Planter Boxes: Growing Vegetables Indoors Over Winter

Benefits of Winter Planter Boxes

The beauty of winter planter boxes is that they allow you to control the environment entirely. You can regulate temperature, lighting, watering, and fertilizing. In short, planter boxes are an indoor growing system for vegetables.

Winter planter boxes offer everything you need to grow indoor vegetables successfully.

1. Protection from the Elements: Winter planting boxes shield against harsh winter conditions, including freezing temperatures, heavy rain, and snow. This protection helps your plants survive and thrive in an otherwise challenging environment.
2. Controlled Environment: Gardening boxes give you control over the growing conditions. You can adjust the soil, moisture levels, and exposure to sunlight. That lets you create the perfect microclimate favorable for your winter crops.
3. Extended Growing Season: With winter planter boxes, you can enjoy fresh produce throughout the colder months. If you're an avid vegetable gardener, that let's get your hands dirty. It also helps save money at the grocery store.

What to Plant in Winter Planter Boxes

The other beauty of using planter boxes is that there's no limit to what you can plant. You have most of the same crops you planted outside at your disposal. Gardening boxes give you year-round access to:

1. Leafy Greens: Cold-hardy greens like spinach, kale, Swiss chard, and lettuce are excellent choices for winter planter boxes. So you can have a steady supply of fresh, nutritious greens.
2. Root Vegetables: You can easily grow crops like carrots, beets, and radishes in planting boxes. The controlled environment prevents the ground from freezing, making it easier to harvest these delicious veggies.
3. Herbs: Many herbs like parsley, cilantro, and chives thrive in planting boxes. And let's face it, fresh herbs are a great addition to your favorite recipes.
4. Tomatoes: Store-bought tomatoes over winter don't have the same flavor burst. But you can alleviate that by growing tomato plants inside.
5. Peppers: Growing pepper plants indoors is equally simple. You can enjoy red, green, and yellow or hot peppers like jalapenos or habanaras.
6. Winter-Specific Crops: Consider planting winter-specific crops like Brussels sprouts, broccoli, and cauliflower. They adapt to colder temperatures and can flourish in planter boxes.

Let's dig deeper (pun intended) into some of the most popular container vegetables.

Growing Tomatoes Indoors in Planter Boxes

Tomatoes are a favorite among gardeners. You might think you can only grow them during warm months outside or in greenhouses in cooler months. But you can also cultivate homegrown tomatoes using planter boxes.

Choosing the Right Tomato Varieties for Your Gardening Boxes

Determinate or dwarf tomato varieties well-suited for confined spaces and container gardening. Some excellent indoor tomato varieties to consider growing in your house include:

1. Tiny Tim: A dwarf cherry tomato variety that produces small, sweet fruits ideal for indoor gardening.
2. Balcony: Another compact cherry tomato variety that thrives in containers and small spaces.
3. Patio Princess: A determinate bush tomato perfect for growing in containers on patios or windowsills.

Creating the Ideal Growing Environment for Tomatoes Inside

As we've said, your indoor vegetable garden allows you to control the environment. Thus, you can easily create perfect conditions for growing tomatoes indoors. Here's how.

1. Container Size

Choose a planter box that's at least 5 gallons in size with drainage holes. It should have at least a 12-inch diameter and be 12 inches tall (deep). Tomatoes have extensive root systems, so adequate space is crucial for healthy growth.

2. Potting Mix

Use a high-quality potting mix that provides good aeration and drainage. Tomatoes prefer well-draining soil to prevent root rot.

3 Light

Tomatoes require plenty of sunlight, ideally 10-12 hours of direct sunlight per day. If you don't have access to sufficient natural light, use indoor grow lights for vegetables.

4 Temperature

Tomatoes thrive in temperatures between 65-75°F (18-24°C) during the day and slightly cooler temperatures at night.

You should also support your tomato plants with stakes or cages to help them grow upright. You can learn more about how to grow tomatoes in containers here. You can also gain insights into how big your tomato planter should be.

EarthBox Planter Boxes Offer the Perfect Solution

An easy solution is to opt for an EarthBox tomato planter. It offers a proven indoor growing system for tomatoes.

