Embrace you inner prepper and grow your own food with my best indoor garden ideas. Or maybe you just want a fun project you can do inside regardless of the weather outside or time of year.
An indoor home garden is fun and provides herbs and foods for your family. I’ve been tinkering with indoor gardening for years. Sometimes I get the gardening itch when there is still snow on the ground outside my Montana home.
Other times I feel like we’d be better off if we aren’t totally dependent on markets for our produce needs. Occasionally, I am just lazy and don’t want to go farther than the kitchen for dinner ingredients.
Whether you prefer indoor gardening DIY or starting with an indoor garden kit, I’ve got you covered.
I’ll also show you where to get indoor garden supplies online so you don’t even have to leave your house to gather supplies for creating an indoor garden.
This article will cover a range of the best indoor gardening ideas, including:
- Best Indoor Garden Kits
- DIY Indoor Garden
- Indoor Garden Herbs
- Indoor Vegetable Garden Ideas
- Indoor Garden Towers
- Mushroom Indoor Garden
- Growing Sprouts and Microgreens Indoors
- Indoor Wall Planter Ideas
- Mini Indoor Garden
Indoor Garden Ideas
Best Indoor Garden Kits
Maybe you want to start your indoor garden system with a pre-made kit. That’s perfectly acceptable. These come with everything you need for gardening inside – seeds, soil, containers, and some even come with lights and indicators that it’s time to water or fertilize.
If you don’t want to leave your home for whatever reason, your easiest indoor garden supply house is online. Plus, you can plan your garden after the stores are closed or while lounging in your pajamas.
The following are some of my favorite indoor garden kits that make it easy to get started and offer a good selection of herbs and food.
These indoor garden kits also make great gifts for gardeners and gifts for men who garden.
Indoor Garden Kitchen Kit
AeroGarden Indoor Mini Garden
AeroGarden ideas range from set ups that can grow 6 plants up to 12 inches tall to one that grows 9 plants up to 24 inches tall. Growing herbs or vegetables in your kitchen could not be easier. They grow with hydroponics — nutrient rich water rather than soil.
The AeroGarden planters come with pre-seeded non-GMO pods, which you fill with water, added the included all natural plant food, and turn it on. The sensors will automatically turn the lights on and off and let you know when you need to feed and add water.
While they both come with pre-seeded pods, you can order other types of plants and even empty pods in which to add your own seeds.
- AeroGarden Salad Greens Mix Seed Pods
- AeroGarden Heirloom Cherry Tomato Seed Pods
- AeroGarden Grow Anything Seed Pods
AeroGarden Harvest– Grows 6 plants up to 12 inches tall. The high performance, full Spectrum 20 watt LED high efficiency grow lighting system allows you to grow plants anywhere in your house at any time of year.
It comes with:
- Genovese Basil
- Curly Parsley
- Dill
- Thyme
- Thai Basil
- Mint
AeroGarden Bounty Indoor Hydroponic Herb Garden – grows 9 plants up to 24 inches tall. Energy efficient 40 watt LED Grow Lights deliver the perfect spectrum for fast growth and big harvests. It has a high resolution touch screen panel.
- Genovese Basil (x2)
- Thai Basil
- Curly Parsley
- Italian Parsley
- Thyme
- Chives
- Dill
- Mint
Nature’s Blossom Sow & Grow Vegetable Growing Kit
Sow & Grow kits come with organic seeds, biodegradable planting pots, seed starting soil mix, plant labels, and detailed instructions. I like these for starting veggies, but they will need more room as they grow. You’ll need to transplant them outdoors or have a bigger set up to keep them inside (I have ideas for that below!).
- Super Food Kit – comes with kale, Brussel sprouts, beets, and leeks. Each seed variety arrives with plenty of seeds, enough to germinate multiple seedlings of each vegetable plant. Seeds are non-Gmo and grown in the USA.
- Tomatoes – comes with organic, non-GMO seeds for delicious red tomatoes, green zebra tomatoes, blue cherry tomatoes, and yellow pear tomatoes.
