Indoor Vegetable Gardening

______________________________________________________________

Why would anyone want to get involved with indoor vegetable gardening?  Certainly large plants like sweet corn and squash are not the typical vegetables that gardeners grow indoors, but many root crops, leafy crops, tomatoes, and other vegetables can be grown indoors during the warm months and especially during the cold months of the year.

Indeed, growing vegetables indoors may not be the same thing as growing the same plants outdoors, but it can be a lot of fun to tend to an indoor vegetable gardening project when the snow is falling and the winds are blowing outside!

Fresh Vegetables From Your Indoor Garden

There is nothing quite like fresh vegetables. Cucumbers, lettuce, tomatoes, and sweet peppers are just a few of the fresh vegetables that many people enjoy growing and eating.

Many individuals have discovered that they can grow healthy and great tasting veggies by involving themselves in indoor vegetable gardening.

While it is a fact that indoor gardens have different requirements than outdoor gardens, a gardener can still successfully grow many different vegetables such as those listed above and others indoors.

The first thing to think about when considering indoor vegetable gardening is the location. The location will need to be somewhere where six to eight hours of light is available each day.  An insulated sun porch or an unused room with plenty of windows to let sunlight in would be ideal. If needed, supplemental lighting can be used to ensure that the plants receive the amount of light that they need for proper growth.

Consider Planting Your Vegetables in Containers

Another consideration is what to plant the seeds or seedlings in so that they can grow into productive plants. The simple solution is to use containers. The containers can be similar to those used for ordinary house plants, or they can be something else that you choose to use for your indoor vegetable gardening project. The containers can be plastic, wood, metal, or even tin.

The important thing to keep in mind is that the containers that you use need to have some kind of drainage holes in the sides and bottom so that excess water can drain out. If the containers you choose don't already have drainage holes, make sure that you drill some.

The Correct Soil and Your Indoor Vegetable Gardening Project

The kind of soil that you use for your indoor vegetable gardening project is also important. Using regular soil from your outdoors garden is not recommended because of the insects that may be present in the soil as well as any diseases that the soil may harbor. The best choice of soil for your indoor vegetable garden is a lightweight mixture that will allow drainage.  A recommended mixture is four equal parts of potting soil, peat, vermiculite, and perlite.

Indoor Vegetable Gardening: Conclusion

If you follow the above indoor vegetable gardening tips, you should have success with your indoor vegetable gardening project.  For instance, the right container, the correct amount of light, the proper mixture of soil, and an adequate amount of water should produce the kind of nutritious, fresh garden vegetables that you and your family will enjoy.

Indeed, your friends and family will be pleasantly surprised when your serve a salad that has green onions, lettuce, short-vined squash, radishes, spinach, small-rooted carrots, and cherry tomatoes and they discover that you harvested these veggies from your indoor vegetable garden!

Copyright 2009 - Denny Soinski.  All Rights Reserved Worldwide.  Reprint Rights: You may reprint this article as long as you leave all of the links active, do not edit the article in any way, and give the author credit.

About the Author

Denny Soinski writes about garden decor, gardening, bronze garden sculptures, water fountains, and outdoor metal sculptures.  For more information, please visit http://www.water-fountains-and-garden-decor.com right away!

___________________________________________