How I Grow Healthy Greens Indoors Year-Round With No Grow Lights

It’s easier than you think

My first attempt at growing greens indoors. Broccoli on the left, sunflower on the right.

I’m one of those people that started a backyard garden during quarantine in 2020. I felt very satisfied with my garden (Even if I only harvested 1 zucchini. I’m up to 12 so far this season!). Working with the earth keeps me grounded and sane. This year, growing indoor greens is one of my new projects.

I stumbled on a book called Year-Round Indoor Salad Gardening by Peter Burke and was inspired to give his method a try, while at the same time thinking there was no way I’d be able to do this. It’s a great book if you’re interested in his deep dive into what he calls soil sprouts. I like his method because:

• It’s easy.
• It’s quick — takes about a week.
• No direct sunlight is needed.
• No grow lights are needed.
• The finish product is healthy, organic, and tastes good.
• There are no bugs or plant diseases to deal with because it’s done indoors.
• I feel that sense of pride when one harvests something homegrown.

I followed Burke’s instructions pretty closely and my intention was to buy as little as possible using what I already had on hand. I found some of the items required in my home and still needed germination soil and sprouting seeds.

Containers

I had two containers that previously held candles, and I washed them out really well. They’re the ones in the header image, and they worked perfectly. They are ceramic, not too big, and about two inches in depth. I also eventually used some aluminum to-go food containers that I saved from dinner one night. I keep my eyes open for items I can reuse for growing containers.

Seeds

I needed to buy sprouting seeds and found some online at True Leaf Market. I was interested in purchasing small quantities of seeds that didn’t cost much for my first trial run. I started with broccoli, sunflower, and peas.

Soil (aka Germination Mix)

Burke recommends not using regular potting soil because of the risk of mold growth and instead using a germination mix. He mixes his own, and his recipe can be found in his book, but for my first attempt I wanted to keep this as easy as possible. I found a small bag that was labeled specifically as a germination mix at a garden supply store. For convenience, I’ll call this mix “soil” for the remainder of this article.

Step 1: Know you can do this

As I shared before I started this, my only success with gardening was growing one zucchini from 3 zucchini plants. I was very skeptical that I could make this indoor greens venture work, but Burke kept insisting that this was easy and that these soil sprouts were very forgiving. He’s right. You can do this.

Step 2: Soak seeds

Using the measurements from the book, I soaked enough seeds for my size containers overnight in water. For the smaller ceramic container I used one tablespoon of seeds. For the 6x8 inch aluminum trays, I used three tablespoons. In the picture below, I mixed sunflower and pea seeds, which I wouldn’t do again because they grow at different rates. I also prepared the soil using Burke’s soil-to-water ratio (4 cups water to 1 gallon soil) and stored that in a zip top bag that I reuse.

My seeds soaking. I wouldn’t mix two different kinds of seeds again.

Step 3: Add fertilizer and soil

Burke uses a little bit of fertilizer with his germination mix. I only had worm castings (yay worm poop!) from my indoor earthworm bin, so I used that. I didn’t bother with the kelp fertilizer he uses, because I wanted to keep costs down and use what I had on hand. Pictured here are those to-go containers I mentioned before, and you can see my dried worm castings at the bottom.

Since starting to grow sprouts, I’ve forgotten a few times to add fertilizer and the sprouts did ok. They wilted a little sooner than usual but were still delicious. I’ll also try using a liquid plant food I have on hand to see what that does.

Then I added the damp soil to the trays.

Step 4: Add seeds

I gave the seeds a quick rinse and spread them on the soil trying to make sure that none were overlapping as best I could. I wasn’t too fussy about this, because who really has time. I then gently pressed the seeds down so they had good contact with the soil, but not burying them.

Sunflower and pea seeds on the left, broccoli on the right.

Step 5: Cover

I covered the trays with wet paper towels. Burke uses newspaper but I had zero newspapers laying around. Paper towels work fine in a pinch, and I reuse them for future trays. I read online that someone uses pieces of cloth, which is genius! The idea is to keep the seeds damp.

The paper towels are wet and are touching the seeds on the soil.

Step 6: Grow in darkness

I put them in a warm, dark place — the cupboard over my fridge — for four days. As they grow in the cupboard, they push the paper towel up. I didn’t really believe that those little seeds would push up the paper towel, and I was pleasantly surprised.

Step 7: Give the trays water and light

After four days, I removed the seeds from the cupboard and placed them near my kitchen window. My window does not have direct sunlight and is north facing. The sprouts are yellow coming out of the dark cupboard, but turn green and grow for the next 3–4 days near any window. I watered them everyday or every other day depending on the dryness of the soil making sure to water the soil, not the sprouts to prevent mold growth. Tip: Don’t overwater.

Step 8: Eat!

After about 3–4 days, the soil sprouts are ready! Cut with clean scissors, give them a quick rinse, and eat! Throw in a salad or mix different kinds of sprouts together as a sprout salad. Keep a rotating schedule of soaking and sprouting and have have fresh greens year-round. Once cut, the sprouts don’t really grow back so I compost the soil.

Sprouts ready to eat!

You can do this! If you decide to try, let me know how it goes. What did you grow, and how did it turn out?