Winter Gardening

On January 1st, I started my first batch of seeds (Tomatoes and artichokes). Pretty much every weekend since then has involved my garden. So I feel it is time to show it off.


These are the indoor greenhouses we bought at Fleet Farm (our new favorite store) for $25 each. (They were $50 each at ShopKo.) They are upstairs in the computer room, and I can smell the greenhousey-ness as I type. (The Kleenex box is sitting on my computer desk.) The greenhouse on the left belongs to Nick, the one on the right is mine.


This is our basement set up with our grow lights. We aren't using regular florescent lights. We are basically using aquarium lights that "stimulate plant growth." Each light is 4 feet long. The table is big enough for about 6 rows of lights. Part of my container garden from last year is on the floor under the table. All those plants are dead though.

My 144 Marigold seedlings, to go around the garden.

My peas (sugar snap and snow), along with some squash and a few other items. The peas are doing too well. I'm going to have to come up with some sort of transplantable trellis for them.

Emerald Green artichokes. These were part of my January 1st plantings. They have 180 to 360 days to harvest, and need to go through a "winter" period before they produce. They are in the basement to go through their "winter" period now. The containers are made from newspaper, and I feel it is very ironic that my office Wall Street Journal issues are being used for gardening. Each pot is about 4 inches high and 2 inches in diameter.


These are supposed to be beets, and I'm supposed to be able to eat them in April. I wonder if it is too cold in the basement for them. I planted them 2 weeks ago, and nothing. Its not safe to bring them upstairs and put them in a window. The cats already used my kitchen salad greens window boxes as a litter box.