Don’t put your garden tools away as soon as the first frost hits. If you love gardening, you can turn it into a year-round hobby by creating an indoor space that you can use when the cold weather eventually arrives. With the right structure, conditions, and plants, you can grow crops effortlessly throughout the freezing winter months.

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Pick a Structure

Consider converting your garage or building a shed dedicated to indoor gardening. Creating a wood structure may be the simplest option. Wood is readily available and relatively affordable. You can cut wood to create whatever size or shape of building you desire, and you can paint it to match your home. Wood is strong, but it's also vulnerable to harsh weather conditions. Moisture can cause a wood structure to rot over time, and you'll need to paint or stain it regularly to keep it looking nice. Also, termites, carpenter ants, and other pests can do serious damage to wood. In fact, according to the National Pest Management Association, termites cause over $5 billion of damage to property in America every year.

Steel, on the other hand, is very strong and can withstand pests, fires, wind, lightning, and storm damage. Steel structures might initially be more expensive than their wood counterparts, but they'll last longer and require less maintenance.

Choose Your Planters

Depending on how much space you have, you can use anything from small pots to tall vertical shelves to large containers that span the width of the room. You might want to start small until you figure out what works best, and then expand your garden next year. You can plant in typical gardening soil or experiment with hydroponics, which doesn’t need any soil. With hydroponics, plants are grown directly in water that is enriched with minerals and nutrients. Tomatoes, greens, onions, and many other fruits and veggies can be easily grown using hydroponics.

Turn Up the Lights

Plants use photosynthesis to convert light into energy, so add windows to your garage or shed to let in as much light as possible. Supplement natural light with artificial light sources such as fluorescent or LED grow lights. These lights should be positioned directly above your plants. While some vegetable plants need eight hours of direct light a day, others such as arugula, kale, spinach, and swiss chard can thrive with just two to four hours of partial light each day.

Bring on the Heat

You need the temperature in your indoor garden space to be above freezing to provide the plants with enough heat to grow to their maximum potential. However, you don’t want your gardening space to become so hot that the plants will thirst for more water. You can simply (and affordably) just add a couple of space heaters or some solar lamps to bring up and stabilize the temperature. Read up on the various types of plants, as some of them, such as beans, herbs, peppers, and tomatoes, require more heat than others.

Gardening can be relaxing and enjoyable. It can produce healthy food to nourish your family and friends. Other health benefits of gardening are well-documented, too. According to research published in the Preventive Medicine Reports, gardening is linked to a reduction in stress, depression, and anxiety. The study indicates gardening can also help boost your mood and your quality of life. By reducing stress, we’re able to live more productive and happier lives. Don’t restrict yourself to gardening only when the weather is warm. With a little planning and some work, you can create a wonderful indoor gardening space that you can use no matter what the temperature is outside.

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