Basil, chives and mint in clay pots, lettuce leaves snipped minutes before dinner, strawberries left to cascade over the edge of a garden box: an indoor vegetable patch asks for no balcony at all. Everything turns on light — a luminous room, a sunlit window and containers that drain freely — and the picking begins indoors.
Don’t think that a balcony is absolutely necessary to have the right to your own vegetable patch when living in an apartment. A new fad is trending: the indoor vegetable patch. There are just a few rules to follow…
First of all, select the location for your vegetable patch: kitchen, living room, dining room… What is important here is to choose a luminous room and to set the vegetable patch near a sunlit window. Then, the serious stuff begins. You’ll first have to decide what type of containers you wish to use to set up your plants: clay pots, garden boxes, containers. Check that they’ve got a hole in the bottom to drain excess water from your cultivated plants, and that adapted saucers will let you recover excess water.
Now, time to choose the plants. You can perfectly pair several plants together in a single garden box, as long as they share the same needs in terms of water, nutrients, and that they’re planted at the same period. Clearly, if you aim for this vegetable patch to produce food for consumption and not have it only as an ornamental garden, check that all of your plants are edible.
Salespeople in horticulture stores will know what to recommend depending on your expectations and needs. Thus, some among you will prefer to grow herbs and spices such as basil, chervil, thyme, parsley, chives, coriander or mint. Still others will dote on vegetables such as tomatoes, radishes or even lettuce! In that case, you’ll really just need to snip off leaves just before dinner! Amateurs of strawberries will also rejoice in growing their favorite fruit, but take note that you’ll need to set the stage for them to cascade down.
Let’s get to it! The most spirited will even choose to start their seedlings themselves, but you can also purchase plants and transplant them to your containers with vegetable patch soil mix after having lined the bottom of each pot with clay pebbles or gravel to ensure the best possible drainage.
The article suggests three directions for an indoor patch, plus the option of mixing several plants in one box. Here is what each choice involves.
| What to grow | Examples given | Point to watch |
|---|---|---|
| Herbs and spices | Basil, chervil, thyme, parsley, chives, coriander, mint | Store staff can advise according to your expectations and needs |
| Vegetables | Tomatoes, radishes, lettuce | Leaves can be snipped off just before the meal |
| Fruit | Strawberries | Set the stage so that they can cascade down |
| Several plants in one garden box | Any mix sharing the same requirements | Same water and nutrient needs, and planted at the same period |
Whatever the mix, check that every plant in the box is edible if the patch is meant to feed you.
Is the house rather on the dark side, is your kitchen or dining room facing due North?
You still can hang on to the hope of an indoor vegetable patch by following a new concept that brings together a garden box and a low-power light source that reproduces the light of day.
In parallel, the garden box also includes a water tank and a mini-pump that ensures automatic watering over several weeks. Everything is either plugged in to the grid or battery-powered. Some kits are even delivered with nutrient pouches and a starter set. This tiny vegetable patch only requires 15 minutes of care a month and strictly zero background in gardening is required! This combination also leads to plants growing faster. So, are you in?
