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I recently shared 7 steps to start your indoor garden. Now we can talk about what we want to grow inside our home garden. The following items are some easy to grow vegetables in our home.
What Are Some Easy To Grow Vegetables?
There are many vegetables and herbs you can start growing indoors around the end of winter that will produce a yield by harvest season. You do not need to go shopping online to purchase seeds, although this is an option. To make it easier, start at your local grocery store and buy some produce you plan to consume.
Produce Market
Once you buy produce from the market/grocery store during the winter season, start collecting the seeds. For example, mixed bell peppers, tomatoes and jalapeños are just some items that have plenty of seeds.
Additionally, you can buy sweet potatoes, white potatoes, celery, kale, lemons, carrots, eggplant, onions without seeds that can also help you create an indoor garden. These are a good selection of vegetables to begin with, especially for those living in a colder climate.
Vegetable Garden Seeds
I collected seeds from mixed bell peppers, tomatoes, eggplant, lemons and cantaloupe and set them aside, while planting other vegetable seedlings. These seeds I collected will last for at least a few years. Therefore save what you take out and put them away.
To plant seedlings inside your home use small coffee cups to hold them in. Add a little soil to each pod. Then add a couple of bell pepper seeds in them and place the tray on top of the fridge to stay warm in the dark.
Growing Tomatoes Indoors
I am using the seeds taken out from tomatoes. Some are planted in soil in a small pod or coffee cup. Gently water every pod and wait. It takes anywhere between 7-10 days for the seedlings to sprout. Place them on top of the fridge and let them sit in the dark.
Every day check on them and see if the soil is dry. If so, add a little water to the soil and place it back up. Once green stems begin showing up, transfer them into little planting cups or small pots.
Give the plants a few hours of sunlight each day. They will grow.
For the remainder of the tomato seeds I harvested, I put them in a bowl of water and let them ferment for 7-10 days. When it grew a little mould on the top of the water, I rinsed the seeds off in a strainer and dried them. Now we can store them for the next summer.
Growing Kale
For the kale and celery, cut the stems about 2-3 inches long. Afterwards, let the kale and celery sit in a coffee cup with water for roots to grow. It takes approximately two weeks to see roots come out.
Eventually, both the kale and celery will transfer into a bigger container with some soil. In the containers the vegetables grow much faster because they have more space. We applied the same technique with collard greens and it worked great.
Growing Sweet Potato Slips
I took one full sweet potato and added water into a flower vase. Once the end of the sweet potato is submersed in water, give some time for some sprouts to start to show up. It can take up to one month so you can start this anytime now. Eventually, you will notice a thin white root growing out from the bottom of the sweet potato. This is when you can transplant it into a container.
A while back, I bought a large can of chickpeas and kept the container. I filled the container with soil and planted the sprouted sweet potato into it covering it up with soil. I added a bit of water each day letting it sit along with the other plants in the sun.
After another 4 weeks, leaves with stems called slips started to grow. These slips will be ready for planting in the summer soon. The slips gets pulled off of the sweet potato as complete seedlings with roots.
Growing Potatoes
The white potatoes set aside for planting were prepped by keeping them in a paper bag until eye buds started to grow. After little sprouts started to show up on the potatoes, we planted them as well with the eyes facing up. We began the process in early February and by early May we were ready to plant our garden. You have to wait until there is no chance of frost before you plant.
What Container Should You Use to Plant Seeds?
Normally people take a mini pod like egg cartons to plant the seed. However, it might be better to start with something a little bigger so that before they are moved they are well established. Once a few seeds sprout, the plant is placed in a larger container with more soil. This will help strengthen them and grow a little larger so that when outside, they will withstand an erratic spring weather.
When To Plant Seeds Indoors?
The winter is a great time to start a garden inside your space. Even though there is a lot less sun outside, by the end of February the sun will be coming out a little longer. Within the next two weeks is a good time to start planting seeds indoors and get them growing strong.
It takes up to two weeks for seeds to sprout and another 6-8 weeks for the seedlings to get strong before they can they come out in the sun. By that time there are longer days with much more sunlight for the plants to keep growing.
Most of the planting is done slowly and gradually as the process begins around mid-end of February. The sweet potato can start in mid-late February. Building a garden inside your home, especially for those of us living in colder climates is a practical idea to help extend our already short growing season.
Build A Strong Foundation
It is best to get your seedlings as big and strong as possible so that by the time June hits they have between 3-4 months for maximum growth outside. Planting them outside with the seeds sprouted and leaves out already, growing tall, will help them develop faster, once they are planted in your garden.
You want to take advantage of this short period of time throughout the year. Since this time is a small fraction of the year and seeds need to grow as abundantly as possible, it is best to start your planting inside your home by February.
We started small. Not everything was planted in February. Some things we started in March, but for the most part it is a good idea to start at least 6-8 weeks ahead.
When Life Gives You Lemons
I planted 6 lemons seeds, not thinking anything would come out of it but something did. All the seeds sprouted but three flourished. The other three did not survive because the pot they are in is too small.
What were once just seeds are now tall stems with leaves of lemon trees in my house. That are brought inside for the winter as we live in a Northern climate zone.
Once they grow too large to fit inside the home they will be pruned to make them smaller and hopefully some lemons will grow.
Sprouting Kidney Beans
I took some dried kidney beans, soaked them and left them in a cupboard in the dark wrapped in a moist paper towel. After sprouting, they were planted into small pods. Kidney beans are easy to grow and do not require high maintenance. Make sure not to transfer them once they are planted otherwise kidney beans will not grow.
In Summary-Easy To Grow Vegetables
There are plenty of easy to grow vegetables in our home that we can start at a low cost. Whether we live in a condo or a small home, with plenty of sunshine there is the potential for produce, herbs and lentils to grow. Start thinking about what you plan to grow this year in your urban garden.
My Authentic Homemade Vegetarian Cookbook is available to buy on Amazon. The recipes are high value and low in cost. They are healthy and start from beginner level on the way up.
Thank you for your support.
