In-house garden

HOW TO START YOUR OWN INDOOR VEGETABLE GARDEN

Make sure you have some suitable pots or containers. A herb planter or a grow bag would work too. Fill these with compost and then plant your seeds. Push the seeds down into the soil slightly and make sure they’re not too close to each other, so they have plenty of room to grow. Place everything in a sunny spot. The windowsill is usually a good place, you just might have to move them every now and then, on really hot days in the middle of the summer. You can also buy a special lamp. A temperature between 18 and 24 °C is ideal. Make sure the plants aren’t in a draft during the winter months. Your plants don’t need a lot, so they don’t take too much work. Just check once a day that the soil is nice and moist.

WHICH HERBS AND VEGETABLES GROW WELL INSIDE?

You can grow pretty much any herb you can think of indoors. Choose something versatile, that you like to include in lots of different dishes. Thyme and mint are my favourite herbs. But you could try chives, basil, sage, oregano, cress, coriander, lavender or parsley. Vegetables are more of a challenge. The best types to grow indoors are lettuce, peppers, carrots, radishes, spinach, aubergine, beans and peas. Tomatoes are trickier, my friend Sonia tried and didn’t have much success. But it’s always worth a try!

Extra tips:

-Choose pots with small holes in the bottom, so any excess water can drain out easily. You need to place these kinds of pots on a saucer.

-Once your plants start to sprout, move the pot a couple of centimetres every day, to make sure your plants grow nice and straight.

-Did you know that you can buy special plant food to make your plants grow better at the garden centre?