Indoor Edible Garden: Creative Ways to Grow Herbs, Fruits, and Vegetables in Your Home

by Zia Allaway

Grow herbs, vegetables, and flowers in your home that look amazing and taste even better with Indoor Edible Garden.

Featuring 28 innovative step-by-step projects, Indoor Edible Garden is a highly visual guide full of practical tips and stylish ideas for how to create edible indoor gardens using whatever space you have available--from balconies and windowsills to countertops, walls, and even ceilings. Inspiring from the start, this book shows off its lush garden projects through beautiful design and full-color photographs.

Reference more than 30 profiles of the top herbs, edible flowers, fruiting plants, and vegetables, then, follow DIY project templates to grow your gardens into beautiful home decor. The step-by-step instructions include how to create a hanging garden -globe- with chili and basil plants, how to make the growing area for herbs just right so they will flourish, and more. Plus, Indoor Edible Garden includes straightforward explanations of scientific methods such as artificial lighting and hydroponics and key techniques for planting, drainage, and harvesting.

Indoor Edible Garden helps create stunning and edible home decor so your living space will be fruitful--and beautiful--all year round.

Genres: Gardening, Nonfiction, Food, Cooking, Plants, Reference, Nature

224 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 2017

About the author

Zia Allaway is a freelance gardening editor, writer and author, working across a range of magazines, newspapers and book titles for companies including Future, The Daily Telegraph, Quarto Publishing, and Dorling Kindersley.

Reviews

[Tessa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Practical, beautiful, detailed. This gave me some good ideas and guidance for gardening that I can do in my apartment.

[Alyssa · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the best book I have come across so far for people new to growing plants indoors. The main reason is it gives a detailed layout of a home, and describes zones for different types of plants to grow in (e.g. large south facing window, middle of room with west-facing window, skylight, etc). I think a lot of people don't realize how important light is for certain plants, and when they can get away with a west or east window instead. There's plenty of detail and the photos/layout are wonderfully done. I also really like the quick four pages of best indoor edibles, which gives names, a quick description, and the indoor zones they'll grown in.

If you want to grow edible plants indoors, I recommend you get this book!

[Kat · Rating 4 out of 5]

Visually inspiring book, felt a bit like indoor gardening pinterest. Wish the book had some more technical details, but it's a great starting point and gave me a ton of ideas. Similar to pinterest, not all the ideas are too practical. Was happy to borrow this one from the library as it isn't a book that I would go back to reference much on, aside from drooling over some of the pictures.

[Vicki Giansante · Rating 5 out of 5]

This isn't a book I will read from cover to cover, but rather refer to for a long time to come. I liked it so much I bought one for my brother for Christmas, along with a sprouting jar and an assortment of seeds, may he never go hungry. I got back into sprouting when everything was shut down and it wasn't easy to get out to shop for fresh food. Now I am expanding into microgreens and other ways to grow edibles indoors in any weather and away from nibbling critters.

[Scott Lupo · Rating 4 out of 5]

A beautifully illustrated book with numerous aesthetically pleasing projects for edible indoor plant growing. I'm more of a function vs. form person. A lot of these projects look great and I will probably try a couple of them. Not sure how functional some of these projects might be considering the maintenance some plants need but they are definitely beautiful and striking for the home.

[Heidi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved the layout and photos in this book. Some of the "looks" are probably more fantasy than a reality--like the pots perched perfectly on a ladder? I guess if you aren't clumsy and don't have kids! And the perfectly white pots? But I'm definitely inspired by this book to try some more things during the winter.

[Bekah · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great book for starting an indoor garden. I like that there are dedicated pages to each common indoor plant, different varieties that can be used, how to care for them, growing needs, and even cooking uses.

[Sara · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gorgeous photos with great tips (especially on water, sunlight and movement). I'd pin every page.

[Andrea James · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very basic introduction (and I'm glad I borrowed it from the library rather than buying it) but it does offer some nice ideas and the book is attractively put together.

[Tisha (IG: Bluestocking629) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Are you looking to grow some food indoors but need some guidance? Are you a person that learns best with visual aids?

If you answered yes to both questions guess what? This is the book you are looking for!

The book begins with planning. Figuring out where are the sunniest spots indoors and the coolest spots will dictate where you need to house your indoor plants. Certain plants thrive in one condition whilst others prefer the polar opposite.

The author provides a list of the best indoor edibles. Really useful.

She then addresses containers.

Then you get into the good stuff. That actual growing of your chosen plants. I love that she has the difficulty levels before each section. I love the Level 1: Easy! It’s broken out so nicely: Quick Growing Guide, You Will Need, Aftercare, How To Grow [watering, light, heat, harvesting, etc.], Cook’s Tips, etc.

