Millie's Winter Garden

February is National Indoor Gardening Month and now is the best time to celebrate. We're at what I'm willing to consider the tail end of Winter and sure, it's supposed to snow tonight but we're only going to get a dusting. The mountains, where the snow is appreciated, are supposed to get more - God Bless 'em!

Some of us have indoor gardens to start plants that will be transplanted outside in spring. Some like having fresh produce year round. Others do it for the sheer enjoyment it brings.

Me? Probably like you, I do it for all three reasons. If you like gardening for gardening's sake then it makes sense that you'd like winter or indoor gardening. For me, tending plants, learning new skills or sharpening old ones has a relaxing, Zen-like quality to it. It satisfies a need to accomplish something and to "make forward progress" that day.

With the hubub from the holidays past us and the promise of spring in the air, February is a nice time to reflect on the past year and set goals for the new one. Aside from the NFL's Super Bowl, February is a quiet, tranquil month for gardeners that gives us time to appreciate the bounties and blessings we've received and the positive impact we can make in the future because of it.

As a gardener, you've no doubt grown more than you can use and have given some of your harvest to neighbors, family or friends. Think about what that says about you. To me it says that the path you walk is better because you've walked it. Your harvest has made increase in someone else's life, maybe not in a big way but still - the journey of a thousand miles...

Enjoy your February!

I like to keep busy, be productive and (relatively) self-sufficient. During the summer months, there's no shortage of things to do both inside and outdoors. Given my druthers, I like the outdoors. But when the leaves have fallen along with the temps here in New England - my energy level needs an outlet. I can't (won't) go outside just to hang out and enjoy the day... not a big fan of the cold. So during the winter months, I need an activity - besides sitting at the laptop typing in articles on Squidoo - that keeps me at least moderately active and engaged.

Winter gardening satisfies my need to be busy, productive and self-sufficient (see above). It actually took less time than I thought to look into what was the best setup for my needs that also would pass muster with the wife. For one thing, she's always wanted an herb garden and so I set forth a few years back and began planting in my yard. As my gardening knowledge grew and evolved, so did the space I took up in what used to be my back lawn. Good News: less to mow - Bad News: more to weed . Funny thing is though - her herb garden also evolved - now there's not a sign of an herb in the garden. Best laid plans...

If you're thinking of starting your own winter garden, there are a few things to consider before plunking down the credit card. One of the first things is decide what kind of system you want. Thankfully there's only a few basic systems out there, most of which can be "homegrown" if your handy with power tools. Unfortunately, mine are in the barn and it's COLD OUT THERE!

If you're just using it to start your seeds in preparation for spring planting then a simple hydrofarm type unit will do. It uses a waterproof tray with grow sponges inserted into a second tray that fits into the first. This second tray floats on about a half inch of water and is covered by a plastic dome - hopefully with vents in the top to control condensation. Your seeds sit in a near perfect greenhouse environment. I say near perfect because you still need to provide light. Placing it near a south facing window in your home is ok but not ideal. Here in New England, the winter sun is feeble at best.- sure you can use it to see during the day, but your plants are going to want something more substantial. Grow lights are usually the answer. A regular bulb doesn't provide the optimal color spectrum for growing. Just keep it watered and maybe a little plant nutrient and this unit will keep you and your seedlings happy and take up very little room.

If you have more space to play with, there are larger systems such as an expandable drip type bucket system. Like the name implies this consists mainly of a bucket - about a 5 gal size - some growing material like growstone substrate (which is a recycled material like glass that's formulated to absorb water and hold a good air / water ratio that plants thrive on) and a pump and tubing system designed to take water from the bottom of the bucket and drip it onto your plants roots.

I took what I consider to be the easy route. I went with the all in one package. AeroGarden. I won't go into great detail in this section because I've mentioned it already and there's a great article here. Suffice it to say I'm happy with my purchase and truth be told - I liked it so much I got a second AeroGarden to grow full sized plants. I'm starting with the Mega Cherry Tomatoes.

As far as using a good ol' planting pot with either potting soil or perlite - your plants may love it but hey, they live in dirt and don't really care if their place is a mess but try getting that past your better half. The potential for mess and tiny livestock far outweigh any potential benefit you'll derive from your indoor winter gardening venture.