- Exotic Vegetables – comes with organic, non-GMO seeds for purple carrots, black corn, yellow cucumber and space broccoli (romanesco).
Mini Herb Garden Kit
There are a lot of indoor herb garden ideas. My feeling is that if you are going to get a kit, make it as easy as possible. I also look for organic seeds and soil (since I am going to eat this!) and something I can reuse or order refills for.
Spade to Fork Organic Indoor Herb Garden Starter Kit
I love the Spade to Fork kits because they are totally organic, including the soil. They plants will suck up nutrients and water from the soil, so if your soil has pesticides, your plants will, too. Of course the seeds are Certified USDA Organic Non GMO.
Thus indoor herb kit comes with:
- Italian Large Leaf Basil
- Coriander Cilantro (slow bolt)
- Peione Parsley
- Broad Leaf Sage
- Thyme
- 5 Certified USDA Organic compostable peat pots
- 5 Certified USDA Organic rich potting soil discs
- 5 custom wood burned plant markers
- 26 page growing guide
Other Fun Indoor Garden Ideas in Kits
I haven’t tried these, but they look like so much fun. I love the unusual indoor plant growing ideas.
- Plant Theatre – Cocktail Garden Kit
- Garden Republic – Indoor Garden Pepper Starter Kit
- Garden Republic – Indoor Organic Herbal Tea Growing Kit
Indoor Garden for Kids
Indoor gardening for kids gives them an opportunity to learn about plant growth while growing their own food.
Bumble and Bee See Thru Garden View – Kids can see the root growth of their plants with this see-through indoor plant container. It comes with a 9 x 11.5-inch clear plastic planter with removable top and handle, soil, radish, carrot, green onion seeds (enough for several plantings), and instructions on how to use it. I am pretty sure the picture with the vegetables in it was faked, but maybe you really could grow all those veggies in that little space… Nonetheless, it’s a fun project and understanding what goes on underground is pretty interesting.
Enchanted Fairy Garden or Dinosaur Habitat Garden – These make great garden gifts for kids. They can grow their own worlds. Both indoor garden kits for kids have everything you need – just add water. The kids can paint the props to give it their own special touch.
DIY Indoor Garden
Growing an indoor garden DIY style isn’t that much harder than growing from a kit, but you do have to gather all the supplies separately. On the upside, you can pick exactly what you want to grow and how much.
How To Make an Indoor Garden
The first thing you need to do to make an indoor garden is to gather supplies. Hopefully, you have some of these things laying around, but if not, it’s easy to find them.
1. Get organic seeds
Choose plants that will grow under artificial light (unless you have all-day natural light in your indoor garden setting). Also, look for plants that mature quickly and are compact. I recommend leafy greens (salad greens, spinach, arugula, kale etc), herbs, root vegetables (beets, carrots, potatoes). Mushrooms (see below) and sprouts / micorgreens (also, see below), do really well indoors.
2. Get organic potting mix / soil/ substrate
3. Get indoor garden containers
You can either start your indoor garden in little starter sets or in 4-6- inch pots. It depends if you plan to transplant them or not. Carrots need 6-inch pots, but others can grow in smaller containers.
Plant grow bags come in a variety of sizes and pack down when you aren’t using them. They can be easy to move outside when the time comes.
Potato grow bags work in a similar way, but have a flap to access root vegetables.
I prefer to start in a starter tray with a clear “greenhouse” dome and them move to bigger containers or outside when seedling are ready.
You might also consider one of the indoor garden towers if you have a lighting system. Since they are round, it is hard to get light to all sides from a window.
If you are looking for indoor planter box ideas, you might consider this one as it is self watering. It’s not necessarily meant for indoor use, but in a basement with a grow light, or with a tarp under it – just in case – it would work. If you don’t need it raised, check out this indoor planter box.
4. Sow the seeds at the proper depth
Read the seed package for instructions on how deep to plant the seeds.
