My Winter Garden

This is my "winter" garden. It is indoors under a sunlight LED light that has a pink colour. The light is brilliantly pink. I have toned it down in the photos. The geraniums in the background are in full bloom all winter long, if I remember to feed them. I love geraniums indoors in the winter. They don't need much light and will get very large and bloom all winter, with a little regular feeding. 

The plants look a bit rough. I have two kittens, 5.5 mos old now, and they seem to like the plants. Some they even eat, like the spider plant I got from a special friend. They loved it. I had to protect it with small canvases I had on hand to paint. They don't eat the others, they just walk on them. I don't worry about it. I love my cats and they live here too. I'm just happy to keep the plants alive until they can go outside (the plants, not the kitties).

I keep small pieces of  important herbs growing here over the winter, in case the ones outdoors don't make it  until spring. I have chocolate mint, lavender, sage, purslane, feverfew, rosemary and probably a few others I have forgotten about. I use the feverfew for migraines. The tea works very well! I dry the leaves all summer and use it for headache tea all winter too. It works as well as the fresh leaves to lift the weight and relieve headaches. 

I grow the purslane because it is a killer bug bite relief! Really, its amazing! It grows as a rampant weed all over in Ontario and in Kelowna, just not up here, sadly. I used to be able to just pick a leaf anywhere, rub it on a bite of any kind and the swelling and itching would be gone in just a couple of minutes, never to return. I can't do that up here, but I do make a bug bite salve with it, as well as the plantago and yarrow that do grow wild up here. I sell it occasionally, when I make a large amount. I sell small samples for $2 and 120g large containers of it for $20, as long as I have enough for us to use all summer. We like it because its all natural. I do use the deet spray occasionally, when hiking in the woods but I try to avoid it if possible. 

Purslane & Feverfew

I also start veggies from the grocery store under this light. These are green onions I started from the onion bottoms. They will go outside soon. They get huge in the garden and reseed everywhere. I love garden volunteers! Again, they would look a lot better if Shadow and Abby didn't walk on them...

Under this winter light is also a container of seeds that were outside all winter until yesterday. I brought them in under the light to sprout. They are seeds that need stratification (a winter to germinate) so I am hoping they will start to sprout soon! I planted them in December in a large, round plastic container with a lid. I put it outside in Dec to spend a couple of months in the winter temps. This is called "winter sowing". In the big snowfall, I shoveled them off the deck, forgetting they were there and I just found them yesterday, intact! (I'm thrilled. I had some valuable seeds in there. It was upside down, so I'm hoping the seeds didn't fall out.) Now I wait to see if they come up. I have had winter sowing success in the past.

winter sowing in previous years

One of the special herbs I grow indoors is chocolate mint. To the right of the geraniums in this picture. I love it! it really does smell and taste like chocolate mint. I cut and dry it all summer and use it in tea, put it in my coffee, grind it and bake with it. I made a gallon of chocolate mint wine a few years ago and loved it! I plan to do that again this year. It grows like a weed, just like every other mint. (See previous post "Using All That Mint" for ideas.)

I gave many small rooted chocolate mint cuttings away this winter and warned everyone to keep it in a container. You can see runners spreading out of the pot in the picture left.  

It's not all practical. I do have a few ornamental houseplants in there too - just little ones. I have a Christmas cactus, lipstick plant, begonia, pothos and what remains of the spider plant. They don't look that well, like I said, the cats walk on them...As soon as the others are out of there, and I have time, I plan to repot these and take better care of them. 

This pink light shines very brightly outside my window at night. I'm sure my neighbors think I'm growing something ELSE in there! lol!