Indoor vs Outdoor Vegetable Gardening

When it comes to choosing between indoor and outdoor vegetable gardening, the are advantages and disadvantages to both. Each will have it's own set of challenges when it comes to soil preparation, watering, lighting, disease and pest control. You'll need to choose the method that best suits your circumstances.

Soil preparation and maintenance can be much more difficult when gardening outdoors. Over time, nutrients in the soil can be diminished by repeated planting. Fertilizing and disease control become more challenging as well. Large areas that require pH adjusting and breaking down of clay particles present difficulties also. An advantage of outdoor gardening is that container preparation and maintenance isn't necessary.

Although less is required, maintaining fertilizer levels can be tricky when gardening indoors. It's easy to accumulate too much. Great care needs to be taken in order to maintain the proper balance between water drainage and retention. Indoor soil will not regulate itself as easily as outdoor. Overwatering is much more dangerous for your plants than underwatering.

When gardening outdoors, setting up an automatic watering system is easy and affordable. It's a little bit trickier to pull this off indoors. It can be done, but it will be quite messy and expensive. Depending on the number of containers you have, it may not even be worth the effort.

Lighting usually isn't an issue with outdoor gardens if they are planned correctly. You should easily be able to provide your plants with five hours of sunlight per day, depending on the climate you live in. lighting provides another challenge for indoor gardening. If you can't find a windowsill that provides the proper amount of light and heat, you may find yourself having to move your plants around the house all day.

However, this does make controlling the amount of light received somewhat easier. If the sun gets too hot, you can easily close the shades or blinds to prevent burning. Automated systems have been designed just for this purpose. Placing your plants near a window gives you the effects of a greenhouse without the expense and work required for a real one.

Although pests and diseases are present in both settings, obviously, they will be easier to control indoors. Closer inspection and, usually, more chemicals are required for battling these things outdoors. Moisture on your plant's leaves during the cool night will cause fungi. It's also easier to for insects to lay their eggs undetected when outdoors.

Many of the controls available today, whether chemical or organic, have very unpleasant odors and would not be suitable for indoor use. This is true of most insecticides. Plant-based oils also have a displeasing aroma, as well as being more costly than chemical controls.

Whether you decide to do your vegetable gardening indoors or outdoors will depend on your specific situation and what will work better for you. Each type will present it's own set of challenges, but if you commit to doing it right, your rewards will be great indeed. You'll be enjoying fresh and healthy vegetables in no time.

         

Introduction to Vegetable Gardening