When the weather is cold, wet and dreary, the last thing you want to do is head outside. However, there are many options for creating an indoor green space – conservatories, greenhouses or even a small herb garden grown in the kitchen. Here are three tips for keeping your green fingers going throughout winter:

Consider Your Space

An indoor garden can take up as much or as little space as you have available. You may want to consider tomato plants, which can be grown on a kitchen windowsill or on a table and is a space efficient plant, with rich rewards.

Consider Your Light

Plants need to photosynthesise to stay healthy. This requires plenty of light, which in winter, can be hard to come by. Placing plants next to a window is an obvious solution. Shelves can also help plants to access the light for more hours throughout the day. If you are still worried, or your plants are still looking spindly and unhealthy, then consider purchasing a ‘grow light’ – a HID (High Intensity Discharge) bulb works best for this but even an inexpensive incandescent lamp can help.

Consider Your Environment

 Despite winter being colder than summer, it can also be a drier season with less humidity and indoor central heating systems can lead to the air feeling ‘dry.’ Misting your plants daily can help them absorb the water they need through the atmosphere. Finally, whilst the thermostat can be a divisive issue throughout the winter in many households, temperatures of 18 to 23 degrees are best for most indoor plants; make sure that the heating is kept between these boundaries and your indoor plants will thrive.

Indoor gardening is a great option for when the weather is cold and wet. When the last thing you want to do is go outside, why not bring a little bit of the outside indoors to you?