This venture has many advantages. The nutritional value and usefulness of homemade greens does not raise questions. By eating home grown lettuce or onions, you can be sure that along with vitamins you are not absorbing pesticides or other harmful chemicals. It is also a good and inexpensive way to solve the problem of impending spring hypovitaminosis. But there is another equally important point: growing a home garden can significantly improve your mental well-being, add bright colors to winter everyday life and become a real family hobby. This experience can be especially interesting for children: helping their mother or grandmother, the child will learn to clearly follow the instructions (planting plants as it is written on the bag of seeds), be responsible for their work, and achieve results. And, of course, he will not be able to refuse the pleasure of trying vegetables or herbs grown by himself – and this, you see, is also important, because sometimes it is not easy to teach a little man to eat healthy food.
There are several principles for growing herbs at home. Given that daylight hours are now very short, you need to try to provide the plants with enough light. There are special LED bulbs for plants, but you can get by with conventional daylight bulbs – just place the plants where you turn on the light most often. For growing plants, it is best to use a soil mixture, and not ordinary soil brought from the garden: store-bought soil is rich in minerals and will provide more fertility for your seedlings. The depth of the pot or container must be selected based on the characteristics of individual crops – for example, for tomatoes, the minimum soil depth is 30 cm, and lettuce will feel quite comfortable in a pot 5-10 cm deep. It is best to put drainage on the bottom of the pots: it will provide access air to the plant roots and help remove excess water. Finally, you should not place containers with plants in the immediate vicinity of window panes – young, fragile shoots can freeze, because in nature they still grow in warmer conditions.
The range of plants whose seeds can be purchased in stores today is huge – we will only talk about the most popular crops that anyone can grow at home. The easiest to care for and at the same time productive when grown indoors are crops such as tomatoes, round carrots, chili peppers, onions, as well as lettuce, cilantro, basil and other herbs.
Tomatoes
For growing indoors, it is best to choose cherry tomatoes – their root system is not very large, and they will quite take root in a deep flower pot. In addition, they will not grow too tall, although they can be trimmed if necessary. Indoor tomatoes need to provide a long daylight hours, enough heat and moisture. In addition, they will need help with pollination – but, you see, ruddy tomatoes are worth your efforts.
round carrot
Carrots can perfectly adapt to environmental conditions and are not demanding at all. For indoor growing, round varieties are best – they do not need too deep containers, while they ripen relatively quickly. For carrots, it is important that the soil always remains moist – then the fruits will be juicy. Lightly dust the seeds with sawdust or damp moss to prevent a hard crust from forming on the surface that will prevent the seeds from germinating. Harvest time will depend on which variety you choose.
Hot peppers
Hot pepper, or chili pepper, will add hot notes to your dishes. It grows well in pots, although it does not give a large yield (however, even one pod can make your dinner unforgettable). The soil layer for growing hot peppers should be at least 20 cm, and the duration of daylight hours should be about 10 hours. Don’t water it too often – wait until the soil is dry before watering. Chili peppers pollinate themselves, but you can help them with this by shaking them a little so that pollen from one flower gets onto another, or using a Q-tip for this purpose.
Bow
Probably, many in childhood tried to grow green onions in a jar of water, so why not remember the well-forgotten old? For those who were busy with other things in childhood, let me remind you: take an onion, plant it on a small jar (or in a glass) of water so that the root cut is in the water. Very soon you will see how green feathers begin to break through from the top cut, and in a couple of weeks you will be able to harvest a real crop. If desired, you can plant a sprouted bulb in the ground, although green onions also grow quite successfully in water. In this way, you can provide yourself with year-round access to green onions, which at the same time will be really natural.
Salad and other greens
Lettuce is perhaps the most ideal crop for growing on a windowsill (not counting onions, of course). A homemade salad will cost you much less than a store-bought one, and it will not require special attention and effort from you. Lettuce will feel quite comfortable in a container 5-10 cm deep. The soil should be kept moist, and then the seeds will sprout in a week, and in a couple of weeks you will have a source of vitamins that will serve you faithfully: cut only the outer leaves, leaving the middle untouched, and then the plant will continue to grow and give you a new crop. Similarly, you can grow any other greens – for example, cilantro, basil, parsley. Water your crops carefully so as not to damage the seeds – using a sprayer is best. If you cut the plants not at the root, you can count on the shoots to grow back, and you can harvest a second crop.
In order for you to have your own garden, it is not necessary to have a cottage. All you need is a window sill, a couple of containers, soil mix, seeds from your favorite crops, water, and light. And now you are the happy owner of “evergreen” vegetables and herbs at any time of the year!