grow greens, herbs, tomatoes, and peppers, because all of these plants do well in containers. Greens and herbs grow well in small containers along a windowsill, out of the way of small hands and pets. For larger vegetables, including tomatoes and peppers, you’ll transplant them as they grow. It’s easy to get carried away, and in no time, you’ll have containers of various sizes scattered throughout your home, taking up residence in every available windowsill. Making a plan can help you avoid cramped quarters.
Know when to say no. Corn grows horribly indoors. Large vining plants, such as some squash and pumpkins, can be started indoors, but they aren’t the ideal choice for indoor winter food plants. Even for “yes” plants, only grow what you intend to eat. You don’t want to waste your time, money, and living space if your family won’t eat what you produce.
Condition the Space
One obvious question is, “Why not just use a traditional greenhouse?” It’s a good question with a few logical answers. Where I live in New Hampshire, temperatures are just too cold for a normal outdoor greenhouse to be effective in the middle of winter without considerable heating input. Sunshine up here is just not strong enough to get the winter greenhouse up to temperature and keep it there (daytime temperatures can hover around 20 degrees Fahrenheit for weeks, dropping well below 0 degrees at night). Meanwhile, my pellet stove keeps my home at a constant 68 degrees. Why not use all available heat sources for their maximum value, including to grow food? Plus, because we have large, south-facing windows, our home can get even warmer when the sun is out. This is the perfect temperature for lettuce, spinach, chard, peppers, cucumbers, and tomatoes.
Simply put, for our household, growing inside our home is more convenient than trudging outside to a greenhouse. I also appreciate that those who live in an apartment or condo or have shaded backyards can still make this method work.
Just as with a traditional greenhouse, growing in your home will require proper ventilation. Plants give off moisture. Creating the conditions for warm, moist air will be good for plants but will quickly lead to problems if you don’t couple it with ventilation. Setting a fan in a window during daytime hours works well. If it’s simply too cold to open windows, you may need to invest in a dehumidifier. In winter, my home is usually too dry from wood heat, so I instead use a humidifier to add moisture. Assess your indoor conditions, and factor them into your plan.
Growing Seeds Indoors
Timing seed-starting indoors depends on your goals. If you want to start seeds for plants that will ultimately be transplanted outside, then follow instructions on the seed packets.
When to Plant
A general rule of thumb is to start them about a month prior to when you want to transplant, but be sure to follow the instructions when time frames vary widely from this.
If your goal is to provide yourself with fresh produce through every long, cold month of winter, get a much earlier start. To maximize my yield, I start seeds as soon as my last outdoor harvest. If you need to prioritize, start your big warm-weather growers first: tomatoes, peppers, and the like. Greens and herbs are more forgiving of late-fall start dates.
Containers
Containers of any shape and size will work for something. There’s no need to spend money on containers. For starting seeds, I use any container I happen to have on hand, from aluminum bread pans to plastic yogurt and pudding containers, paper cups, and even the bottom halves of plastic water bottles. As plants mature, I’ll transplant them to the bottom halves of plastic 1-liter bottles, clean milk jugs, and clean painter’s pails. You get the idea.
For plants you seek to harvest inside during winter months, I recommend stocking up on pots at yard sales and thrift stores. My neighborhood’s online community app regularly features someone giving away a boatload of pots.
Soil
In my mind, the right soil can make all the difference. Soil particles always make it into the air, so particularly for indoor gardening, avoid soils that contain chemical fertilizers to preserve your indoor air quality. Before you purchase any of them, make sure to read all of the ingredients on the label. And stay away from bags marked “garden soil” when starting seeds; it’s too dense for young roots. I’ve found decent organic seed-starting mixes reasonably priced for a 16-quart bag.
Seeds
Good seeds are just as important as good soil. I save seeds from plants I grow, so I’ll have an abundance at no cost. If you’re purchasing your seeds, only buy from reliable dealers. Inexpensive seeds you buy at discount stores may be too old to be viable or covered in chemical coatings.
Keep At It
I want to be honest with you. Not every vegetable does well every year. I’ve had winters where my lettuce never amounted to much, and my spinach and chard were iffy. But in those years, the herbs, tomatoes, and peppers all did well. No matter the various outcomes, I’ve proven to myself that it can be done.
Assuming the cost of food isn’t going down anytime soon, anything I can grow helps offset the cost to keep my family fed. Remember why you’re growing indoors, and stick to your plan. Whatever you end up growing, you’re still saving money and providing your family with fresh produce, even during winter. Learn more about how to make an indoor herb garden with this list of herbs that will thrive indoors this winter.
Originally published as “The Windowsill Gardener” in the November/December 2024 issue of GRIT magazine and regularly vetted for accuracy.
Dana Benner has written about the outdoors for over 35 years, with his writing appearing in numerous magazines.
