This winter I am growing lettuce and other greens in my south facing windows and under flourescent lights. This takes less energy than the growing and transportation of the ones in the store, there is no plastic wrapping, all it cost me was $5 for the seeds, they are organically grown, I can choose new and interesting varieties to try that they wouldn’t have at the store and my kids love to check and see how “their” plants are doing (they each chose something to plant). Most of all, I love growing things to feed my family. It makes me smile to see the green sprouts pushing through the dirt, and to be able to harvest a few leaves from each plant and put a truely fresh salad on the table.
This post was submitted by Megan Moss.
I’ve never tried the indoor garden, but I’ve had great success growing spinach outdoors all winter. I usually plant it in September and it doesn’t even need to be covered unless it gets below about 20 degrees farenheit. This year I’m trying a new approach. I bought something called “frost cloth” which is supposed to let the light and water through but protect the plants down to 4 degrees farenheit. We’ll see how it does. The big advantage is that you don’t have to watch the weather reports so carefully and cover and uncover all winter. I’ve also scattered some bricks and bottles of water throughout the bed to act as a thermal mass (absorbing heat in the daytime and releasing it at hight.)
Also this year, the scallions, kale, collards, chard, kolrahbi & broccoli all survived the first 2 snowstorms uncovered. So I threw some frost cloth over them too and scattered some spinach & chard seeds in the thin spots… not sure if they’ll germinate of not, but since I gather the seeds from each year’s crop they were free and plentiful so I figure there’s nothing to lose.
So far so good. If it keeps up like this we’ll have fresh greens all winter long!
Oh and BTW – I’m in Denver, so we have plenty of winter sunshine (although short days) but we also get our share of snow and cold. Last year the spinach even survived 2 separate episodes of 20 below zerow weather! Incredible!
I’ve also read that you can build something called a “cold frame” which is just a raised garden bed with a glass or plexiglass cover. I’ve never been quite that organized, but it may be worth a shot at some point.
You’ve inspired me to try some indoor basil though… now if I can just keep the cats away from it…
Comment by Rebecca — November 20, 2009 @ 4:24 pm
OK… my indoor basil died. Don’t know what I did wrong, maybe it didn’t get enough sun? But the outdoor spinach & greens are goin’ strong!
Comment by Rebecca — January 27, 2010 @ 11:52 pm