How to Start Seeds for an Indoor Garden

Hi this is Yolanda Vanveen and in this segment we're going to talk about how to start seeds for an indoor garden. Now you don't have to have a large property or even an outside garden to have an indoor garden. And there's many plants that you can grow on the window sill or in a nice sunny window and it's very easy to do. And there are a few rules that you should follow. First of all I have found that you don't want to start really big plants indoors or grow them indoors, you can always start them indoors and move them outdoors, but if you want to keep them indoors, make sure and select smaller plants or herbs or anything that's not going to get five feet tall because you can't contain that inside the house. And the easiest way to start seeds I have found is just to take a napkin or a paper towel, put some seeds right in the middle and put another layer on top and keep it moist. You don't want it sitting water, just keep it moist. And the seeds will start to sprout and at that time you can put them right into a container or you can put them right into a seed tray and that's a really easy way to start indoor plants. And you really don't even need the paper towels if you have a seed tray, you can just put any type of seed starting mix right into your seed trays and plant at least three seeds about one inch deep and water it well but don't let it sit in water and make it dry out just a little bit in between but never let it be completely dry either. And they'll start growing and as soon as there's a few leaves, just leave the dominant plant. Sometime there will be two or three starts if you start three seeds, you want the dominant largest plant to survive so just weed out or thin out the other seeds that have grown that are smaller. And then once it's gotten to be a larger stage and you've got a nice root mass, then you can put it right into any type of container. And the key is to have good drainage. So if you've got a nice pot that you want to use for an indoor garden, never just plant your plants into that pot, make sure that you've got another pot in that pot so that it's not sitting in water and you can gauge if it's too wet or too dry and you can actually put it under the sink and let it rinse all the way here and there. And I found that works much easier. So there's all types of plants that you can grow indoors and herbs are some of my favorites. And there's nothing better than growing some nice cilantro from seed and turning it around and picking a few of the leaves off and adding it to your Mexican dishes whether it's tacos or an enchilada, it just makes everything better. So growing an indoor garden is very easy from seed and you can do it anytime of the year. The spring is always the best because you've got more natural sunlight in the summer but even in the middle of winter, especially if you have artificial lights, you can grow an indoor garden.