Winter 'Indoor Gardening'

What can you do when you are an avid gardener and it's the middle of winter? Grow indoors, naturally! 

One way is to grow houseplants -- of which I have many! They brighten our interior spaces and provide life and beauty, even when nothing is green and growing outside.

Living in southeastern Wisconsin through the long winter months, my heart aches to see the green canopy of our maple trees in summer, and to hear the buzzing of bees and hummingbirds while I am out in my yard. 

Now instead, our living room hosts the greenery, with some very tall Ficus trees, their slightly smaller offspring, and a towering corn plant. We also have several large Norfolk Island Pine trees -- all of which were originally bought over the years as tiny decorated trees at Christmastime.

Adding to these larger specimens are the numerous pothos plants that are climbing and trailing everywhere, various cacti and spider plants, and all of their babies. Visitors will say that our living room looks like a 'jungle', but I liken it more to that of a calming forest. :)

Happy Basil Plants in the Sunshine

Beyond our numerous houseplants, I have attempted to bring some outdoor plants into the house at summer's end, and have grown them on sunny windowsills with some success. Not all plants will transition to interior spaces after living outdoors, but I try to bring in some of my herbs and plants that are still growing late in the fall, before the first frost gets to them, so that I can enjoy them for a little longer. 

I have had limited success with transitioning basil plants to indoor living. The plants may survive for a brief period indoors before succumbing to an untimely end. This year, it was aphids.

My conclusion? Basil is probably best started from seed indoors, rather than moving plants inside after growing outside all summer. 

This year I had copious amounts of baby kale plants that were still going strong late in the season. I love to peel the lower leaves off of these small plants to add to my salads and sandwiches, and have added them to soups and stir-fries, too! So, even though kale does well in the colder temps, I wanted to bring these plants inside before the deep freeze of winter came.

The curled kale and curled parsley seem to be thriving this year in my interior spaces. I've recently added a grow light to aid them in optimum growth, as our unbelievably endless gloomy days continue. I am sitting under a full-spectrum light as I write, to ward off SAD, which is a real thing for us northerners. 

Winter Indoor Garden 2026

Just a couple of days after using the extra lighting for the kale and parsley, I noticed that aphids were beginning to take over some of the plants. 

I researched whether it is safe to use neem oil on edible foods, and since it will be more than a few days before I harvest any kale, and as long as I wash off the leaves with water to remove any residual oil and soap (mainly for taste) then I am safe to use the neem oil on these plants. 

Mixing a few drops of soap and the neem oil, diluted with water, I used a heavy spray on these plants; and so far it seems to have helped the aphid (and the fungus gnat!) problems already. Further applications will be used to assure the aphids have been eradicated -- or I may resort to taking each plant and rinsing the foliage under running water in the sink. Those sucky aphids like to hang out under the leaves, and with these curled kale leaves, that's a lot of hiding places -- and it's difficult to spray under the leaves! 

Lettuces Grown in 2020

The best part about growing an indoor garden is eating your own fresh greens in the middle of winter. Soon I will start some lettuce and spinach seeds. Greens are easy and fast to grow, especially since I love to harvest and eat them as baby greens. 

I hope these glimpses into my wintertime gardening inspire you to add some greenery to your interior spaces! Until I get a greenhouse, my sunny windowsills will have to do, and honestly, our indoor forest -- or jungle -- seems to growing just fine. Wishing you happy 'indoor' gardening!