winter gardening already!!!!

[blacktulip]

As the leaves start to turn here on the coast of maine already. . . and the temperatures drop at night prompting boots and down jackets (where DID the summer go?!) I'm thinking ahead to winter and how sad I will be to no longer have the abundance from the farmer's markets, all organic and so fresh it makes me giggle in delight!
I really want to try indoor growing- things like tomatoes and spinach or other greens, maybe even some cukes. . . and was wondering if anyone had any luck doing that in a place that doesn't get a lot of sunlight during the day. I have radiant heating so the floor is warm and wonderful organic soil, fertilizer, compost, very rich nutrients in the soil, but i've been warned that the only thing i can grow indoors here is herbs- as i already do.
does anyone have any tips, thoughts or experience with this sort of situation?
thanks and those of you in warm climates, savor all you can for the rest of us!

[Denise Nicole]

Yay! Thanks for posting this question! *waits patiently for responses* :)

[Gelis]

I am here in Oklahoma now and the temps are very different but, I did this when I lived in Germany as well and it worked great so I think it is worth mentioning.

There are a couple of things you can do.

Here we do a spring and a fall crop and then half way through my fall crop I start another. Then in about the beginning or middle of October depending on temps I bring out the cold frame. This allows me to grow lettuce, spinach, peas and radishes all winter here.

Now in Germany we did the spring crop and then straight to cold frame for as long as we could. Then we went indoors to a well lit room. My changed out the bulbs in one room and put in plant bulbs. He made long planting boxes out of 2x9's and plywood which he lined in plastic. You could use regular pots too, we just didn't have them availalbe to us at the time. They held about 7 inches of dirt and we mulched on top depending on what you were growing. We would primarly grow greens spinach and such one year we did manage tomatoes though I don't recommend it.

You can look up cold frames on the internet and get directions to build them. Also check out Maine Gardener, they should be able to tell you more about that area.

Hope this helps I think I started rambling

[blacktulip]

thanks, i'll look into that, i was hoping for container growing rather than cold frames. . . any thoughts about that? space is sort of an issue this winter. . .

[Gelis]

If space is an issue and you want to do it strictly inside then just pick an area where you want the containers. I prefer the long window box containers but anywill work. Go to Home Depot or any big hardware store even walmart. Get one of those worklights that have the metal shielding around it and a cord to plug in put a lamp bulb in and wallah your done

[blacktulip]

thanks!! i think it will be a good experiement for the fall and winter, and there's nothing to lose by trying, i will definately get one of those grow lights though. i'll keep you posted on the (hopefully delicious) results!

[asil]

Yippee, gardening! I'm currently in the process of converting my small garden and large yard to one big edible landscape, mixing veggies, fruit trees, nut trees, etc, with pretty flowers, herbs and other ornamentals.

My climate has the opposite limitation -- too darn hot for many tender greens and lettuces for much of the year. My solution, in part, has been to grow sprouts and micro-greens inside, in window boxes. Plants don't really need sun to sprout and they don't need much to grow mini-lettuces. Maybe this could be a partial solution for you. I bought some pretty glass boxes so it looks good too.

Happy growing!

[Gelis]

Yippee, gardening! I'm currently in the process of converting my small garden and large yard to one big edible landscape, mixing veggies, fruit trees, nut trees, etc, with preyy flowers, herbs and other ornamentals.

My climate has the opposite limitation -- to darn hot for many tender greens and lettuces for much of the year. My solution, in part, has been to grow sprouts and micro-greens inside, in window boxes. Plants don't really need sun to sprout and they don't need much to grow mini-lettuces. Maybe this could be a partial solution for you. I bought some pretty glass boxes so it looks good too.

Happy growing!

I am curious mini-lettuces are they really a minature variety or are you eating them while there still mini.

If they are a mini variety what kind? I would be interested in trying them.

Also where are you located

[asil]

Hi Gellis,

I'm in central Texas, where July and August are so hot that most plants go dormant at this time. It's the opposite of cold climates that have their dormant season in the winter. But I can grow all sorts of things the other 10 months of the year.

I should have said baby lettuces. I just grow loose leaf varieties (my fav is called Salad Bowl) and pick them young, because of space limitations. I've had good luck on my window sills and have needed no additional lighting.

[Lay-Lay]

Wow, leaves already starting to turn. I know I saw one of our business magazines and it had fall pumpkins on it for the most recent article. I was like, why? It is sooo hot here still. I guess this winter on raw will be a lot of fun.

[Gelis]

Hi Gellis,

I'm in central Texas, where July and August are so hot that most plants go dormant at this time. It's the opposite of cold climates that have their dormant season in the winter. But I can grow all sorts of things the other 10 months of the year.

I should have said baby lettuces. I just grow loose leaf varieties (my fav is called Salad Bowl) and pick them young, because of space limitations. I've had good luck on my window sills and have needed no additional lighting.

Where in Central Texas we moved to Tulsa Ok from Dallas area but, I grew up in the Southern Tip of Texas down in Brownsville,

I miss it once in a while

[asil]

Oh, I like Brownsville. Practically tropical. :) I live near Austin, on Lake Travis. If you know the area, you know it's more Mediteranean than tropical.

[exurb]

blacktulip, I'm in Canada and in the same "agricultural zone" as Maine.

1) there is a great book called "The New Organic Grower's FOUR SEASON HARVEST" BY Eliot Coleman. I put Four Season Harvest in caps because maybe that's what the book is called, the New Organic Grower's is just like the publisher or something in small print across the top.

It is awesome for your purposes. One of the basic premises is that although the main GROWING season is in the summer, you can actually HARVEST stuff all year round. Too complicated to get into here in detail, but I SOOOO recommend this book to you. Really an exceptional gardening book!

2) I would do stuff like put quick crops in before the end of the season like pea shoots for in your salads, also some frost tolerant stuff like Kale, or some cold-tolerant lettuces from seed, mache is really nice (also called corn salad), and many of the more red lettuces are cold tolerant.

3) I would say if you want to grow stuff indoors, that tomatoes and cukes absolutely won't work unless you have a serious commercial lighting system, because they require high outdoor light (or facsimile thereof) and they just won't get that indoors in the winter. You may be able to do some stuff indoors (I like doing belgian endive but it's too late for this year as it requires growing the root outdoors in summer then forcing it into the endive in your closet inside in the winter). Sprouting is a great way to get through the winter too.

Gotta go, must go plant those pea shoots and cold tolerant lettuces and kales.