I passed by a rack of seed packets in the hardware store today and was bit by a sudden urge to plant a garden! However, I live in an apartment in town and have no yard whatsoever, so anything I plant would have to grow inside. Does anyone have any thoughts/previous experiences they could share? I found very little about this in the archives but it seems like many people were growing green beans and tomatoes. Is there anything else that you've had success with (or lack of the same)? I'm familiar with gardening outside, and growing house plants inside, but not sure if I need more information to combine the two! Thanks in advance!

-- Sarah K. (NE PA) (ladynuala@hotmail.com), February 27, 2002

Answers

when I was in the army,, I had tomatoes and corn growing in 5 gal buckets, one plant per bucket

-- Stan (sopal@net-port.com), February 27, 2002.

Sarah, there are some great books out on Window Gardening, or using the proper lighting with growing racks indoors. I would get on the Amazon.com and Powells Books(in Portland, OR)and see what they have. I will try and remember some of those titles too, Oh for a memory! My indoor growing experience has been limited to tomatos and herbs in a large Bay-Greenhouse Window facing South. Little Quacker :-)

-- Little Quacker (carouselxing@juno.com), February 27, 2002.

I grew tomatoes, lettuce, and radished in a patio pot. It would probably have worked just fine inside, but our apratment was so dark & teeny that there was not much room for pots.

-- ellie (elnorams@aol.com), February 27, 2002.

mostly depends on how much light you have available. Just about anything will do fine indoors if given enough light, natural or manmade. If there's not enough sunlight you could supplement with fluorescent wide spectrum lights. None or very little sunlight you'd need metal halide or HPS lamps on timers to simulate natural sunlight conditions though it might not be worth the cost of electricity for those.

What Stan mentioned works good. Many plants do fine in 5 gal buckets even without drainage holes. Tomatoes, peppers, the smaller size japanese cucumbers on a trellis, carrots and radishes, greens and herbs.

-- Dave (multiplierx9@hotmail.com), February 27, 2002.

How about asking the landlord if there is a bit of yard, a window in a stairwell, or a spot on the roof you could put containers? Throw in some edible flowers like calendula and nasturtium, also the edible decorative kales, a couple of herbs, and the mesclun lettuce mixes, nobody will know its dinner, unless you tell them. Do you have a balcony? Is there an ornamental balcony above the building entrance you could ask to put pots on? Another place to look for odd sunny nooks is at work.

-- seraphima (seraphima@ak.net), February 28, 2002.

If there's not much light, you can put reflective material or mirrors behind the plants, helps give a double dose.

Make sure that the containers have good drainage, and make sure that there is a good container underneath the pots to COLLECT that drainage.

If you get tomatoes, I would suggest looking for the varieties that are designed to grow in pots. In fact, there are several "dwarf" varieties of many vegetables designed to grow in containers or in small spaces.

Good luck!

-- Chelsea (rmbehr@istar.ca), February 28, 2002.

I agree with the naturally dwarf varieties suggestion. For tomatoes, you might look for "Red Robin" or "Yellow Canary." They only grow about 18" tall, produce loads of cherry-sized fruit, and taste good. As for lighting, one of my references suggests that "Yellow Canary" tolerates lower light levels than any other tomato.

You will need to make sure anything gets enough light, both in duration and intensity. Reflectors and artificial light sources may be necessary, and will certainly be necessary in the depths of winter. By the way, it's not necessary to get the expensive GrowLights; just use 1 cool white and 1 warm light tube in a fluorescent fixture and you'll get the entire spectrum. Remember to keep any lights *close* to the leaves of the plants -- they don't "see" as well as we do!

Another thing we've found with growing plants in containers is that the soil and fertilizer play a bigger part in the taste of edibles than usually given credit. We grow all out tomatoes in 10 gallon pots in a walk-in cold frame in the summer (cool nights on the high plains not conducive to ripening heat-loving fruit!) and use a combination of garden soil, compost, and finely-ground bark mulch in the pots. Soilless mix grew wonderful plants, but the tomatoes had NO flavor, even with regualr fertilizing. Guess there are minor elements in the soil that the plant uses to get that great flavor that are lacking in this kind of soil and regular fertilizer.

Remember that your pots should *never* sit in water. And since plant nutrients are water soluble and wash out the drainage holes with the drainage water, you will have to replace them on a regular basis in order for them to be there for your plants. Best to you!

-- Marcia in MT (marciabundi@myexcel.com), March 01, 2002.