The Blog Farm

Monday, January 17, 2011

Spring Fever!!!

I have a bad case of Spring Fever. I know, it's only January, but I'm not the type of gardener that lets the weather keep me from growing. I simply can't sit around and wait for Spring to get here. (62 days, 5 hours, and 48 minutes...not that I'm counting) Besides, I have a new grow room. Yep, I  upgraded my growing space from the closet to a spare bedroom. My son, Dustin, recently moved out on his own so I decided to turn his bedroom into my plant starting room. It's working great but I will need to add a couple more grow lights soon.

In December I started "a few" herbs and a couple cucumber plants to see how well they would grow indoors and so far, so good. I started Cucino cukes, sweet basil, red basil, cilantro, marjoram, thyme, oregano, lavender, and sage. I usually grow basil and parsley in my windowsill all year round but I wanted to see how much I could actually harvest for drying. I harvested the basil, cilantro, and marjoram several times now but the oregano and thyme are slower growing. That's probably a good thing....sometimes I go overboard when it comes to seeding and then I have a zillion plants to harvest all at once.  : ) 

I hope to gain a couple weeks of grow time with the new set up. The plan is to successively start my herbs, flowers and fussy vegetable plants in the grow room. Some plants are started in February and some in March. Then, near the end of  March, I will fire up the greenhouse and have the cold frames ready. By this time, many of the cole crops will be ready for the cold frames or the garden. The peppers, tomatoes, eggplant and herbs most likely will stay in the greenhouse until the end of May. We will see if the weather cooperates though : )

Happy Growing!!!

17 comments:

  1. I can't believe cucumbers are growing inside! That's amazing!

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  2. The Cucino did very well last year in our windowsill. I'm trying them under grow lights this time just to see if there is a big difference in production.

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  3. WOW! When in December did you plant that stuff? Those are already some big plants! You've got such a nice set up!

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  4. Thanks Megan, I started them around the first of December. I used some organic fertilizer about 2 weeks ago and they have grown a bunch since then.

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  5. I can't wait for spring either. I started basil, cilantro, rosemary, oregano & thyme the beginning of January. Can't wait till my plants are as big as yours!

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  6. Its really nice Blog. If you are growing plants indoors for space reasons or just because you want to, LED Grow Lights can be a great help in giving your plants the support they need to be healthy.

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  7. How hilariously fabulous that you've turned your son's room into a planting room, he's not moving back in, is he!

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  8. Wonderful....I am sure you will get cucumbers harvest way before spring. Nice planning and great to see growing plants in middle of this snow :)

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  9. Adkii, try giving them a little boost with some organic fertilizer...I also use LED lights which seem to make a big difference.

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  10. Sarada,thanks...growing in the winter helps my sanity. : )

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  11. Ali, hahaha..it's all about improvising. I told my son he is always welcome to move back home if necessary...although he only gets half his room back. lol!

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  12. Samuel, I do in fact use LED lights along with some other grow lights. I have been very happy with the results.

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  13. LOVE the Spring count down on the sidebar...

    been out tilling soil here today...it was 75...can you beleive it????

    kary and teddy

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  14. Thanks Kary I can't wait for it to get warm here....I'm envious! Hope you and your family are doing well.

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  15. You have been busy! Looks great!

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  16. Spring is on its way..however it is hard to tell around here due to it snowing every other day! LOL

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