I’ll talk quietly as our veggie garden is sleeping for the next 5 or 6 months. I wish I could hibernate for that time as fishing is over until mid April.
To help avoid the bad case of cabin fever I seem to get every winter I need to do more to occupy my time and this year it’s going to be indoor vegetable gardening.
We do have a couple of house plants but they seem to do just fine on their own as long as I water them every couple of weeks. That’s not going to help me deal with cabin fever though.
This Year I’m Growing An Indoor Veggie Garden
Once I started growing herbs indoors I became spoiled. It is so great to be able to walk over to a kitchen window and snip off a bit of basil to add to dinner or maybe some chives. Plus it’s a great way for us to keep all the milk cartons we go through from being dumped in the local landfill.
I use our kitchen windowsills to grow our herbs and the milk cartons fit the windowsill perfectly. The thing is there is no room left on the sill to grow anything else.
Fortunately we purchased a mini greenhouse to start our last year’s vegetable garden and flowers, from seeds. Now I can use the greenhouse to start seeds for our indoor vegetable garden.
I have watched a few videos and it seems totally doable so I am ready to start. Well almost. After watching the videos I realized there are some things I still need to pickup.
Our Mini Greenhouse Is Great
The mini greenhouse is two feet by three feet by six feet high and has four shelves or racks. The thing is the greenhouse sits on the floor and two of the four racks are below the windowsill and won’t get any light.
Not a problem because I have two old wooden orange crates I can put under the greenhouse to lift it into a position that will allow us three racks that will get sunlight. So glad I kept those old crates.
Note: By purchasing the mini greenhouse and starting our vegetables and flowers from seed we easily saved enough money to pay for our greenhouse.
We Still Have Limited Sunlight
The mini greenhouse will be great for short plants with shallow root systems like radishes, peas, lettuce, and cucumbers. We don’t want to plant anything that will grow too big and block out sunlight like the tomatoes and peppers we plan to grow. For those bigger plants we have the second kitchen window.
I Need Some Tin Foil, Duct Tape And A Light
This morning I learned that by putting tin foil around the sides and back of the mini greenhouse I will be able to reflex a lot of light so I will have to pick some up. While I’m out I will pick up another roll of duct tape to hold it all in place.
I will also pick up an energy efficient fluorescent bulb that will screw into an existing fixture to give my veggies the extra light then need because we won’t get enough direct sunlight during the winter months.
