Most apartments offer little to no outdoor space. So growing fresh vegetables can be challenging, but it’s not impossible. You can grow a wide variety of fresh produce indoors year-round. In addition to being fun and brightening up your surroundings with fresh greenery, you can improve your diet and save a few dollars on your grocery bill.
With that in mind, we’ve put together some tips and considerations that will help you begin growing an indoor vegetable garden in your apartment.
Preparing for Your Indoor Vegetable Garden
Get the Light Right – Pick a Sunny Location
Food-producing plants need at least 6-hours of direct sunlight every day. Some herb plants can thrive on 4-hours a day, but a bright location is a must for an indoor garden. A location near a south-east or south-west facing window is ideal.
If you don’t have the right sun exposure in your apartment, you have other options. You can still grow healthy productive plants using grow lights. Grow lights can be used as the only light source for vegetable plants or used for supplemental lighting if your apartment’s window only gets a couple hours a day of sunlight.
Share the Light
One trick for increasing the amount of light indoors is to brighten up the space by painting the walls glossy white. The glossy white paint will reflect the available sunlight and create a brighter growing space for the plants. If you don’t want to paint the entire room glossy white, just paint the wall adjacent to the window for maximum reflection.
You can also place a mirror or two on the adjacent wall to reflect the sunlight onto the garden plants.
Camp Your Plants Out in a Grow Tent
Grow tents are a great option to consider or an indoor vegetable garden and they come in several different sizes. Grow tents provide the correct lighting, temperature, and humidity for optimum plant growth. These tents can be purchased at any garden supply center or online. They can easily fit into an unused closet or corner and will produce an abundance of fresh food in a small space.
Grow Vertical
Space is always at a premium inside an apartment, so a little creativity will go a long way to increase the space for an indoor vegetable garden. Use vertical growing space to increase the amount of food you can grow in an apartment.
Use hanging planters in front of a window for growing miniature tomatoes, cucumbers, and herbs. Place floating shelves on the wall adjacent to a window and use a 3-tiered shelf in front of the window.
Rotate containers and hanging planters every 3-4 days to ensure even light distribution.
Container Creativity
Any container that can hold soil can be used to grow plants. The container will also need a few holes in the bottom so excess water can drain through.
Repurpose, reuse, and recycle any containers that you have on hand for your indoor vegetable garden plants. For a sustainable option you can repurpose yogurt cups, cottage cheese, and margarine tubs, dishpans, 5-gallon buckets, kitty litter buckets, flower planters, etc. To make them more visually appealing, give them a coat of paint or get some foil for wrapping pots.. Save money and use repurposed containers whenever possible.
The container size will depend upon the vegetable being grown in it. Root vegetables, like carrots, beets, and turnips will need containers that are 4-6 inches deep so the edible roots will have plenty of space to develop. Microgreens will only need a shallow container that is 2-inches deep.
Get Dirty
Use a good quality potting soil that contains compost as the growing medium for an indoor vegetable garden. Some potting soil mixes also contain soil-release fertilizer and unless you want to grow organically, it’s a benefit to consider.
If you want to grow 100% organically, then use a growing medium that does not contain slow-release fertilizer and mix in your favorite organic plant food, like bone meal, worm castings, seaweed, etc.
The compost in the potting soil will help feed the plants organically plus it will help prevent soil compaction so roots can spread out and uptake moisture and nutrients better.
See more tips in our post How to Garden in an Apartment
Selecting the Best Vegetables to Grow Indoors
t and grow what you like to eat. Some of the popular vegetable choices for growing in an indoor garden include microgreens, peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers, peas, radishes, beets, onions, and assorted herbs. Here are some of our favorites.
Microgreens
To grow a continual crop of microgreens indoors all winter, start with a shallow oblong or square container filled with potting soil. Next, select seeds from several of your favorite leafy vegetables. Spinach, lettuce, kale, basil, beets, cilantro, mustard, broccoli, cabbage, and green onions are some excellent vegetables to grow as microgreens. Starter kits for Microgreens are inexpensive.
Simply sprinkle the seeds of your choice on top of the potting soil in the container, mist with water, and cover with 1/4-inch of potting soil. Mist once again and cover the entire container with plastic wrap. Place container in a warm, bright location. When seeds germinate, remove plastic and place container in bright light. Keep soil moist and harvest the leaves any time after they reach 2-inches tall, which will be in about 14-days.
