A garden doesn’t have to be outside on a large piece of property to be considered a garden. In fact, I’d argue a garden can be a collection of cared-for and compatible houseplants strategically placed across the home for enjoyment, design, and function. Maybe you can’t garden outside; maybe you don’t have a porch, patio, or driveway for containers; maybe all you have to work with is a few spots in your home. While that may not yield you baskets of crops, you can still transform those areas into enjoyable indoor grow spaces. Explore these tips for growing plants indoors.

• You may need to experiment which houseplants work the best in your space, depending on environmental conditions, the plants’ needs, how much space you have, and where you’d like to place them.
• Even if they’re low-maintenance, observe your houseplants, take note of how they’re doing, and adjust care when needed, just like in any other garden.
• Try growing herbs, vegetables, or even mushrooms indoors if you want to harvest something from your indoor garden.

When you find a space that works for your plant, have fun creating a thoughtful design with them!

Take your time. Houseplants are an investment and deserve some thoughtful planning – both for the sake of the plants themselves and your time and resources.

If you’re ready to jump into the joys of houseplants, use these tips and my own experiences as a starting point for your own explorations.

First, do some research and decide on the best compatible houseplants for your space. Think about why you want them. Do you want to grow something to harvest? Do you want some pops of color in a room? Do you want to try and freshen up the atmosphere – and even the air quality? There’s a houseplant to match your vision.

Additionally, take stock of the types of conditions in your home. Where’s the natural light coming from, and for how long? What temperature zone does your home typically sit at? How humid or dry is your space? Take note of these factors in addition to your wants as a gardener to find a good plant match. Sometimes, this search takes a little time to find the right fit. For example, I attempted to grow a bushy rosemary plant in my apartment a few years ago. However, direct sunlight came through my window for perhaps three hours of the day, too little for rosemary. Plus, it was the middle of winter, and I didn’t have the best-sealed window, so not only did the rosemary not get enough sunlight, it also got hit with cold air. It didn’t survive more than a few weeks. Sometimes, you can create the right environment for a plant, such as using a grow light, but your space and resources may be limited; in which case, you may need to consider another plant.

Even if you find low-maintenance compatible houseplants that work for your home, such as philodendrons or ZZ plants, observe how they’re doing, just like a gardener would with their crops outdoors. Consider making a houseplant journal to note your plants’ behavior across the seasons. You may be able to optimize their placements even more. I kept a slow-growing ZZ plant in the corner of my office for a while, away from essentially any sunlight, and it stayed with me. However, when I moved it to a place that received several hours of direct light, it shot up two healthy new shoots! That’s its new home now.

Learn more about developing a garden log in Journal Your Garden Progress to be a Better Gardener.

Maybe you want to grow something that’ll yield you a little harvest – which can be done indoors. Consider some easy-growing herbs, such as mint. This past season, I grew some spearmint inside, harvested some leaves, dried them out in a closet, and enjoyed some fresh mint tea in winter. But you could also grow small pepper plants or cultivate mushrooms. These aren’t the traditional houseplants, but they’re still a fun indoor garden option.

When you’ve chosen your plants and their placements, have fun incorporating them into the space so you can enjoy them all the more. Wind long philodendron vines up a wall. Keep an air plant on your desk for decoration. Hang a cascading string of pearls from a high bookshelf. The artistic possibilities are endless.

Finally, take your time and appreciate the process. Houseplants can be expensive, and you don’t want to constantly buy new ones if you can help it. Understand the growing environment you’re working with first before investing in any plant. And once you buy a plant, give it the care it deserves. That way, your chances of keeping a thriving houseplant will be much higher, and it won’t burn a hole in your wallet.

Dive deeper into houseplant planning and care in our podcast episode Where to Put House Plants So They Thrive.

Houseplants aren’t just dust collectors. They can be beautiful, functioning pieces to your home – an indoor garden! Do some research, do some dreaming, and have fun creating a collection of compatible houseplants you’ll enjoy for years to come.

These tried-and-tested garden planning worksheets will help you conquer the complexities of food self-sufficiency to reduce your grocery budget and provide wholesome food.

The best gardening advice I can offer is to start out simple. Most of us would love to cut back on our grocery bill, and growing our own food certainly helps. When we’re plunking seedlings or seeds into our garden soil, it doesn’t look like all that much work. But when all those plants start to grow and require care, a beginning gardener can wonder what on earth they were thinking.

That’s why I recommend starting out by planting foods you and your family eat a lot and that will grow well in your region. Here in the Pacific Northwest, I can’t successfully grow okra, sweet potatoes, or peanuts, because the weather simply isn’t hot enough. Peppers and tomatoes don’t do well here except in a greenhouse, but they may thrive where you garden.

Most seed catalogs and seed packets specify an ideal region or growing Zone. Also, you can seek advice from neighbors who’ve gardened successfully. Many independent local nurseries will offer seedlings of vegetables known to do well in your specific Zone and region.

Another way to select what to plant in your plot is to consider how well the item can be preserved. While cucumbers are most people’s go-to for pickling, my husband really doesn’t care for cucumber pickles. But we’ve been known to eat an entire quart of pickled asparagus at one meal. My daughter has grown to love fermented garlic dill pickles, so we grow the ‘Chicago Pickling’ cucumber. It’s a prolific producer that’s enjoyable fresh on salads, and it makes great pickles.

We plant some lettuce because we love fresh salads, but we don’t want a lot left over. Frozen lettuce isn’t that appealing unless you’re using it in a green smoothie. We choose to grow more of kale and spinach, both of which can be frozen and used in various dishes.

Each family is unique, so you should tailor what you grow to what your family prefers to eat. Don’t worry if you start out small, thinking it won’t be enough, because being able to stay on top of a small garden will have you eager to plant more next year. Every year we bring in one new vegetable or cultivar to try – and that means we end up enlarging our garden.

Calculating Veggies

To help you determine how much and what you should be planting for your family, I’m including charts from my book The Family Garden Plan. The worksheets on these pages will help you calculate your family’s produce needs, how much you should plant, and how to plan your garden space accordingly. They’ll aid you in accomplishing one of the often overlooked but most critical steps to a successful growing season and harvest – planning.

First, use the worksheet below to calculate your food needs for a year by listing the produce your family eats during a typical month. After all, what’s the point of having a garden if it’s full of foods your household members won’t eat?

Next, research which of the foods that your family eats will actually grow in your climate. Search by your ZIP code on the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s updated Plant Hardiness Zone Map. Ask gardening friends and neighbors about vegetables they’ve grown successfully in your area.

Finally, use the information you’ve gathered to determine what and how much to plant. This will produce an easy-to-follow plan for your garden. Sketch how you want your plot to look on graph paper. No matter your climate, conditions, or space, you can grow crops to reduce your grocery budget and provide wholesome food. Ready to grow? Start here.

Record Your Food Needs for a Year

Start with this sample worksheet for an example of how to document your household’s actual eating habits for one month. Then, calculate the weekly average for each type of food and multiply the average by 52 (weeks in a year).

How Much to Plant – Fruits

After you’ve charted the foods your family eats, decide which of those crops you’ll plant in your garden this year. Consider what grows easily in your Zone. The following two charts (below) list average recommendations for how much to plant per person for a year’s worth of food, and how much each plant produces on average. These averages will likely differ year to year, as yields can be affected by soil nutrition, weather, and pests.

How Much to Plant – Vegetables

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Melissa K. Norris lives in the North Cascade Mountains of Washington with her husband and two children. This article is adapted from her book The Made-from-Scratch Life (Ten Peaks Press), available below.