How to start growing your own food indoors

The easiest vegetables to grow indoors:

For some, having an outdoor vegetable garden, isn’t always possible. However, growing your own vegetables may be easier than you think. We’ve put together a guide to help you get to grips with growing your own fresh produce indoors.

The easiest and best vegetables to grow indoors:

• Lettuce
• Rocket
• Tomatoes
• Spring onions
• Carrots
• Chilli Peppers
• Kale

What to grow and when to grow it…

The main benefit from growing indoors is that you can plant fruits and vegetables all year round, and not have to worry about colder temperatures or potential frosts. Of course, if you’re growing in winter, the sunlight from your window may not be strong enough to help your plants grow big and strong, so you made need to invest in some specialist equipment to help you along the way.

The equipment you will need…

To get started with growing vegetables indoors, you will need a few key bits of kit.

1. Containers for planting your seeds in.

We recommend using propagation trays which come with individual compartments. The lid isn’t necessary, but using it will help to speed up the germination process – which turns your seeds into plants!

2. Nutrient rich potting mix

Your regular garden soil really won’t fit the deal here – you’ll need to use a nutrient rich soil.

Nutrient rich soils are packed full of everything your plant needs to grow strong and it’ll also help your plants to drain better too.

3. Seeds

Of course, you need to pick what you’ll be growing – so pick your seeds carefully.

Extra useful tools:

Garden wire – useful for binding tomato plants to bamboo sticks

Large pots with holes – for when plants grow too large for the propagation trays.

Grow Lights – necessary if you’re growing plant indoors in the winter – you need to make sure you provide enough light for your plants to grow.

The 4 steps to indoor plant growth success:

1. Plant your seeds – be sure to follow the instructions on the packet.
2. Wait for stems to appear – this is known as germination and usually takes around two weeks for leaves to appear.
3. Re-pot your plants – once your plants have a few leaves on them they are ready to be re-potted
4. Keep caring until harvest – all vegetables require different amounts of water and sunlight so make sure you make changes to the growing environment as suggested in this guide. Once your plants are ready, simply pick, wash and its ready to eat!