How to Start An Indoor Garden
Whether you want a way to beat the winter blues, get a head start on your garden by planting seedlings, or just keep your gardening skills in tip-top shape, it’s always a good idea to set up your own indoor gardening area. My indoor garden is my lifeline to a better mood, fresher produce, and a healthier diet during the cold winter months. I want to show you how to start an indoor garden quickly and inexpensively. So follow along and begin your own indoor gardening journey today!
Key Components of an Indoor Garden
There are a few essentials you’ll need to get started. The bare bones you’ll need for your indoor garden is a little bit of dedicated space, some sort of shelving, and a light source.
The great news is, you can really modify the size of your setup to suit your space and your budget.
If you’re just looking to dip your toes in the water and experiment a little bit with a few plants or a tray or two of microgreens, you can get started with a nice little setup for around $20-25. Alternatively, if you have the space, money, and ambition, you could set up a badass indoor gardening area that can handle hundreds of plants or dozens of gardening trays at once for under $100! It’s totally your call.
My Indoor Gardening Setup
Dedicated Space
I’m lucky enough to have a spare bedroom that I’ve turned into my indoor gardening laboratory. I do occasionally share it with my fiancee for her various crafts and activities but deep down, she knows it’s the grow lab. (I can feel her side-eyeing me)
If you have a spare room that you could use, excellent. If not, you could easily use a corner of your living room or even space in your basement. The most important thing is the environment. Whichever space you choose, the temperature should hang around 70 degrees, and should exceed 78.
Optional Add-Ons
If you want to get scientific, humidity should be between 45-55%. You could purchase a thermometer/hydrometer for less than $10 that’ll let you closely monitor room temperature and humidity. This isn’t really necessary though when you’re just learning how to start an indoor garden.
Last summer was a particularly humid summer which made growing microgreens challenging due to mold problems. For this reason I also invested in a small $30 dehumidifier, which dropped the humidity percentage by a couple points. I’m not sure how much this helped but it’s just something to think about if you run into mold or mildew problems. It’s nothing you need right away.
Some people also use small desk fans to improve air circulation in their grow space. I only use one in the summertime when it tends to get warmer and more humid. I bought a small one for $10. Again, this isn’t necessary to get started but it may be something to consider if you run into mold or mildew problems in your plants.
General rule of thumb though is if you’re comfortable in the room, your plants probably will be too.
Shelving
For my set-up, I went on the huge end of the spectrum. I went to my local home improvement store and found a great deal on a metal shelving unit for $70. It’s 4 feet wide and has 5 shelves so that’s PLENTY of space. It’s definitely overkill because I only use 2 or 3 shelves at any given time, but I use a couple of the shelves for gardening supply storage.
For your initial set up, one or two shelves should be fine. You may even have some shelves lying around that you can use. If you do, use them! Anything you can do to save money is great. For my first indoor gardening setup, I literally hung a couple lights under my coffee table and grew microgreens right on the floor of my living room, and it worked great! You don’t need to be fancy. Fancy is frivolous!
Lighting
For my lighting, I use two 4ft T8 LED shop lights over each shelf. I got them on sale for about $20 each at the same store I got my shelving unit. I chose these because my shelves are 4 feet wide. They work great and they’re very energy efficient. I hung them from the shelf above so they hang about 6-10 inches from the shelf below. This is the optimal spacing to ensure your seedlings get adequate sunlight and don’t “reach” for the light. If they’re too far away, your seedlings can get leggy.
Whatever size light you choose depends on your shelving unit. There are so many different types and sizes of LED lights available I couldn’t possibly tell you which ones to buy. Choose whatever lights will fit nicely on you shelves and provide even light to the whole shelf area. Smaller lights are less expensive, and they may be all you need.
Avoid the “Grow Light” Trap
I will say you don’t have to buy expensive “grow lights” or multicolored lights or anything like that. Regular old LED shoplights will work just fine and they’re WAY more affordable.
Pretty much any T5 or T8 LED or fluorescent light will work. I’d avoid incandescent lights though because they can get very hot and are not energy efficient.
Choosing Plants to Grow
Choosing what you want to grow in your indoor garden is the fun part. There are a ton of options depending on what you’re into, but I’m gonna give you some suggestions based on what I grow in my indoor garden.
Microgreens
If you have explored any of my other articles at all, then you know I’m crazy about microgreens. You can grow almost any herb or vegetable you can think of as microgreens and reap all sorts of nutritional value. Microgreens are great if you are the type of person who’s impatient and likes (almost) instant gratification. The entire grow cycle from planting to harvesting lasts little more than a week which makes microgreens a fun and fast paced gardening project.
Microgreens are packed full of flavor and make an excellent addition to many dishes including soups, salads, and sandwiches.
 I have several other articles where I go in depth about what microgreens are, they’re nutritional benefits, where to get your seeds, which varieties to start with, and exactly how to grow them so it’ll definitely be worth your while to check them out below!
HOW TO GROW MICROGREENS IN 7 STEPS
DO YOU NEED TO SOAK YOUR MICROGREEN SEEDS?
THE SECRET TO GROWING SWEET CORN MICROGREENS
Succulents
I’ve recently begun using my grow room to propagate succulents as well. Succulent propagation is a fun and surprisingly easy project once you learn the basics. Succulents do take a while to grow so you won’t see the instant gratification that you get with microgreens, but the benefit is they are relatively low maintenance. As long as they get adequate amounts of light and a moderate watering every 1-2 weeks they should do great!.
Check out my article below to get started propagating succulents!
Propagate Herbs
A really fun gardening project to try is to propagate herbs under your grow lights. Basil is especially easy to propagate and it’s an amazing sight to see. Next time you get fresh basil from the store, save a sprig or two and place the cut ends in water under your grow lights. As the days pass you’ll be able to see new roots form and grow until they are ready to be planted in soil.
For a full basil propagation tutorial, check out my article below!
HOW TO PROPAGATE BASIL FROM CUTTINGS
Start Seeds for Your Outdoor Garden
When it gets to that time of year, your indoor garden is a great place to begin planning for your outdoor garden. Once you decide what you want to plant outside, you can get a great head start by starting your seeds indoors, and this way, when late May or early June rolls around, you’ll be easily a month ahead of the game and be able to harvest produce that much quicker.
Shop Your Trusted Non-GMO Seed Source Since 1974! Shop True Leaf Market!
Check out the article below where I harvested the seeds from one of my tomatoes and started a ton of new plants under my grow lights from just one single tomato!
TURN YOUR OLD TOMATOES INTO A TON OF NEW TOMATO PLANTS
Conclusion
There are SO many benefits to starting an indoor garden, I really couldn’t even begin to list them all. From the creativity and experimentation, to the nutritional benefits and mood boosting power, indoor gardening can improve your life in a myriad of ways. It doesn’t take much to get started and if you follow the recommendations above, you’ll learn exactly how to start an indoor garden in no time!
Hopefully you found this article helpful and if you have any other questions or comments, please reach out in the comments section below. The most important thing though, is to have fun and try something new. I’m sure you’ll do great!
Happy Gardening,
Cody
Thistle Downs Farm
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