Some of the microgreens will regrow more leaves for harvesting. Those plants that do not re-grow, pull them up by the roots and sow more seeds in their place for a continual harvest. Use microgreens in fresh salads, soups, stews, and stir fry recipes.
Dwarf Varieties
Select dwarf varieties of your favorite vegetables so the plants will take up minimal space yet produce the same full-sized vegetables. Select cucumbers, tomatoes, peas, beans, peppers, squash, and other veggie favorites that grow on bushes or are labeled as ‘dwarf’. These plants will produce the same size and flavor produce but are better suited to life inside of an apartment. Here’s a great article on dwarf tomato varieties.
Root vegetables
Don’t shy away from growing root vegetables indoors in your apartment. Plant parsnips, beets, turnips, and potatoes in containers that are 10-12 inches deep. Radishes and round carrots can be grown in containers that are 4-6 inches deep and they will be ready to eat in 30 days after the seeds have been sown. Here’s a nice collection of carrot seeds you can get started with.
Keep Your Plants Healthy & Happy
Maintaining an indoor garden does not require a lot of time. After the seeds have been sown into the potting soil the plants will only need a few minutes of your time each week. Here are a few things to keep in mind:
- u003cliu003eWater plants enough to keep the soil moist but not soggy.u003c/liu003eu003cliu003eTurn containers every 3-4 days to ensure all sides of the plant get exposed to light.u003c/liu003eu003cliu003ePerform a quick daily inspection to discover any plant problems.u003c/liu003eu003cliu003eYellow plant leaves often indicate the plant is being over-watered. Wilting leaves typically mean the plant is thirsty and needs to be watered. A white crust on top of the soil indicates the plant is being over-fed with fertilizer and leggy plants mean the plants are not getting enough light.u003c/liu003eu003cliu003eFeed plants with water-soluble plant food mixed at one-half the recommended rate once a week. This will help keep the plants well hydrated and fed without over-feeding them.u003c/liu003eu003cliu003eMist plants daily or place a container of water nearby the indoor garden to increase the humidity level. Indoor air is conditioned with cool air in the summer and warm air in the winter, both of which evaporates all the moisture from the air. Keep garden plants away from an exterior door and vents to prevent them from being exposed to drafts that will dry out their foliage.u003c/liu003eu003cliu003eHarvest leaves and produce gently so the plant will not be harmed. A great way to do this is to use a small pair of scissors.u003c/liu003eu003cliu003eWhen plants have completed their growth and production cycle, remove them from their containers. The old potting soil can be reused by mixing it with compost at a 50/50 ratio.u003c/liu003e
Benefits of an Indoor Garden
So why should you go to all the effort? Having an indoor garden in your apartment provides more than just fresh food, there are several hidden benefits your vegetable plants have to offer.
- u003cliu003eu003cstrongu003eGet Healthy.u003c/strongu003e Eating a healthy diet that includes fresh vegetables can help reduce the risk factors of many diseases. The risk of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, arthritis, and other common ailments can be significantly reduced by following a low-fat healthy diet that includes fresh vegetables. The symptoms of these and other chronic diseases can often be reduced by adhering to a diet that included healthy fresh vegetables.u003c/liu003eu003cliu003eu003cstrongu003eBust Stress. u003c/strongu003eWatching plants grow, bloom, and produce foods reduces stress. Spending a few minutes tending to plants at the end of a difficult day can help reduce stress and reduce the risk factors of stress-related ailments. Knowing you will have healthy food to eat and that you can sustain the indoor garden also reduces stress.u003c/liu003eu003cliu003eu003cstrongu003eBreathe easier.u003c/strongu003e Growing plants in your apartment produces oxygen. The air quality inside your apartment will be improved by the living greenery. Dust particles, odors, and allergens are removed from the air by the plants so air is healthier to breathe. Great for people who suffer from allergies, asthma, and other chronic respiratory ailments.u003c/liu003eu003cliu003eu003cstrongu003eSave money.u003c/strongu003e Besides being fun growing some of your food can help your budget. Herbs, vegetables, and fruits can be grown indoors year-round. A couple of pots of herbs growing on the kitchen windowsill is good, but a few vegetables and citrus fruits and berries being grown indoors can round out a healthy diet and almost make you self-sufficient in an apartment environment.u003c/liu003e
Above all else though, have fun! Gardening is a simple pleasure that is available to nearly everyone including apartment residents. Create a little extra joy in your life and start growing an indoor garden in your apartment today.