Growing a winter garden indoors can be a convenient and fun way to keep plants around the entire year. It will protect your less hardy winter plants from extreme cold conditions, and provide you with blooms and vegetables all through winter!
Winter Gardening Indoors: Preparing a Space
Even though having your winter plants indoors protects them from the outdoor cold, being indoors will create new environmental issues for your plants. There are several things that you can easily prepare your growing space for.
- Choose a warm, sunny place for your plants to grow, and consider whether you need to add additional surfaces or shelves for your plants to grow on
- Tender young plants need warmth, so consider adding supplementary lights with timers that will keep your plants warm, as well as lengthen the hours of “sun” that your plants get (they need 6-8 hours of light)
- If you heat your house in winter, you should either purchase or make your own humidifier to help your plants thrive
Winter Gardening Indoors: Planning for Plants
When you garden indoors, you also need to consider which plants you will be growing. The less natural growing conditions mean that you will be more restricted to plants that can survive well inside.
- Since seeds and seedlings are more difficult to find in the fall, plan ahead and buy your seeds during spring, when they will be plentiful and cheap
- Choose a number of plants that reflects the space you have
- Plan to grow the smaller versions of most plants, like cherry tomatoes, leaf lettuce, and bush type beans
- Plants with flowers that grow well indoors include amaryllis, paperwhites, orchids, clivia, Christmas cactus, begonias, and African violets
- Other plants that grow well indoors include bell peppers, arugula, aloe vera, winter herbs, and winter sprouts
Winter Gardening Indoors: Plant Care
When you keep your plants indoors, your plants will have slightly different needs than outdoor plants. Make sure you keep track of your plants’ needs and tend to them carefully in order to ensure their growth.
- Choose or create a soil mix or soilless mix that will retain moisture and nutrients well
- Without wind or insects, you may need to do some artificial pollination; use a small artist’s brush to move pollen from one flower to another
- If you don’t have a humidifier, you will need to water either daily or every other day; keep the soil moist
- Watering frequently will deplete nutrients in the soil, so complement watering with a good balanced organic fertilizer
- If you don’t care to be as hands-on with your plants, consider buying indoor planters that are built to give your plants the right amount of light, heat, and moisture
If you follow these guidelines and carefully manage your indoor garden, you will ensure a successful winter gardening season. You may even be able to transfer your plants in the spring!
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