A Gardeners Forum Forums Gardening Reference Gardening in 2005 Growing from seeds

I am currently enjoying a growing interest in growing things. This is a whole new world for me and I can admit that I only know the basics that plants need water, soil and light to grow and of course a suitable environment.

I have already begun growing plants from seeds and have enjoyed seeing them sprout. So now I have questions and concerns.

I live in a west facing apartment where I have limited amounts of direct sunlight. Since I did not know what to grow I just picked out seed packets more or less at random. I have cherry tomatoes, habaneros, basil, chocolate flower, texas bluebonnets, bluebells, california poppy, and columbine and I can tell that there will be success issues.

I have bought a couple of growing lights from Home Depot and these shine on the plants for a majority of the day and I keep a humidifier going. Most everything is planted in eight inch pots and I have basically thinned everything to one or two sprouts per pot. I am using potting soil I purchased from home depot and pots as well that all have good drainage.

Since I have invested some and would like to invest much more in to this, my question is: What kind of plants, flowers, herbs, vegetables would grow best in my stated environment for maximum succes and what could I do to expand my options with what I have to work with? I don't have any preferences yet as to what I want to grow.

I appreciate any and all input.

Thanks for your time.

indirect light might be caladium and coleus. The coleus are annuals but you can keep them going for several years if you pinch them back so they don't get flower heads. Caladiums come from a bulb and they need to stay moist and they only last 8 months and then they die back for 4 months but I think they are pretty enough to make it worth while. If you are doing grow lights you may want to keep an aloe. It's good for burns and they are kind of interesting looking being a succulent. For herbs I like chives, sage, mint, thyme along with the basil.

I want to try an orchid one day but I haven't tried one yet so I can't tell you anthing about them.

Hookecho,

All of the plants that your mentioned and most flowering plants, herbs and vegetables require far more light than you can provide indoors.

I suggest that you limit yourself to more standard indoor houseplants that do not have such intense light needs.

Tammy has some good ideas.