A Mum’s Journey to Growing More
As a mum of two growing boys in a town where greenery is rare and fresh produce is even harder to find, I began dreaming of a way to give my children something more, more colour, more nature, more connection to where food really comes from. We didn’t have a garden. No allotment. No nearby fields. Just a small flat, two curious boys, and a long for more and to grow our own vegetables. That’s when I discovered the magic of indoor growing.
After a lot of late-night research, one night preparing food for the evening, slicing the pepper and carefully cutting the seeds out, I found myself wondering, could these be grown from pepper to plant? It was then I chose to grow Capsicum annuum better known as the humble bell pepper. These vibrant plants don’t just produce colourful fruit; they’re ideal for indoor environments because they thrive in containers, love warmth, and are happy with 12 to 16 hours of light (which we provided with a little help from a huge bay window that provided natural heat in a greenhouse kind of way).the first container i actually used was a cake tray that held square cakes we packed it with soil my first pepper saplings were born.
From the excitement We then set up our seed pots, sowed our seeds about 6mm deep, and kept the soil moist and not soaked. The boys watched every day as the seedlings emerged. First the cotyledons the baby leaves that are part of the seed embryo, then the true leaves followed, with their signature pepper shape That little indoor nursery sparked something in me. It was never about big-scale farming or perfection, it was about doing what we could with what we had. And in that windowsill garden, I found purpose.
What began with a few bell pepper seeds became a journey rooted in care, science, and love. We didn’t just grow peppers, we grew memories, laughter, and a little patch of hope on our windowsill. It all started with two boys, a tiny tray of soil, and the belief that even small seeds can lead to something beautiful.
Samantha Bain
