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Winter Gardening: Indoors and Outdoors
During the harsh winter months when it’s nearly impossible to grow anything outdoors, an indoor garden is a perfect solution for growing fresh, organic food. Don’t forget your outdoor garden, though. Plants still need to be taken care of and the garden needs to be prepared for the spring.
Growing indoors
Thanks to indoor gardens, you can easily grow herbs, fruits, and salad greens from home, any time of year. You won't have to worry about cold weather affecting your plants.
Smart Garden 3
How does it work?
Click & Grow’s smart indoor gardens are self-growing. They feature energy-efficient LED grow lights with an inbuilt timer, ensuring plants have the optimal amount of light each day.
Click & Grow’s pre-seeded plant pods feature smart soil technology. Smart soil automatically provides plants with all the nutrients they need.
Smart gardens also have inbuilt water floats that indicate when it’s time to water the garden. Learn more about Click & Grow’s unique technology here.
Smart Garden 9
What kind of plants can you grow?
Almost anything! Choose from an ever-growing range of plant pods, or use experimental pods to grow your own seeds.
Want to grow fresh basil during the winter? No problem, Click & Grow has a large collection of basil, including cinnamon basil, dwarf basil, holy basil, and Thai basil. All can be grown indoors with a smart garden. Read about the amazing health benefits of basil.
Want to make a delicious salad? Click & Grow’s collection contains leafy greens such as green lettuce, romaine lettuce, pak choi, green chard, and many more.
If you have a passion for spicy food, grow some hot chillies to spice up your meals during the winter. Varieties include chili pepper, purple chili pepper, piri piri chili pepper, and red hot chili pepper.
Are you a tea lover? Many of Click & Grow’s plants can be used to make a perfect cup of tea, ideal for warming you on a cold winter’s night. Varieties include garden sage, lemon balm, marjoram, thyme, and many more.
You can also grow decorative plants to boost your interior decor during the cold, grey winter months. Popular choices include black pansy, busy lizzie, and cockscomb among several others.
Smart Garden 27 - includes 3x Smart Garden 9 and 1x Plant Stand
Growing plants to prepare for spring & summer
Plants grown in an indoor garden can also be transplanted outdoors. As winter begins to fade, you can begin planning for the types of plants you’d like to plant outdoors during spring and summer.
You can start growing plants ahead of time in your indoor garden, then transplant them outdoors following the steps in this tutorial:
To help you plan ahead, be sure to check the growth cycle of your plants. You can check the growth cycle of any of our plants by:
- Going to our plant pod page
- Clicking on the specific plant you want to learn about
- Clicking on that plant’s ‘plant care’ tab
You can also contact our expert gardeners with any plant based questions using our ‘Ask a Gardener’ forum.
Some suggested herbs to grow in time for spring & summer include: basil, chives, cilantro, and rosemary. Some beautiful decorative flowers we recommend are: lavender, painted nettle, and cornflower.
Don’t forget your outdoor garden
If you already have plants growing outdoors and they’ve been affected by the cold, there are a few things you can do to minimise the damage:
Shield them from the morning sun
Those strong beams of light in the morning can cause plants to defrost rapidly, damaging their cell walls. Move the plants away from the morning sun if possible. If not, temporarily cover them with a black layer of plastic if the sun’s rays are too strong. Not all plants may need covering, though. Newer plants are more susceptible to cold weather than well-established plants. A plant's location also needs to be considered. If it's near a tree or a fence, it will naturally be more protected.
If possible, move small fragile plants to a greenhouse
If you have a greenhouse, it can be a lifesaver for certain plants during the winter. Carefully dig up your smaller, fragile plants and move them inside your greenhouse for extra protection. This increases the likelihood that they’ll recover, providing they aren’t exposed to prolonged bouts of frost or wetness. When digging, avoid going too close to the base of the plant and harming the roots. Instead, use a hand shovel to dig a ring around the main stem of your plant, paying close attention to where its roots are positioned.
Think twice before trimming
Unless they have been moved indoors, resist the temptation to cut back your plants’ damaged leaves and stems. Those leaves and stems may offer extra protection in the event of another cold spell sweeping over your garden.
If possible, wait until spring to prune any damaged areas. Dead stems can be cut back completely, whereas live stems only need their damaged sections cut back. Live stems should regrow when warmer temperatures return.
If you have some soft-stemmed plants that have been affected by the cold, you may need to prune them immediately. This is because their stems are more likely to rot.
Use a balanced fertilizer to feed damaged plants
Cold damaged plants can still be fertilized. Ideally, opt for a balanced fertilizer that contains equal amounts of potassium, phosphorus and nitrogen to promote healthy growth.
You deserve to grow your favourite plants, no matter the season. For further reading, check out our winter houseplant care tips, our harvesting guide for edible plants, 5 flowers to bring back that summer feeling, and suggestions for trendy low-light houseplants.
Want a stress-free way to grow beautiful, organic plants all year round?
Check out the Smart Garden 3 and Smart Garden 9
Fully automated indoor gardens that grow plant pods for you while making sure they have enough water, light, oxygen and nutrients.
To learn more about us, head over to www.clickandgrow.com. Discover how the Smart Garden 3 and Smart Garden 9 make growing fresh, organic food and flowers at home easier than ever.
Stay tuned to our blog for features such as green living tips, ways to create sustainable homes, the importance of food safety, how to grow plants indoors, life lessons from plants, a beginner’s guide to grow lights, the ultimate click and grow review, and much more.