And if you are handy with a drill, hammer, etc. then there are some cool projects for you. And if you are one of those handy types I’ll give you my address so you can make me the suspended shelves for herbs. They’ll look lovely in my kitchen windows!

The book isn’t just for traditional plants and herbs, it also has a section on sprouts and microgreens. Easiest things I’ve ever grown. And perhaps the healthiest as well!

Truly a fabulous book. I regret it took me so long to read (I read a gaggle of books at once. It kept getting pushed to the bottom of my pile.). Now that I’m a one year gardener I think I should go back to re-read the beginning. The book was that good that I’ve have no problem re-reading parts.

Highly recommended by this newbie gardener.

[Christina Martin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Perfectly bite-sized information about the growing requirements of different crops and how best to utilizing indoor small spaces to have a thriving year-round garden. Allaway goes above and beyond to inform the reader of different tips and essential knowledge for each crop while never bloating the book with unnecessary information.

The projects proposed heavily inspired me with my own projects on how to best utilize my space for growing crops all year. I used these mostly as a visual guide for how best to organize my own space and read the information provided on the growing requirements of each plant primarily. In addition, the expert tips section at the end of the book is perfect. Including tips such as pollinating is relevant only to a book on the specific topic of indoor gardening and is overlooked as such in other gardening books.

I recommend this to anyone out there that loves gardening and growing their own food but without the luxury of having private outdoor spaces that most gardening books assume to be the standard.

[Lulu Cao · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book draws an instant love from me upon reading its table of contents. As an apartment dweller who just wants to grow a few edibles, this book goes straight into introducing what plants might be suitable for my lighting conditions. It shows pictures of each variety of edibles, like pictures for different varieties of mint and not just a general category of herbs, and gives specific guides for them. It offers a wide collection of edibles. It even includes some Asian edibles like bok choy and kumquat. I also like that it briefly mentions related cooking tips, which help with selecting what to grow. It also begins with apartment floor models, which are highly helpful for me to understand related concepts such as “below skylight”.

[Suvi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Havainnollinen, mutta omaan makuuni liiankin "kädestä pitäen"-tyylinen opas erilaisten hyötykasvien sisäkasvatukseen ja erilasten kasviasetelmien tekoon. Selkeät kauniit kuvat ja aloittelijalle sopivan perusteellinen kirjotusasu. Kasvatuspuuhia jo tehneelle ehkä liian alkeisteos, mutta voi tuoda uusia ideoita omaan sisäpuutarhaan. Epäilen tosin, että Suomen olosuhteissa monikaan kirjan kasveista ei menesty, koska auringonpaistetta ei ole tarpeeksi tarjolla.

[Erin · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was an interesting book that gave me some good food for thought regarding growing edible flowers and veg indoors.
I’m particularly interested in the section regarding cucumbers as we eat a log of cucumbers in our house and I like the idea of growing my own, as well as lettuces as I’m trying to incorporate more greens into my daily diet.

Very informative, and I like that it broke down areas in houses into zones.

[Estrelas · Rating 2 out of 5]

„Wer ein paar einfache Leckereien in seiner Wohnung kultiviert, braucht nur den Arm auszustrecken und zuzugreifen.“

Das Buch zeigt, wie jede Ecke der Wohnung zum Anbauort gemacht werden kann. Das geht mir dann doch zu weit.

[Wulan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very helpful and informative.

[Daniel Hollands · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lots of fun projects and good ideas.

[Cathie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lots of ideas, can't wait to try some.

[Sophie Crane · Rating 5 out of 5]

My Mum Absolutely Love this Book as She's an avid Gardener Herself.

[Brenna · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very enjoyable mix of projects, advice, and imagery. Highly recommend to anyone who is interested in indoor gardening!

[Lucy S · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some great ideas to get started. Especially good to start thinking about positioning of plants and little tips and tricks

[Ruth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lots of encouraging and useful information for the indoor gardener. Lovely photos! Useful ideas.

[Annette McIntyre · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a brilliant book for anyone wanting to grow crops inside their home.

[Mother of Sourdough · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found the information on the plants useful and informative. I especially like the projects in this book. I also appreciate the recommendations for which plants to grow.

[Aralia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Helpful! Gave good info on care and variety of herbs. Interesting projects on how to display/grow plants indoors

[Libraryliz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Looks really useful!!

[Tiina Kallio · Rating 4 out of 5]

Paljon tietoa tässä kirjassa,oikein hyvä opas sisäpuutarhan tekemiseen.

[Devora Z]

DNF. It was pretty but kind of repeated itself a lot, seemingly to fill space? I liked the way it was organized and the photos were lovely.

[Haley Cannon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great photos, easy-to-read format & contains helpful info for growing edible plants inside