It may come as a surprise, but many vegetables can grow well indoors. They need a bit more light and space than herbs or lettuce, but there’s productive and beautiful options that are well worth it. Fast growers, like cucumbers, can be first picked in just 2 months and put out 100 cucumbers per year. Longer-lived plants, like tomato and pepper, are some of the most beautiful with their dark green foliage and colorful veggies. This blog will give you an overview of your plant options, grow area, and what it’s like to have an indoor veggie garden.
What Types Of Vegetables Can You Grow Indoors?
Many (though not all) types of vegetables are possible to grow indoors. From a gardening perspective vegetables fall into three categories: ones you harvest as soon as the vegetables form, ones you let ripen on the vine, and ones that grow as roots.
Fast Growers: Cucumber, Beans, And Other Early-Harvest Veggies
The easiest vegetables are a group called “Early Harvest” because they reach peak flavor right after they form. Freshness is most important with this group as they lose their sweetness quickly (sugars begin turning to starch within minutes of picking) and need to be picked at just the right time (they get pithy and tough if allowed to grow). Because they don’t need time to ripen, they’re the fastest veggies to harvest (beans and peas in 6 weeks, cucumbers in 7). The added benefit of picking them early is that it stops the plant from completing its lifecycle, which forces it to stay productive longer. Looks-wise, they tend to be a little leafy but do have nice flowers. Still, the primary reason to grow these is flavor – being able to pick them at their peak flavor and eat them immediately is only possible with homegrown vegetables.
This category includes:
Slow & Steady Growers: Tomatoes, Peppers, And Other Ripe Veggies
These take a little more time to start harvesting but can live for years with the right care. Unlike the early-harvest vegetables, these plants don’t shut down after they ripen. In addition to being able to grow better tomatoes and peppers than you can buy, these plants have beautiful flowers, foliage, and fruits. Peppers look nice, but don’t taste that much better than store bought – though there are many more types of hot pepper that you can grow than typically. Homegrown tomatoes on the other hand are in a class of their own.
The group is:
