HURRY! Now Is the Time to Plant These Vegetables, Fruits, and Herbs Indoors Before It's Too Late
House Beautiful May 26, 2025
Lifestyle
House Beautiful May 26, 2025
Lifestyle
Dreaming of growing your own garden but short on outdoor space? Don’t give up on the idea just yet! Even without a backyard, you can cultivate a thriving edible garden right in your home. All it takes is a sunny windowsill, a touch of patience, and a sprinkling of know-how. From leafy greens and vibrant scallions to juicy tomatoes, peppers, and even strawberries, an assortment of fruits and vegetables can flourish indoors—even in a compact city apartment.
The experts at Bonnie Plants emphasize a few key tips for indoor gardening success: Choosing the right spot is crucial—your plants need plenty of sunshine to grow. However, that location must also be temperature-friendly. Steer clear of chilly, drafty areas and spots near fireplaces or heat vents that can overheat your greenery. Striking the right balance of sunlight and temperature is essential, as overly direct sun can damage plants, while insufficient warmth can inhibit their growth. Be sure to invest in containers with great drainage, use high-quality potting soil, and keep up with regular watering and pest checks to keep your indoor garden healthy.
Sun exposure requirements will differ based on the plant. Leafy greens and herbs typically need less light, while fruit-bearing plants like peppers crave more. For homes with limited natural light, grow lights can provide the extra boost plants need to thrive. Grow lights are now available in discreet designs, such as GE grow bulbs, which can blend seamlessly into your home decor.
You can start growing your own indoor edible garden today and enjoy fresh, homegrown produce year-round. Here are some fantastic plant options to inspire you and get your greens started.
They're not quite vegetables, but growing your own herbs (like basil, cilantro, and rosemary) is both a step up from buying them at the store and a good first step for your indoor garden, especially if you're new to gardening entirely. Plus, they'll make everything else you cook taste so much better. You can plant them as seeds on your own or buy a starter plant from your local garden store.
Scallions are such a versatile food, and they're a good option for anyone who wants to start indoor gardening but wants something more low-maintenance and quick-growing. And you have options for growing them, too—you can grow them from seeds, or regrow them from the scraps of scallions you've just used in a recipe. To regrow them, all you need is a cup of water and some sunlight, according to TODAY. You can also do the same with leeks!
An adorable (and tasty) little addition to salads and perfect for garnishes, microgreens—typically miniature greens from radishes, mustard greens, chard, broccoli, lettuce, and more—can easily be grown at home so long as you have a sunny place to perch them. Just make sure you put them in a shallow container, Bonnie Plants advises.
According to The Old Farmer's Almanac, celery is another plant you can regrow from food scraps. If you don't want to grow celery from seeds, just plant the stump (make sure it's about two inches long) from a bunch root-side-down in either a container of water or a small amount of potting soil after you've used the stalks, and soon new growth will start forming from the center.
If you love a good salad, you might want to start growing your own greens indoors, too. Lettuce, spinach, Swiss chard, kale—they're all possibilities for your indoor garden, according to Bonnie Plants. For some of them, The Old Farmer's Almanac notes that you can even follow the same process as regrowing celery, so long as you have a stump to work with.
Smaller peppers, like chili peppers, shishitos, and more, can be grown inside too, according to Bonnie Plants. To successfully cultivate these colorful, tasty veggies, you'll again need to designate a spot in a bright, sunny window, since they thrive better outdoors. And if you're new to indoor gardening and want some extra help growing peppers, you can try this windowsill pepper planter from Back to the Roots.
No, you're not limited to growing tomatoes outdoors—you can totally grow a tomato plant inside. You just need a spot that gets plenty of sunlight, big enough pots, and stakes or cages to keep the branches upright as they grow. You'll also want to stick to dwarf tomatoes that are easier to grow in containers, according to Bonnie Plants.
Carrots are another great option for indoor gardening, especially since they generally prefer cooler environments anyway. You just have to make sure you use the right container, since carrots are a root vegetable. According to Bonnie Plants, that means choosing a pot that's plenty deep to allow give the plants' roots space to grow.
You already know you can grow radish microgreens indoors, but you can grow full-on radishes inside, too. They're a root vegetable, much like carrots, and they also prefer cooler environments (again, great for indoor gardening!) and require a deep pot for proper growing.
Your indoor edible garden doesn't have to be limited to just herbs and vegetables—you can throw some fruit into the mix with a strawberry plant, too! According to Millcreek Gardens, they're fairly easy to plant and grow. The only tricky part? Since you won't have bees visiting your indoor garden, you might need to pollinate your strawberries on your own.
It might surprise you to see lemons on this list, but yes, you can grow lemon trees indoors. Your best bet is to buy an existing Meyer Lemon tree to cultivate rather than planting seeds, and so long as you have a bright, sunny spot (they need 8-12 hours of sun every day, according to Food52) and take time to mist it, you'll be growing your own lemons in no time.
Since mushrooms are a fungus and not your typical plant, growing them is a different process, but you can totally grow them indoors. WikiHow has instructions for two ways to grow your own mushrooms at home. Or you can try a grow kit!
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