What to grow in your kitchen & indoors
Chilly weather outside doesn’t mean that you can’t have luscious greenery and homegrown vegetables from the comfort of your own kitchen. When you have the right equipment available to you and a little bit of space, anything is possible. This is a great option if you don’t have a big yard outside that allow for gardening or if you live somewhere that has a short growing season. Let’s take a look at what you can grow in your kitchen and some tips for doing so.
Carrots
Carrots are a very hearty and simple vegetable to grow in deep containers in your kitchen. They actually do better indoors in many scenarios, especially if you live somewhere that has very clay-dense soil or a lot of rocks. You’ll want to stick with a smaller variety of carrot that doesn’t have to grow very deep. Consider using large planter boxes that you can place on a windowsill for plenty of sun exposure.
Garlic Greens
If you’ve left a bulb of garlic in your kitchen for a bit, you may have noticed that the bulb will start to grow a green stalk out the top. It’s a similar process as when an onion starts to sprout out the top. You can actually grow these greens using the chopped off top of a garlic bulb. Simply plant the bulbs in a little bit of soil, keep it watered and expose it to sunlight. You’ll get some pretty large offshoots in a short amount of time. You can cut them up and sauté them with all kinds of vegetables.
Lettuce
Lettuce has the ability to grow in very low soil. You really only need a planter that’s no more than four inches deep. Just make sure you invest a in good quality, well-draining soil. If you’re starting from seeds, it will only take about one week to see germination. Just make sure you leave them alone until they’re about four to six inches. At this point, you can cut the leaves and consume them.
There are some hydroponic lettuce kits that you can actually buy from your grocery store. You leave the entire package in the refrigerator and cut leaves off when you need them. The lettuce will grow back, providing you with fresh lettuce again and again.
Microgreens
Similar to sprouts, microgreens are a nice addition to a salad or on top of an appetizer or rice dish. They’re extremely easy to grow, and they don’t take up a lot of space (or time for that matter). They come from the seeds of things like basil, kale and radishes. They’re harvested as seedlings, so you don’t have to stress about keeping them alive for a very long time. They also don’t require much soil. A tray of about two inches of soil is adequate. Just scatter the seeds on the soil and top it all off with a thin layer of soil on top. Spray it now and again to keep it hydrated on the surface level and wait for your microgreens to grow. You just cut them off with scissors when you want to use them.
House Plants
If you don’t have a lot of natural light to work with in your kitchen and you don’t have the counter space needed to invest in a unit with an LED light you may want to just stick to house plants. There are a number of varieties that can grow quite nicely without a lot of light. Small options include a bird’s Nest Fern, snake plant, ivy or even succulents. If you have a spot on the floor that you’d like to place a potted plant on, a peace lily is very nice and can’t withstand less sunlight. If you choose something that grows very long, like an ivy variety, you can let it hang down over your countertops or put it up above your cupboards so it can grow along the top.
While there are challenges that you may face with growing plants in your kitchen, you can be successful using a few different methods and different equipment. It’s best to start small, working your way up when you master what you have. If you are planning a remodel for your kitchen in the near future, BK Martin can help you come up with the best layout and details so you can have an indoor kitchen garden of your very own. Reach out to us today for more information.
