Wintertime Gardening Part III: Creating the Perfect Indoor Space

Gardening indoors can quickly take up space, giving us yet another reason not to extend our growing season during the winter months.

But you don’t have to turn your kitchen into an overgrown jungle to grow a few herbs, or even a larger-scale salad garden. Whether you decide to start small or go all in, you can use these techniques to enjoy a spacious, abundant garden, inside.

Find a system that works for you and your space. You’ll need to maximize your space and find the best setup for your plants to thrive, AND for you to enjoy functional space.

One of the most effective ways to use your space is to go vertical.

Vertical Container Gardening

Container gardening can be perfect for inside. There are a ton of ways you can maximize your space with potted plants. Hang them up a wall or layer them on top of each other.

Stacked container gardens are a great way to save space. Pretty self explanatory, stack and plant! Growing culinary herbs or tea herbs are common when using this method.

This post on Lina Darnell’s blog, Fancy Frugal Life goes over how simple a stacked herb garden is to DIY.

A container garden wall can be a simple and adjustable DIY project. A variety of vegetables can be grown successfully using this system.

This article on Room and Bath discusses easy ways to setup an herb garden in your kitchen.

BUT you’re not limited to growing your indoor garden using soil!

Hydroponic growing is an excellent way to use your space sparingly. This growing option is soilless. It relies on liquid nutrient solution to feed your plants, so instead of your plants’ roots being in soil, they’re submerged in nutrient-rich water.

And most importantly, you can go vertical to maximize your space.

Vertical Hydroponic and Small-scale Systems

These systems can be hung on a wall, suspended from the ceiling, or fill up window space.

Window Farms are becoming more common in apartment buildings. It's even possible to grow fruiting plants in these! In this NPR article, Britta Riley talks about her garden experience in a small New York apartment and gives some instructions on effective window farm models.

Small-scale kits are another ideal option for indoor herb gardens. Susan from the Mommy High Five blog researched kits you can purchase for indoor hydroponic growing and recommends several affordable, efficient kits.

Vertical garden walls fit perfectly on walls and come in a variety of sizes. Here at Wyoming Food for Thought Project, we are getting started on an indoor vertical garden system, donated to us by Bright Agrotech, an agriculture technology startup out of Laramie, Wyoming. These towers are available for sale to anyone. They are very simple to use and care for. Check out their website for more information and inspiration.

Get creative and experiment with these options!

Feel free to come by our program center for more information on our vertical gardens and how use indoor space to extend our growing season.

Follow us on Facebook and Instagram (@wyfood4thought) to see what projects we’re working on!

Need help planning what you’ll grow? Check out our Winter Gardening Part I for the best edible plants to grow indoors.