The growing kit includes everything you need for a successful tomato harvest:

• Garden box
• Staking system
• Ties
• Fertilizer
• Tomato & Veggie Boost
• Organic potting mix

Growing tomatoes indoors in planter boxes is a fantastic way to enjoy homegrown tomatoes year-round. Whether you're a seasoned gardener or a beginner, indoor tomato gardening is rewarding and flavorful.

And EarthBox virtually guarantees your success.

Year-Round Indoor Salad Gardens

Why not incorporate a year-round salad garden if you have an indoor tomato garden? Indoor salad gardens offer a convenient and accessible way to supply leafy greens steadily.

Lettuce plants like moist soil but don't always like sitting in water, so drainage is essential. You can also get away with a smaller planting box than for tomatoes. Your container should be at least six inches deep.

Again, EarthBox offers the perfect-sized container with its planter box for vegetables. The self-watering planter houses lettuce easily. You can also use it for other produce like peppers, broccoli, onions, carrots, and more.

Growing Lettuce Indoors with Winter Garden Boxes

Indoor lettuce requires similar ingredients to growing tomatoes indoors.

1. Selecting the Right Location: Find a well-lit area in your home near a window that receives plenty of sunlight. A south- or southwest-facing window box is ideal for growing salad greens indoors. If natural light is insufficient, supplement it with some grow lights. LED grow lights do a super job.
2. Containers and Soil: Choose containers or gardening boxes with good drainage to avoid adding too much water. Then, fill them with a high-quality potting mix rich in organic matter. The organic matter provides essential nutrients for your salad crops.
3. Choosing Salad Varieties: Like indoor tomatoes, choose compact salad varieties like arugula, microgreens, baby spinach, and various lettuces. These plants are well-suited for indoor growing and don't require a lot of space.

Caring for Your Indoor Salad Garden

If you've grown lettuce outside, you can undoubtedly grow lettuce in your home. Proper care includes the following:

1. Watering: Keep the soil consistently moist but not waterlogged. Use a spray bottle or a gentle watering can to avoid disturbing seedlings if you take that route. Watering from the bottom can help prevent overwatering and soil compaction.
2. Temperature and Humidity: Most salad greens prefer cooler temperatures and moderate humidity. Maintain a temperature range of 60-70°F (15-24°C). You can use a humidity tray or a humidifier if your indoor environment is particularly dry.
3. Fertilizing: Feed your indoor salad garden with a balanced, water-soluble fertilizer. Doing so every 2-4 weeks ensures plants receive essential nutrients for healthy growth.
4. Pruning and Harvesting: Regularly prune or snip leaves from your salad greens as they mature. This not only encourages continuous growth but also provides you with fresh salad ingredients. Be gentle when harvesting to avoid damaging the plants.

Providing Sunlight for Veggies in Planter Boxes

During the winter, daylight hours are limited. So, providing adequate light for indoor plants like tomatoes, lettuce, and peppers can be challenging.

You can start by choosing the best location. Place your winter planter boxes in one that receives maximum sunlight during the day. South-facing areas are typically ideal for winter gardening.

You can supplement your plants' sunlight using artificial lighting sources such as full-spectrum grow lights. For growing veggies indoors, use a full spectrum LED light with a color temperature in the blue range (5,000 – 7,000K). The red range (3,500 – 4,500K) is the guiding light for fruits.

These tones boost growth and absorption more than others. But plants still need the full-color spectrum for photosynthesis.

Position the grow lights above your plants, maintaining a distance that allows for even coverage without causing excessive heat.

Keep the lights on for 12-16 hours a day, replicating the duration of daylight during the growing season. Monitoring your plants closely and adjusting the light intensity and duration is crucial.

Combining artificial lighting with natural sunlight gives your indoor garden the light to thrive.

EarthBox Has the Perfect Winter Planter Boxes

Move your gardening inside over the winter using EarthBox planter boxes. They provide the perfect indoor growing system for vegetables.

The maintenance-free container gardening growing system gives you control. You can double the yield of conventional gardens with less fertilizer, less water, and virtually no effort.

Start your winter garden with some of the company's best-selling garden boxes.