Indoor Garden

Bringing the Garden Indoors

Posted December 10, 2013 by laurabruno in Uncategorized. Tagged: Cold Frame, Dried Produce, Indoor Garden, Tree Collards. Leave a Comment

Several people have inquired if I'm growing any food indoors this year. Initially, my answer was, "No! I burned out on deadheading last winter's basil. Every. Single. Day." In the past few weeks, though, I've reconsidered, taking cuttings of some favorite non-cold-hardy plants like pineapple sage:

I also brought in the terra cotta pots of pink geranium and lemon balm, as well as starting another lemon balm in a small pot:

In the above photo, you can also see our Christmas cactus (from my friend Sherri's grandmother) getting ready to bloom, and thriving jade and aloe plants that I got through freecycle.org. To the right, you can see just the tiniest bit of a very happy spider plant started by David's sister.

Because my red geraniums helped so well with garden bug control, I decided to rescue a few of them from the brutal cold:

We've got dried mint for smoothies and teas (plus a whole bunch of other dried herbs not pictured):

It is so cold outside right now (hasn't gotten above freezing in many days!) that I've not ventured out to check on the cold frame. In retrospect, I wish I had located that bed just a bit further back so that it would get morning sunshine. My uncovered plants on the East side of the house actually look happier than even the covered ones out back, because they get sunshine at the coldest part of the day — early morning. Oh, well! I trust at least some of my cold hardier plants will survive this week's deep freeze. In the meantime, we've enjoyed meals featuring dried and then rehydrated tree collards from this Fall:

A quart (half this jar) has provided us with ample greens for 5 different meals featuring tree collards, which taste like an intriguing cross between collards and kale with just a hint of purple cabbage. They're great in stir fries, "beanie greenies," soups and even in scrambled eggs. Above, you can also see some of the many tomatoes I dehydrated, beginning in late July when our supply went through the roof! We even still have some German Yellow Tomatoes ripening inside:

At last week's cold frame workshop, someone reminded me that cilantro and arugula grow well indoors, so I will plant a few seeds of each in small pots once it gets a bit warmer in our garage. The thought of 9 degree planting efforts just doesn't feel very enticing right now. [Update: oh, my goodness! Make that 3 degrees.] Planting in single digits is about as enticing as redistributing the rest of the mulch in our driveway, which I had reallllly hoped to have finished by the holidays. Excuse me, Mama Nature, I'd like to order a string of high forties days with a side of sunshine. Hold the wind, please and thank you!