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Indoor Gardening: Microgreens, Vegetables, Fruit, and Herbs
How many times have you peered into your refrigerator and not found anything that excites you? Food should be exciting. Flavors should make your taste buds dance, and nutrients should fill your mind and body with energy and satisfaction. Chefs use fresh ingredients like microgreens, herbs, and citrus to enhance flavor, add texture, and to garnish finished dishes. Why can't you?
Anyone can grow fresh food indoors, even if you've never gardened before. Indoor gardens are perfect for urban homes without yard space, apartments, condos, year-round gardening, and even for people whose allergies keep them inside.
Microgreens, sprouts, and herbs can all be grown right on your kitchen windowsill in just a few weeks. It's even possible to grow fruits and vegetables inside with the right conditions.
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What Are Microgreens?
Microgreens are trending on social media and are popping up in interior decorating plans. They can even be found on the menus at fine dining restaurants around the world. But what are they?
Aptly named, microgreens are precisely that: miniature versions of mature vegetables and herbs. The only difference is that you harvest microgreens while they're young and small, rather than waiting for the full-grown plant.
Popular microgreens include pea shoots, wheatgrass, baby arugula, beet tops, broccoli shoots, radish greens, chard, and mustard greens.
You might also consider growing sprouts, which are often confused with microgreens. The difference here is microgreens are grown in soil, and sprouts are soil-free, growing with just water and light. Popular sprouts include alfalfa, lentil, and mung bean.
Why Grow Microgreens?
Microgreens pack a flavorful punch into their tiny leaves and are an excellent addition to any meal. Chefs often use them to add texture and fresh flavor to dishes and as attractive finishing garnishes.
Microgreens are easy to grow inside and are ready to harvest in as little as 2-3 weeks. Such a quick harvest makes microgreens an ideal crop for impatient gardeners and a fun activity to share with kids. And, because they're grown indoors, microgreens can be grown year-round, even when it's snowing outside.
Microgreens Are Healthy
One of the top reasons people grow microgreens is for their nutritious boost. Studies show these tiny greens contain 40% more nutrients than their mature counterparts, including Vitamin C, Vitamin E, Vitamin K, Lutein, and Beta-Carotene.
Even just a pinch of microgreens added to a salad, sandwich, or chicken breast can increase your overall health and leave you feeling more energetic. Growing microgreens on your kitchen windowsill make these cut-and-go greens an easy grab for nutritious snacks and healthier dinners.
How to Use Microgreens in the Kitchen
Microgreens are easy to use in the kitchen and go with just about anything. Microgreens are best enjoyed fresh, to get the most nutrients, which means they don't need to be cooked!
Ideas for Using Microgreens:
- Garnish pasta
- Add them to salads
- Pile them on sandwiches
- Blend them into smoothies and juices
- Top finished meals like stir-fries and chicken
How to Grow Microgreens Indoors
Microgreens are super easy to grow indoors, even if you've never grown anything before. All you need is a sunny space, soil, a pot, seeds, and water.
Microgreens are a beautiful addition to kitchen windowsills, dining rooms, shelves, and end tables - so long as they get a little sun and good air circulation. They can be grown in any pretty container you may have with proper drainage or in a specially designed microgreen growing kit.
Steps to Grow Microgreens:
- Prepare a container with drainage holes and indoor potting soil
- Plant your seeds about 1/4 inch deep
- Water only when the soil is dry
- Harvest microgreens with clean scissors. Wash, dry, and eat
Minimalist Herb Kit
This elegant and straightforward hydroponic herb growing kit comes with seeds, plant food, and detailed instructions to start your indoor garden.
Stacking Garden Kit
The aeroponic Tower Garden can produce 20 different plants in the vertically stacked design requiring only three square feet.
Modern Glass Garden Kit
Though less of a kit and more of an appliance, the stylish Urban Cultivator can grow eight different microgreen varieties at once.
Mushroom Growing Kit
Perhaps the easiest gardening kit yet is this mushroom growing kit. Just place the entire box near a window in your home, mist it twice a day, and you'll be eating homegrown oyster mushrooms in as little as ten days.
Grow Your Own Microgreens, Vegetables, Fruit, and Herbs Inside
Growing edible plants indoors is an excellent way to eat healthier year-round. Indoor plants also serve as attractive interior décor and have actually been proven to reduce stress and increase productivity.
If you're new to gardening, an indoor vegetable growing kit or a small potted herb garden is a great place to start. Or, go all out and build yourself a reading nook salsa garden of tomatoes, peppers, garlic, and cilantro complete with a funky grow light and lime tree.
We'd love to hear about your edible indoor gardens! Tell us what you're growing!
Laura Bourland
Laura grew up in the California suburbs, far removed from environmentalism, but nature always has a way. She uprooted her life in 2015, moving to the countryside of Washington to live a more sustainable and simple life on 12 acres. She and her fiancee are learning on the job as they attempt everything from gardening and natural pest control to eco-friendly building and home improvement.
