Plant Your Plate
How To Grow Your Food Indoors Before Spring
February might be the cold, tail end of winter, but springtime is just around the corner.
Even during the month of February you can try growing quick crops that can grow in window sills.
It’s lovely to be able to add fresh herbs to anything you’re cooking, and herbs are definitely the most popular indoor plant to grow throughout the winter months. You can plant herbs like basil, oregano, parsley, thyme or sage.
If you have a room in your house that gets six to eight hours of sunlight every day, you can plant vegetables like snap peas, tomatoes or even bell peppers.
In a simple window box (placed close to a sunny window) you can try growing lettuce, kale or cabbage. As a general rule, leafy vegetables can manage with much less light than root vegetables. They need no more than 3-4 hours of dappled sunshine through a sunny window.
Radishes are one of the most rewarding veggies to grow indoors during winter. For one thing, they form table worthy tubers in as little as 25 days, so you can have a regular supply if you start weekly batches back to back.
While carrots do well growing outdoors, many gardeners have discovered that they tend to thrive in large containers or buckets as well. Plant the seeds well apart to allow room for the roots to develop and keep them in a cool spot to get sweeter carrots. With nice loose soil that is rich in organic material, along with the right light requirements, you can grow amazing carrots even in the dead of winter!
