Grow Your Own – Go Ahead, Snow All You Want
by John Weckerle
We’ll take all the moisture we can get.
As Winter wraps her lovely white arms around us once again, we take some time to enjoy the indoor gardening as well as preparation for the upcoming transfer of plants to the southernmost of the two beds we installed last year.
It’s harvest time here, with plenty of lettuce available for salads and sandwiches. Two pots full of mixed lettuces should hold us for the time being, and the arugula is similarly ready for use. The hanging tomatoes have adapted well to their suspended existence, and both the hanging and traditional cherry tomatoes have flower buds. One of the kale plants is now in a larger pot, as well, although it’s just a bit early to start harvesting it. The cilantro is ready for a bigger pot, as well, and the basil – while small – now looks as if it will survive and grow nicely. Petunias, zinnias, and some of the impatiens have been removed from the starter trays, and we hope to see some real growth on these soon.
Since considering the quandary of the “maintenance port” on top of the temporary plastic on the southern bed, we have come up with a third possibility – using grommets instead of Velcro. Grommeting – especially plastic – is a surprisingly easy task, requiring only a hammer, plastic/wooden mallet, and a grommeting toolkit available at Home Depot (or Lowes; nobody can quite remember). I doubled over a sheet of plastic and installed grommets on each corner. We’ll test fastening methods – bungies, string, tow chains, etc. – until we find something that works (after the snow stops, of course).
Kale!
You say “tomato,” and I say – er…”tomato.”