7 Winter-Busting Indoor Garden Projects to Lift Your Mood

These indoor garden projects bring a bit of growing season indoors and help bridge the gap until spring arrives.

This is also a good time to prepare Christmas cactus and poinsettias for reblooming.

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Indoor Garden Ideas for Winter

Whether your winter is just a few months long or takes up most of the year, at some point we all say enough is enough. I need my garden fix!

And that’s where the power of indoor gardening can help.

I don’t know what it is about getting our hands in soil, sowing seeds, and caring for and coaxing them on, but it works. You can’t help but feel better when you’re growing stuff.

Have a look at the ideas, try what appeals to you, and before we know it, it will be spring planting time.

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1Grow Fresh Salad Greens Indoors

Yes, you can grow all sorts of leafy salad greens in your home. All it takes is a simple fluorescent workshop light or LED grow lights (Amazon). A sunny window can also work in a pinch.

Leafy greens grow quickly and—good news—many are cut-and-come-again, meaning you can harvest what you need and the plants will continue producing more leaves.

Resources

• How to Grow Salads Indoors
• How to Grow Microgreens

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2Give Peas a Chance

This is quirky and fun. Plus, you get flowers and edible peas!

If you sow pea seeds indoors, they will grow much like they do outdoors.

I provide trellis for mine and, no disrespect to tropical houseplants, but all that greenery makes it so cheerful inside.

And how crazy is it to walk just a few steps to harvest peas for dinner?

Resources

• How to Grow Peas Indoors
• Grow Vegetables Indoors (Easy Beginner’s Guide)
• Give Peas a Chance T-Shirt

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3Plan and Organize Your Next Garden

Now is the time to take stock.

Gather all your seeds and update your inventory list.

Note the age of your seeds and mark them so the older ones get used first.

Figure out what you want to grow this year, map it out on paper, and get your seed orders placed.

There is a printable digital garden planner in my shop if you like some structure.

For some of us, just reading seed catalogs is a mini-vacation.

Resources

• Seed Viability Chart: How Long Seeds Last in Storage
• How to Categorize Seeds
• Two Smart Seed Storage Systems
• A Weekly Sowing Plan for Growing Vegetables (Starting Indoors in Late Winter)
• How to Make Seed Tapes

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4Start Seeds Indoors for a Spring Head Start

Become an indoor seed sower.

Starting seeds indoors opens up a world of possibilities. Not only does it let us get a head start on the outdoor growing season—giving long-season plants time to mature—but it’s also a great way to save money and grow a wider variety of plants. Instead of relying on whatever the local nursery has in stock, we can choose from countless varieties and try new favorites each year.

Resources

• Seed Starting for Beginners: Sow Inside Grow Outside
• What I Use to Start Seeds Indoors (Low-Cost Supplies)

LED Grow Lights

Recommended LED Lights

Seedlings | Barrina Super Bright White LED Lights | Amazon

These lights work nicely for indoor seed starting and growing young plants until it’s time for outdoor transplanting.

Indoor Flowering & Fruiting | Barrina Full-Spectrum LED Lights | Amazon

If you need lights for long-term growing including plants that can flower and fruit indoors, choose full-spectrum bulbs. You can also use these for seed starting.

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5Grow Plants From Kitchen Scraps

Have you ever tried growing plants from food scraps?

There are lots of viable seeds and stems in our kitchen compost bin.

Popular options include sprouting avocado pits, mango seeds, ginger root, and citrus seeds including lemons, grapefruit, and oranges.

Resources

• 39 Vegetables, Fruits, and Herbs to Regrow From Scraps
• How to Grow Avocado From Seed
• How to Grow Mango From Seed

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6Become a Winter Sower

There are two easy ways to “winter sow” seeds. And, yes, you can do all the preparations indoors.

The “milk jug” method uses clear, closed containers. They don’t have to be milk jugs.

My favorite way is simply to sow seeds in open pots.

Either way, after sowing you put everything outdoors and let the cold weather work its magic.

Resources

• How to Winter Sow in Milk Jugs
• How to Sow Hardy Seeds Outdoors in Pots (Easy Winter Method)

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7Force Flowers Indoors

I love having something in bloom in the house when it’s snowing outside.

You can force (make bloom) a number of different bulbs either in potting mix or water.

Options include amaryllis (Hippeastrum), crocus, hyacinth, tulip, snowdrops, and dwarf iris.

Several of them flower quickly: 2 to 3 weeks after planting.

And, bonus, you can also force various budding branches to bloom indoors.

Resources

• How to Force Bulbs Indoors
• Make Your African Violets Bloom Again
• How to Force Branches to Bloom Indoors Before Spring

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That should keep you busy. Dive in and enjoy it. You might enjoy it so much you forget it’s winter.

~Melissa the Empress of Dirt ♛