Next - Where to put it? Whether it's a small container on the floor, something you can put on a counter or even find / build shelves for it - your winter garden needs its space. I've moved mine once already and it's only been two weeks since I've started it (mid January '12) .

Make sure you use a surface that's water repellant - soaking your beautiful inlaid wood floors won't go over big in anybody's house. And placing it on carpeting probably isn't the best idea either - unless you can cover it with a mat. Find a good sturdy surface and place it there where you won't be in danger of knocking it over or tripping on it and the animals and wee ones don't have at it. In short put it in an out of the way place but not so far out of the way that you forget about it. They're a pretty self-sufficient system but still need occasional water / nutrient refills, maybe pruning and especially harvesting!

Now that's decided, setup for each of these systems should be covered in their respective manuals or in the case of the do it yourself crowd, set up is only part of the fun of building one of these contraptions so in either case I'll just say that setting up a hydroponic system is pretty much common sense and once you've done it you'll understand why I say that.

Once my plants get large enough for pruning, I'll come back and let you know how that process went. I was always afraid of pruning my outdoor plants because I thought I would probably kill them or at the very least severely maim them. I had a rose bush that was never pruned - for 5 or 6 years - and it really started looking like the big ugly sister of the bunch. Great personality but not much to look at. So early last spring ('11) I took the bypass pruning shears to it. It filled in so well my neighbors commented on it. I of course told them that pruning is an integral part of plant care and should be done at least once a year.

A full two weeks (and a day) and my little sprouts are shoving their heads out of the tops of the seed pods. I'm very satisfied with the AeroGarden at this point and have to keep away from their website because they're currently running sales and I'm afraid I'll be too tempted to pull the credit card out. Gotta let it cool off a while!

I also planted Cherry Tomatoes in a second AeroGarden. I knew I should have stayed away from their website. These were started just this past Friday so I expect it to be 10 days or so before I see anything substantial...I'll keep you posted.

The herb garden I planted this winter has come along nicely. For a while it looked as if the dill (not pictured here) may not make an appearance but as of today (1/25) there's about 5 almost hairlike sprouts popping up. Go Dill - Go Dill - Go Dill! Gotta root for the little guys

The others, in the right-hand pic, Thyme (in the foreground), 3 kinds of basil and Oregano in the back have all made good progress since the last update. I couldn't wait 'til Friday to tell you.

In the left hand pic, Mega Cherry Tomatoes planted a week after the herb garden are doing well too! They're probably 3/4 inch high now and its only been about 6 days. Just waitin' on the Harvest Moon now...

The herbs and tomatoes have exploded with growth. I've pruned the basil back a couple times now and used them to spice up some meals. The tomatoes have almost doubled in size - no fruit yet but I love the smell of a tomatoe plant. Just pinch a leaf between your fingers and the aroma is wonderful!

The two plants on the ends in the top pic are the seed pods that came with the AeroGarden. The one in the middle is from a packet of Big Boy Hybrids I had laying around the house. If you look closely, you can see two plastic pieces dangling from the top back of the AeroGarden. These are to help support the plants as they grow. They are on a spring loaded reel and will automatically retract as the plant grows. I may have to get another to help support the Big Boy Tomatoes. I'm anxious to see the first signs of a fruitful harvest!

The herbs are coming along with more and more pruning (and eating) of the basils going on. Soon I'll start taking some of the dill and orgegano and adding it to recipes.

This update will focus on the tomato plants. You can see how they've grown in the top section of this picture. The two on the ends (Mega Cherry Tomatoes) are each about 12 inches while the one in the middle, you'll remember is the Big Boy Hybrid. It got a late start (2-3 weeks) after the Mega Cherries but has outgrown them by an inch or so, standing tall at 13 inches. I'll have to help support them soon I think.

The bottom part shows the tiny yellow flowers that precede the fruit. I figure the tomatoes can't be far behind

The Mega Cherry Tomatoe plants are starting to produce. After what seemed like a long time of flowers and no fruit, we're starting to see a couple tiny tomatoes popping up. As you can see by the picture, these are probable dime-size or so and according to AeroGrow, the company that producec AeroGarden, they will eventually grow to about 3 times the size of regular cherry tomatoes.