As proposed tariffs threaten prices on everything from garden-fresh fruits and vegetables to commodities like corn and soy, families are bracing for the economic impact poised to affect their wallets. With economists sounding the alarm and warning that food prices will only continue to inflate, consumers are now scrambling to find ways to save money and stretch their budgets to keep their families fed. For many, a renewed interest has cropped up to combat restrictive budgets: home gardening.
Concerns
While many families and consumers see the prospect of supplementing their food budget with homegrown staples as an endeavor worth exploring, others find themselves unwilling to try due to how complicated getting started seems. Issues like space, lighting, location, what to grow, how to get started, and growing times can deter some aspiring first-time gardeners simply due to a lack of knowledge. But producing your own food is not as difficult as it may seem.
Lighting
Families must consider the most basic requirements for producing properly grown food effectively indoors: light, airflow, water, soil, and temperature. Of these, determining potential exposure to light should be the first concern for indoor gardeners. Some fruits and vegetables can thrive on as little as 4-6 hours of sunlight daily. Others require up to 12-16 hours, so knowing where and when you have the most sun is key.
Depending on the home’s location and the cardinal direction it faces, growers may not need to purchase additional lighting options to supplement their lack of sun. Utilizing free programs like SunCalc, which tracks daily sunlight exposure based on the address, new gardeners can understand exactly how much sunlight they will have today, next month, in the next six months, or a year from now.
Basics
With this information, it will be easier to determine which fruits and vegetables can be easily grown at home. This allows new gardeners to focus on the additional growing requirements. While soil composition and watering schedules are important for healthy plants, even cheap bags of soil and simple moisture monitoring can make indoor gardening easy. Regulating air flow and temperature, however, should be focused on resolutely.
Mimicking outdoor conditions is a necessity for strong growth and production. As seedlings grow, in nature, adapting to current and fluctuating environmental conditions will determine their life span. Without careful monitoring, they will fail. To combat this, the most passive way to ensure healthy growth is to mimic natural breezes with a fan and to regulate the home’s interior temperature, with the ideal range between 64°F and 75°F.
Growing
With all this in mind, the next step in the indoor gardening journey is to decide exactly what you want to grow, what you can grow, and how long it will take from start to finish. Generally, quite a variety of fruits and vegetables can be grown at home or in a limited space. It all depends on preferences and how involved a new gardener wants to be. If speed and immediate need are the focus, certain vegetables are preferred more than others -but which ones?
30 Days
For the quickest turnaround, from seed to harvest, indoor growers often subsist on vegetables that take up to a month to grow. These include many varieties of radishes, like French Breakfast, Pink Beauty, or White Hailstone; baby carrots, microgreens, pea shoots, or some salad greens, such as arugula and baby spinach. Sowing such vegetables is relatively simple if you follow the seed packet’s instructions and water regularly, making them a good first step for new gardeners.
45-55 Days
Cut-and-come-again loose-leaf style lettuces are a staple in many gardens – indoors or outdoors- because they are easy to grow and will continue to grow, so long as you don’t over-harvest. Varieties like Oakleaf, Red Salad Bowl Mix, and Lolla Rosso are typically the most grown, but other varieties like Black-Seeded Simpson and Burgandy Delight also work well.
Other vegetables ready in less than 60 days include baby Kale varieties like Red Russian and Dazzling Blue, mustard greens like Red Splendor, and most Tatsoi and Bok choi varieties. Additionally, indoor gardeners might opt for root crops such as beetroots, turnips, and larger varieties of carrots, as they produce both edible taproots and greens. Brassicas, such as broccoli and broccolini, can also be harvested in a similar time frame, depending on the type.
60 Days Plus
Should aspiring indoor gardeners wish to invest more time in their home gardens, there are even more fresh fruits and vegetables available to grow. Purchasing already established annual vegetable plants, like bush tomatoes, peppers, summer squashes, and cucumbers from the local box store or garden center, can give a family quite an abundance of food over many months.
It is not advisable, however, to attempt to grow any vegetables that require lots of space, like corn, peas, and runner beans, or any vegetable whose main crop comes in the form of tubers or rhizomes, as they struggle in the confined spaces of container gardening. Bulb plants like onions and garlic can be grown indoors, but given the extensive growing time necessary for maturity, they are often avoided, thus saving time.
Fruits
Strawberry plants, and to a lesser extent blueberry, blackberry, and raspberry plants, can be a good addition if the home has a balcony or roof access. Certain types of dwarf citrus can also be grown indoors but often require more advanced care than new gardeners can initially handle without research.
Final Thoughts
While getting started in gardening can often seem overwhelming, the potential for cost-savings on food universally outweighs the time commitments. The key to success for any growing project is to take your time, ensure your ambitions don’t get bigger than your family can handle, and focus only on fruits and vegetables that the family regularly eats. Have fun exploring the possibilities of one new plant at a time.
