Winter Gardening

By about December, I start to miss growing my own produce. Yes, the global market allows us to buy most of the produce we want throughout the year, but we really like to grow our own food. Even when it is 0 degrees outside, with the wind howling and snow piling up, you can still grow some things. No, not outside, but in that "greenhouse" you live in. If you have houseplants that you keep alive all year, then you can grow vegetables as well.

So, what can you grow? Well, smaller plants mostly. I wouldn't recommend trying to grow corn, for instance, or even tomatoes. Everything you grow will have to be in some kind of container. You'll likely want to focus on plants that can be eaten as "babies", like leafy greens or carrots.

To grow vegetables indoors, you need a few things:

1. containers
2. space
3. growing media
   
4. light
5. moisture
6. warmth
7. food
   

Containers

I like to reuse old containers. My favorite are the large yogurt containers. I drill three holes in the bottom, insert a round cut-out of landscape fabric, and then fill with potting soil. The landscape fabric lets water drain out the holes, but keeps the soil in. I also keep most planting containers I get from the nursery or garden center. Just be sure to clean them thoroughly between uses, otherwise you could spread soil-borne diseases to your fragile young plants. Another good container candidate are those large, clear plastic tubs you get lettuce and spinach in.

Space

How much you want to grow will determine how much space you need. If you simply want to grow a small pot of basil, then your needs can probably be easily fulfilled. However, if you want to grow something larger and/or more of it, you will need to find some dedicated space. It would be nice to have a sunny spot in a south-facing window, but this is not always practical. See below for light considerations.

Growing Media

Your media, also known as soil, should be sterilized. This means to be weed-seed free and without any soil-borne diseases. Plants, just like humans, can pick up diseases from a dirty environment. It's hard to envision clean soil and dirty soil, but soil can contain very many things, both good and bad. Failure to heed this may result in damping off, a condition where an otherwise healthy seedling rots at the soil surface. When this happens, the stem at the surface turns dark and emaciated. The plant is pretty much dead at this point.

If you purchase your potting soil, and you are sure it is of good quality, you can use it without any preparation. But if you like to mix your own media from old container soil, compost, native soil, etc, then you might consider sterilization. The most common way to do this is to cook your soil. This smells really awful, so it is recommended you do this outdoors so you can share the smell with your neighbors. I'll cover this technique in a future article.

Light

For light, sunlight of course is the best option, but many homes cannot accommodate 8 hours of sunlight each day, especially in the winter. You also want to be careful about putting your plants close to a window. The micro-environment next to the window is one of the most dynamic environments in your house. During the day, when the sun is shining in, it can get quite warm. But at night, it is quite cool next to the glass. Plants prefer more consistent and slower changing temperatures.

The only recourse then is to use artificial lighting. Fluorescent bulbs work best as they don't generate much heat and are economical to run. You will want to run them 14-16 hours a day. Try to get a fixture that can hold two bulbs, and get one cool white tube and one warm white tube. GE makes a bulb specifically for plants and aquariums. You will need to be able to adjust the light so that it is constantly 3-4 inches above your plants. As your plants grow, you will either need to raise your lighting or lower your plants. I will post an article soon with details on a miniature greenhouse for your indoor plants.

Warmth

(All temperatures are given in Fahrenheit.) Germinating seeds work best at temperatures between 65º-75º. Some plants-- like sweet pea, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower-- prefer cooler temperatures around 55º. Be sure to check the seed instructions. Once seeds become plants, the best temperatures are between 60º-65º at night and 70º-75º during the day. If your household temperatures are dramatically cooler than those, then you may have to run a space heater in the room.

Food

Fertilizer should never be given to young seedlings. A seed contains just enough nutrients to get it going. But once its true leaves have popped out, you could give your plants a light dose of plant food. Personally, I'm pretty lax about fertilizing (read: lazy) and I don't do it very often. But remember that potting soil doesn't offer much in the way of nutrients as good ol' dirt does, so it is probably a good idea to fertilize with an all-purpose fertilizer once in a while.


This was just a brief introduction to getting some plants going in your house. Many of these ideas apply to seedlings you intend on transplanting outdoors when the temperatures warm up, but they also work for plants you intend on leaving inside. Over the next few weeks, I'll try to expand on some of these ideas.