top of page

TYME CAPSULE

Indoor Gardening

Experimenting indoor gardening as an alternative to traditonal outdoor gardening

Growing Organic Vegetables Indoor

My parents are health conscious. They always buy organic fruit and vegetables for family meals. Every time I went groceries with them, I was shocked by the prices of these organic fruits and vegetables.

"Mom, why don't we grow our own organic vegetables?" ......This is where the journey of my new hobby began. I started by planting easy-growing vegetables in my backyard. Unfortunately, my backyard always has unexpected visitors, wild animals. Deers, squirrels, chipmunks, and bunnies ate all plants.

The idea of indoor gardening is my solution! After researching, I found out that the key to success is "the type and amount of light". Instead of using regular light bulbs, I used "LCD grow light", which will mimic natural sunlight and provide the proper spectrum of light for photosynthesis. Giving the plants 12 - 16 hours of light per day yields the best growth. These lights are also energy efficient.

Additionally, I reused plastic containers from my recylcle bin such as egg cartons, yogurt cups, butter boxes, store-bought fruit and vegetable boxes as my plant pots. It saved not only my money but also the environment.

Reusing egg cartons, yogurt cups, or other containers from grocery as plant pots

Organic seeds

Organic seed stater, potting mix, peat moss, and worm casting

Using organic worm tea and kelp as natural fertilizers

Seedlings

First leaves popped up 4 days after seedlings.

Day 4

"True leaves" appeared around day 8.

Full of true leaves

True leaves of kales

Baby bok choy are almost ready for stir fry.

Baby romaine lettuces

Basils and kales were growing well in reused pretzel boxes.

Mixed lettuces

Coriander under grow light

My grow light system

Parsley, Bok choy, and Thai basils under grow light

Thai bird chili

Ripe Thai bird chilis are ready for Pad Kra Prow (Thai Basil stir fry).

Harvested basils for Pad Kra Prow

Using basils and Thai bird chilis in Basil chicken stir fry

Pad Kra Prow for lunch from homegrown basil and chilis

Harvest baby romaine for nicoise salad

Harvest baby mixed lettuces for salad

Just rinse and ready to go

The beauty of growing my own vegetables is that I can choose the selection of the vegetables my family love to eat for my garden. My mom always cooks Asian fusion cuisine at home. So I chose to grow many lettuces and some asian vegetables such as Thai basil, Thai bird chili peppers, and bok choy, that are sometime hard to find at my local super market.

Having a garden at home is awesome. It changes my family's lifestyle. We eat more nutrient-dense vegetables. They are also no chemical and inexpensive. During the Covid -19 lockdown, my small indoor garden not only saved family's money on food and trips to grocery, but also eased our concerns over food security.

bottom of page