Angela, I find the profit margin is to small to try to grow veggies in the house. You can go to the "Pot Growers Forum" and get some good ideas for indoor growing. I have much better luck starting seeds inside and then moving them outside as the weather permits. This can be done in containers or in the ground. Mulch and a drip watering system will help reduce your water usage.

Larry

Angela;
You can grow just about anything you wish in a container inside or out given proper light. I do, outside due to water rates. One problem with containers is summer heat, the soil in your container will heat up a lot quicker than in a ground bed. As the weather warms up, I move mine into the shade and that helps some. Hey, Get Growing!!

Angela,

You would face several issues with growing edible crops indoors.

First and foremost would be lighting. It is one thing to start seeds indoors under fluorescent lights and another thing entirely to keep edible plants indoors indefinitely.

You'd have to get lights that mimic sunlight as much as possible and, even then, indoor lighting will not keep the plants as happy or as productive as real sunlight does. You might find that the plants produce more slowly indoors and that the flavor of the fruit does not develop as well. With both fruit and vegetables from which it is the fruit that you eat, as opposed to the leaves or roots, the plants need heat and sunlight to develop full, rich flavor. They'd be lacking both to some degree indoors. I've grown winter tomatoes in the house before and decided it wasn't even worth doing because the flavor of indoor tomatoes grown inside the house is nowhere near as good as tomatoes grow on outdoor plants or in a greenhouse where they get plenty of heat and sunlight.

You also might have pollination issues due to a lack of insects, in the case of insect-pollinated vegetables, or a lack of air movement in the case of wind-pollinated plants. You could work around those issues by running a fan on the plants for at least a portion of the day and by hand-pollinating plants yourself, or by thumping the flowers of tomatoes to make the pollen move around inside the flower.

I suppose a person would have to decide if it was worth it to grow inside the house. Personally, I don't think it is.

It is possible to grow outside in containers even in the worst summer conditions. You could do it with containers and a drip irrigation system on a timer. You could do it with sub-irrigated planters. You could do it with hugelkultur beds built to hold more moisture.

Even in the worst years it is possible to get a good harvest from your vegetable garden from winter and spring plantings. It might mean you cut back and grow only the veggies, fruits, herbs or flowers most important to you, but it certainly is possible. Even in the worst drought here in my county, in 2005, when we had less than 19" of rain, I had a good garden at least through the end of June. I had a passable garden in 2011 and a really great one in 2012. I know it can be done. Don't let the prospect of watering restrictions ruin your garden plans. Usually watering restrictions do not mean that you cannot water at all, just that there may be limitations on how and when you water. Depending on the rules of your local water corporation, you may find that edible crops are excluded from the watering restrictions anyhow.

There are other ways to water than just turning on the water hose. You can catch rainwater in containers like 5-gallon buckets, children's wading pools, large trash cans, etc. and then use a watering can to carry the water to your plants. You'd be surprised how much rain comes off the roof of a building in a rainstorm that drops even just an inch of rain. You can set a 5-gallon bucket in the shower to catch some of the water that normally runs down the drain as you shower. Some people use a dishpan in their sink and carry that water out and dump it on garden plants. (Depending on what sort of soap you're using, you might want to use it only for ornamentals.)

I'd think long and hard before attempting to raise peppers, tomatoes and strawberries indoors in a house because it is very different from growing them inside a greenhouse or hoop house.

I wish you luck with whatever you choose to do.

Dawn

Before I moved to OK, I lived in WV. Despite being on 12+ acres there, the wildlife made it impossible for me to grow anything in the ground. All of my gardening was exclusively done in containers on my fenced patio, and in my "pool room". The pool room contained an indoor pool and tons of sliding glass doors and skylights. It was the next best thing to being outside. I used supplemental lighting to start my seeds, then they were on their own with only the sunlight streaming into the room. I had better success there than I have EVER had in Oklahoma, despite only growing a few things. No heat problem. No disease. No pest problems. I grew tomatoes, every kind of herb, and peppers (which I hand-pollinated with a small paintbrush). So, yes, it can be done on some small level. I am currently starting some herbs in my sunroom, and may try to keep them there year-round. I have a fabulous book on container gardening which I am linking to. I LOVE this book.

Jo

Here is a link that might be useful: Bountiful Container

SIT UP YOUR CONTAINER THE RIGHT WAY....COMPOST, ROCK DUST, BOCHAR, HUGELKULTER, MYCORRHIZAE....INTERNET SEARCH THESE ITEMS AND LEARN HOW TO USE THEM....WILL USE A LOT LESS WATER AND NEED NO FERTILIZER ADDED....HUGELKULTER IS SIMPLY BURIED
WOOD TO HOLD MOISTURE...PUT OLD WOOD PCS IN BOTTOM OF YOUR CONTAINER....NEED 25 TO 50 % COMPOST MIXED IN (ALIVE SOIL)
HOPE THIS HELPS YOU ....ROY

I find growing anything in containers to be problematic, but I know plenty of people who do it successfully. However, if you are good about watering and have some afternoon shade, I would grow in containers outside. You can make some cute containers with flowers and veggies.

Last year there was at least one thread on the Back to Eden film, growing in deep mulch, basically. I never made it all the way through the film because I found it so repetitive, but his results were amazing.

But like Dawn said, in OK we have an opportunity to grow in the spring and fall. Gardening in July and August can be miserable.

I grow veggies in containers because I have little room to grow in the ground. For me, it's proven reasonably simple, other than the squash I tried to grow last year, and it was probably "user error" rather than the plants. I did grow my watermelon and canteloupes (dwarf types) in the ground.

Tomatos and peppers were especially easy. It is the amount you need to spend on potting mix that may be difficult to spend, but probably less if you mix your own. Containers need more water, more fertilizer, and, depending on the tomato variety, need to be large enough to accommodate them. Large indeterminates obviously need large containers - 20 to 30 gallon. Determinates and dwarfs can handle a 5 gal. container. Semi-dets or indets. would need a bit larger container, like 10-15 gal.

Susan