What you need to start an indoor garden in a small space
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Starting an indoor garden in a small space
Indoor gardening gets sold as a kit, and the kit is usually the least useful part of it. What actually decides whether a pot of basil on your bench lives or dies is the light it gets and how often you water it, and neither of those things comes in a box. So here is the short version of what you need, what you can skip, and the couple of pieces of advice that get repeated everywhere and are worth ignoring.
Start with the window, not the shopping list
Work out where the light is before you buy anything at all. Herbs and leafy greens want about 5 to 6 hours of direct light a day, and in an Australian house that means a north-facing window first and an east-facing one second. A south-facing window gets very little direct sun here, and a dark internal bench is not going to grow anything edible no matter what you put in the pot.
Spend a couple of days noticing where the sun actually falls in your place. It is free and it saves you buying a plant for a spot that was never going to work.
The four things that matter
A pot with a drainage hole. Not optional, not negotiable. Water needs somewhere to go and a pot without a hole kills plants slowly enough that nobody connects the two. If the decorative pot you like has no hole, grow in a plain plastic pot that does and sit it inside the nice one, then tip the excess out after watering.
A saucer. Same reason, and it keeps your bench from getting ruined.
A free-draining potting mix. Indoor pots stay wetter for longer than outdoor ones because there is no wind and less warmth, so a mix that drains is doing more work inside than out. A premium potting mix with a bit of perlite stirred through is a good starting point for most things.
Something to grow. Seed is cheaper and slower, a seedling is dearer and gets you eating sooner. For a first go I would buy seedlings for herbs and sow seed for greens, because greens germinate fast and herbs test your patience.
Two bits of advice to ignore
Pebbles in the bottom of the pot for drainage. This one is repeated everywhere and it does the opposite of what people think. Water does not move easily from fine potting mix into a coarse gravel layer, so instead of draining away it sits in the soil just above the pebbles, which puts the wet zone closer to the roots rather than further from them. Fill the pot with mix and let the drainage hole do its job.
Buying gear before you have kept anything alive. Grow lights, hydroponic units and self-watering everything are all fine in their place, and none of them is where a beginner should start. Get one pot of something on a windowsill through a full season first. If light genuinely turns out to be the limit, that is the point at which spending money on it makes sense.
What grows well inside
Herbs are the obvious ones. Basil wants warmth and hates a draught, mint will grow in almost anything and is better off in its own pot because it takes over, thyme and chives are both easy, and parsley is slow to germinate and then fine for months. Coriander tends to bolt indoors and is worth skipping until you have the rest working.
Leafy greens are the quickest reward. Loose-leaf lettuce, rocket and baby spinach will all crop from a shallow tray, and microgreens are ready in 7 to 10 days if you want something to happen fast.
Compact fruiting plants such as a dwarf cherry tomato or a chilli will work on a genuinely sunny sill and they will disappoint you on an average one, so save those for once you know how much light you have.
Watering, which is where most of them die
Put a finger in the mix before you water and only water when the top couple of centimetres are dry. A schedule is what kills indoor plants, because a pot in January and the same pot in July are drying at completely different rates and the calendar does not know that. Water until it runs out the bottom, then empty the saucer rather than leaving the pot standing in it.
Feed lightly and not often. A diluted liquid feed every 4 to 6 weeks is plenty for herbs in a small pot, and more than that pushes soft growth that flops.
Shop related products
- Brunnings Premium Potting Mix 36L. A free-draining mix for pots on a bench or a sill.
- Brunnings Perlite 5L. Stirred through to open the mix up for indoor pots.
- Brunnings Seed Raising Mix 5L. For starting greens and herbs from seed.
- D.T. Brown Rocket Seed. Fast, peppery and happy in a shallow tray.
- Maxicrop Indoor Plant Food Concentrate 250ml. The light feed for potted indoor plants.
Did you know we keep pots and saucers in the shop from 200mm up to 500mm, and more of the D.T. Brown seed rack than we list online. Give us a ring on (08) 8536 4333 to check what is on the shelf.
The rest of the range is in our garden centre, and the seed listing is under D.T. Brown seeds.
Keep reading
- How to choose the right pot for an indoor plant
- How to grow vegetables indoors on a small budget
- How to grow basil indoors, and actually keep it alive
My windowsill basil gets talked to more than most of my houseplants and it is still the one that sulks.
Candeece
Strathalbyn H Hardware