5. Water and set the containers in a warm location
If your house is cool, like mine, you might need a seed warming pad. You want the seeds to think it’s spring or summer and time to grow.
6. When the seeds sprout, move the containers to a bright area
If you have a lot of natural light, you can put them in a window, otherwise consider dedicating shelves with an indoor garden light. I like the ones with a timer so you can set it and forget it. Because, let’s face it, you are going to forget to turn it on and off anyway, so you might as well automate it.
For a mini garden indoor stacking shelves with lights will work.
7. Start fertilizing weekly with an organic plant food
8. When the seedling have two leaves, thin them to the distance indicated on the seed package
Indoor Garden Supplies Quick Links
- Indoor garden lights
- Indoor garden plants or seeds
- Organic soil
- Seed Starter Tray with growing substrate and greenhouse cover
- Seed warming pad
- Indoor garden containers
- Organic plant food
Indoor Herbs Garden Ideas
Herb garden ideas indoor or out are plentiful. Essentially, follow the instructions above to DIY your herb garden or purchase one fo the herb garden kits above.
For indoor plant pot ideas with herbs:
- grow herbs in pretty pots on a windowsill
- place indoor garden shelves in front of a window or hanging from a wall with good light
- plant in a self watering pot or tray
- for small indoor garden ideas, grow in mason jars (put rocks on bottom, then soil and just be sure not to over water since there isn’t drainage)
- hang upside down pots over a kitchen window
- One of my favorite kitchen herb gardening ideas is to use these hanging pots for herbs
- Grow an herb water garden over a self-cleaning fish tank
Indoor Vegetable Garden Ideas
Again, follow the instructions above to plant your own indoor vegetable garden or look at some of the vegetable kits to get started.
Indoor Vegetable Gardening Ideas
- Use an indoor raised planter to have everything at arms’ reach. Make sure it has a drain so that it doesn’t leak all over the floor.
- Get an indoor garden box. I like this 6-foot tall indoor tower garden/ box. You can fit a lot of plants in here.
- Find old pots or buckets and use them to plant vegetables. If you can’t poke drainage holes, be extra careful not to overwater lest the roots rot.
- I mentioned the plant grow bags above. They aren’t the most beautiful containers, but they are inexpensive and can grow a lot of food.
- Use a hanging basket to grow chilis, tomatoes, or anything that doesn’t have to get too tall.
The book, Indoor Edible Garden: Creative Ways to Grow Herbs, Fruits, and Vegetables in Your Home, has so many great ideas.
Mushroom Indoor Garden
One of my favorite inside garden ideas is to grow mushrooms. I wrote a whole article about growing mushrooms at home, so I won’t go into it in-depth here. There is nothing better for a small indoor garden than mushrooms.
Read the article to find out how to DIY these mushroom indoor kitchen garden ideas or simply buy a mushroom growing kit and go to town.
Growing Sprouts and Microgreens Indoors
One of the easiest and quickest interior garden ideas is to grow sprouts or microgreens. They pack a lot of nutrition in a small package. These are great projects for indoor apartment growing or anywhere you have a small space.
We cycle through sprouts at our house and keep a sprouting jar going almost all the time. They do require some attention – rinsing twice a day – but it takes about one minute.
Some sprouts and microgreens (including sunflower sprouts) need to be planted in soil. I also keep a seedling tray on the counter with sunflower sprouts at various ages.
To grow sprouts:
- Purchase organic sprouting seeds
- Depending on the seed and size of jar (check the directions on the package), add a tablespoon or two of seeds to the jar.
- Any glass jar with a screen on top will do. I use this sprouting jar, but if you have some clean screen, you can fasten that to the top of a mason jar. Make sure the screen is fine enough that the seeds won’t fall through. Or buy screen lids that fit standard mason jars.
- Soak the seeds in water for 8-12 hours (see the directions)
- Rinse the seeds and store upside down so the water drains.
- Continue to rinse and drain the seeds twice a day until they are ready to eat.
- Some seeds need to grow in organic soil after soaking.
Share your favorite indoor gardening projects in the comments!
