By planting and nurturing your winter kitchen garden in the fall, you can have an ongoing supply of salad greens, root vegetables, and herbs to use in delicious recipes all through the colder months of the year. Follow these tips to grow an abundant kitchen garden that will keep your meals fresh and healthy all winter long!
-
Choose indoor plants wisely for your winter kitchen garden.
There are plenty of plants like tomatoes, radishes, kale, etc that can be grown in your winter kitchen garden. Anyone who is having a spare window can grow a few of these herbs and include them in their large bowl of veggies at home.
In case you do not have a windowsill you can try growing rows of lettuce or veggies in a tub that you can place beside your sofa. You can also turn your spare home into a greenhouse with lots of tasty food growing on.
And you can get started with containers, soil, and long lighting systems to ensure that you are mimicking the long growing process as in summer, in your winter kitchen garden.
-
Small containers to grow lots of different green leafy herbs in your winter kitchen garden.
You can grow a lot of shallow roots plants in your kitchen garden. It includes the herbs of leafy greens like lettuce, kale, and spinach. For growing these herbs you will need a small bowl, small pots, or troughs, to plant them. This is to ensure them enough space for your kitchen garden.
If you are looking for deep-rooted plants like a carrot you can choose Thumbelina, Atlas, or Parisian. Don’t forget to prune the miniature varieties like tomatoes or peppers. Doing so will give them the right direction and space to grow healthy.
-
A proper long-lasting lighting system in your winter kitchen garden.
By now you must have understood that lighting is important to mimic the summer growing period. And if you are choosing to grow small herbs and leafy greens; you’ll have to light the winter kitchen garden with the 50 W light bulbs. But when you prefer larger plants you will have high intensity of lighting system. These lighting systems usually include halogen or high-pressure sodium bulbs.
You need to divide plants that require a lot of solar energy and accordingly provide them with the right temperature. Remember that these lights can help generate the heat which your kitchen garden requires to flourish. Keep in mind that you are trying to replicate the summer sun.
-
Pay attention to the pruning
When you are trying to grow a winter kitchen garden indoors; you’ll have to take a lot of care while planting them. You have to be gentle and patient while they adjust to the new soil. A lot of kitchen garden plants require pruning while they are in their growing phase. You will have to keep an eye on your baby.
-
Water drainage for your winter kitchen garden
When you are nurturing your winter kitchen garden plants for their best days you have to make sure that they are properly elevated and that a proper drainage system is provided for them. Small plants like herbs and leaf vegetables need a proper drainage system so that water is not clogged with them.
Proper drainage does not spoil the growth of the kitchen garden. You can set up a small sprinkler pump that automatically waters the kitchen garden plants or you can choose to water yourself manually by watering them once a day and in an adequate amount. This way you can have control over the water drainage and herbs will not clog the water.
-
Aeration
Providing the same facilities as the herbs have outdoors is a hectic task. You can ensure that they are properly aerated and supply of oxygen is unlimited to your kitchen garden. While choosing the correct house for your winter kitchen garden plants make sure that they are in a place where proper aeration is possible.
-
Make mistakes, learn and grow.
Perfecting you for the real kitchen garden inside your home is a long process. This can be only acquired by the trial and failure system. You’ll tend to give more time to your winter kitchen garden.
Pay attention, remove the dead or fallen leaves, consider fertilizing (only if necessary) and also stop yourself from over-watering them. So you’ll have to make a lot of mistakes to become a perfect gardener.
Happy Gardening!