Vegetable Gardening - Indoor vs Outdoor Vegetable Gardening

Whether you prefer to grow your vegetables indoors or out, there are trade offs involved. Soil type and preparation, watering practice, light control, disease and pest control, and other tasks will differ between the two environments. Which is preferable can only be an individual choice, based on individual circumstances.

For instance, preparing and maintaining the soil for outdoor vegetable gardening can be an arduous task. Nutrient levels in the soil can be exhausted from yearly planting of the same crops. Fertilizers get leached away. Soil disease is more difficult to control. Breaking up clay or changing pH in a large area can be difficult. However, on the flip side you don't have to prepare and change out multiple containers as you would with indoor planting.

Indoor soil preparation requires less fertilizer, but can be harder to control. The soil has to be prepared carefully to maintain the right balance between drainage and moisture retention. It is much easier to retain the right level of moisture in outdoor gardens.

It is more difficult to create an automatic watering system for indoor gardens. A simple drip irrigation system is easy to install for outdoor gardens. An automatic sprinkler system for indoors can be more expensive and messy. However, if you only have a few indoor gardening containers, watering by hand will get the job done.

Outdoor gardens usually have no problem receiving adequate sunlight. Outdoor gardens usually enjoy five or more hours of sunlight during the day. It can be more of challenge to find five or more hours of sunlight for indoor plants unless you want to keep moving them around to from window to window throughout the day, which is not realistic.

However finding shade for indoor plants is not a problem. On those hot days, you can simply close the window blinds to protect indoor plants. Also putting plants near a glass window provides a sort of greenhouse effect and promotes growth.

Diseases and pests can be a hard problem to tackle on both indoor and outdoor plants. But overcoming these obstacles is harder when it comes to outdoor plants. Obviously, outdoor plants are exposed to more pests and diseases than indoor plants. Combating pests and diseases in outdoor gardens requires a lot of dedication and usually chemical controls.

But the smell of controls, either in the form of artificial chemicals, organic substances or trap crops can be more unpleasant than many would want inside. Most insecticides don't have pleasant odors. Even plant-based oils can be overpowering, and they are much more expensive than other types of chemical control.

Both indoor and outdoor gardens have their pros and cons. You need to decide which type of garden would be easiest for you to maintain. Either type of garden requires some work but the end result of fresh vegetables is a great reward.