Maybe you have no garden space or very little or maybe it’s the dead of winter, but either way, you’d love to grow your own greens and herbs. The solution could be right at your fingertips – a countertop kitchen garden. Interested in learning how to make a countertop garden? The following article contains some terrific countertop garden ideas or inspiration for an idea of your own.
What is a Countertop Kitchen Garden?
A countertop kitchen garden is exactly what it sounds like, a garden on a miniature scale in the kitchen. It can be simply made or you can spend some money, sometimes quite a bit of money, on a prefab setup. A countertop garden can be as simple as some rinsed-out aluminum cans that serve as free pots or a bit more costly with a unit such as a grow light garden or an aquaponic setup.
How to Make a Countertop Garden
First things first – where are you going to put a countertop garden? If a surfeit of space is immediately apparent, then it’s time to do some clean-up or think about hanging gardens. The next thing to consider is your budget. If money is no object, then options are abundant; but if you barely have two cents to rub together, the above-mentioned, repurposed, tin cans should do the trick. A kitchen countertop garden does not have to be expensive or fancy. The basics for plant growth are light and water, easily obtained in a kitchen. Really, a Chia Pet is an indoor garden so you can see that a countertop garden can be that easy to set up and care for. For an inexpensive DIY kitchen countertop garden, you will need a pot with drainage holes (or a tin can with holes poked in the bottom) and indoor potting soil or good quality regular potting soil that has been amended with organic perlite. If you are planting multiple plants together, be sure that they have the same watering requirements. Once the plants have been potted and watered, put them in a sunny window that gets at least 6 hours per day of sunlight. If you are lacking light, you should invest in some grow lights. You can also spur growth by simulating outdoor conditions with a cool-mist humidifier.
Additional Countertop Garden Ideas
There are quite a few garden kits available for purchase for use as a garden in the kitchen. There are sprouting kits and towers, set-ups specific to growing herbs, soilless hydroponic units, and even an aquaponic garden that grows organic herbs and lettuce atop a fish tank. Greens aren’t your thing? Try a mushroom kit, an easy grow kit that sets up in a box that you water twice a day. Within 10 days, you can have your own organic mushrooms. Give some thought to your indoor garden. Consider how much space you have, how much money you want to spend, the time you wish to put into the garden, and the type of crop you wish to grow. Do you have enough light and, if not, what are your options? If you decide on a garden or lighting system, do you have an electrical source nearby? The benefits of growing an indoor kitchen garden outweigh any problems, like the easy access to fresh produce for starters and the ability to control pests and diseases more easily. Many systems recycle water so less is used and are specifically designed to maximize space and output leaving little room for waste.
