If you want fresh, homegrown vegetables over the winter, it is worth trying some indoor container gardening.

Of course you cannot have a full garden in the house. But a bright, sunny south-facing window can be the site for growing fresh food all year.

Some small-fruited tomatoes, peppers and many herbs are among the plants you can include in your indoor garden.

Vegetables such as tomatoes, sweet and hot peppers do require warmer daytime and nighttime temperatures in order to flower and set fruit.

Ideally, daytime temps should be in the upper 70′s and nighttime temperatures should not drop lower than 60.

A south facing indoor room with supplemental heating and one that warms up considerably in the winter from solar heating would be a good place to grow these crops.

A sunny, south-facing window, is a must for indoor vegetable growing.

Fruiting vegetables, such as tomatoes and peppers, will also need supplemental light, such as a combination warm-white/cool-white fluorescent fixture, during winter months. Insufficient light will result in tall, spindly plants and failure to flower and set fruit.

So, light and temperature are essential for indoor growing. I also have a lesson this year: do not take any plants from outdoor to indoor. Otherwise, you’ll get aphid problem.

Vegetables will need to be watered daily or every other day due to the confined space in which they are growing and the lack of indoor humidity during the heating season.

Because frequent watering can deplete nutrients, a supplemental feeding every two weeks will be necessary. Use a balanced organic fertilizer for best results.

Pollination is something that will have to be done manually. An artist’s brush helps to distribute pollen from one flower to the next. I usually use a feather and gently touch bloom to bloom.

Here are a few vegetables to consider for indoor growing:

Cherry tomatoes, determinate vines
The small-fruited varieties of tomato, such as Tiny Tim, Small Fry, and the Roma (a paste tomato).
‘Gypsy’ peppers
Hungarian sweet peppers
Various hot peppers
It may be worth experimenting with varieties developed for hanging baskets.

Another thing to keep in mind is that most vegetables grown indoors will not have the size or yield of those same varieties grown outdoors.

But it can be quite quite fun to tend an indoor vegetable garden when the snows are blowing and the winds are roaring outdoors!

Your family and friends will be delightfully surprised when your serve that salad with those green onions and cherry tomatoes and they discover that you harvested them that day! So, try your hand at growing a few vegetables indoors.

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Yours truly for a great garden with outstanding veggies and flowers.
Polly-organic gardener