After getting onto the gardening forums all over the net someone has pointed out something interesting that has given me a whole new outlook on winter gardening.

Instead of indoor winter gardening someone said to winter sow my seeds OUTDOORS?!!

I was intrigued..

Check out Wintersown.org 

This is a great instructional read and i have to give lots of credit for doing this on a short budget and recycling!  This might be added to my activities list for january after the holiday mess is over.

But thank you for the helpful information!

The tip came from one of the helpful members on "idigmygarden.com" 

The indoor garden is comming along. Aready i have…..

A bag of the onion greens i have not been able to go through. I have taken approx. 5-6 cuttings of the greens already for dish seasonings. This is a must keep for the kitchen and basement garden. Today is fertalizer friday. I remember it better by saying it that way. I gave all my plants a shot of all purpose liquid fertalizer.

Here is my stuff so far 

14 days after i planted the seeds i got in the mail and 20 days (estimated) after i had planted everything else (the mesculen, the onions, and the potato) 

and then the mesculen i planted (from some loose seeds i found in the drawer from last year

Here is the chicory i pictured last time i wrote and posted pictures.

Then one of the radishes that are showing the start of the adult leaves

And the dandelion that i will need to thin out when bigger

this is chicory bionda i think this one is interesting right now because the leaves look so full and thick and productive already at their small size!

But as to new additions. i am excited.

As i had said i found another neat catalog which will be another post but keep your eyes out for pics that i found in the catalog and also pick that have been chosen by their helpful forum " I Dig My Garden"

Now i have had a real good weekend. In the midst of the holiday stress i have gotten a mild and relaxing taste of gardening (other that the indoor garden that i have going on now)

I Got my Baker Creek seed catalog (found at rareseeds.com)  on friday. So this weekend when i found nothing else to do or when i was waiting for dinner to cook, i curled up with this gem and found myself getting sidetracked, while daydreaming about my garden

I like this seed catalog because it seems to have a down home feel for one. This has been lost in the reproductions of catalogs that people have done to make just dollars.

In the pages i found a very detailed list of veggie (and more) seeds.  Many things i never knew exsisted,  many things i will be trying for the first time.

I will be placing my spring order from here. Especially for the unusual thing i found in there.

Plus i have actually taken the time and read all that they have posted in their catalog about Bakersville historic village. It seems to have lots of family fu, lots of festivals and other events and looks like a good time. see more at Streetsofbakersville.com

Gardening in the winter is fun now that I actually can produce something from my indoor garden.

I am excited because i did actually have my first cutting of onion greens. It has been about three weeks since i planted them and i have had two cuttings from them so far and now that the roots have fully established and are having a nice weekly intake of fertalizer, they already have a second cutting to offer in less than a week!

I put these in one of my diet dishes.. Lentil and potatoe soup

-4 cups water

-1/4 cup lentils

-1 potato  cubed

-2-4 (depending on taste) beef flavoring cubes

-4 tbs of non fat dairy creamer 

boil together, season with garlic salt and/ or onion powder.  

when potatoes and lentils are tender then gather a cups worth and mash or puree them and put it back in the pot adding the 4 table spoons of creamer.

simmer for another 5 to 10 min adding salt and pepper to taste..

Then this is when i added the onion and garlic greens that i harvested and then chopped. YUMM!

This recipe for me was ZERO FAT! and then as for calories i had 300 calories into this and it yielded about 6 cups of food. let me tell you, after the second cup i was stuffed!

This can be saved for a base for a roast or stew to add with meat and more veggies.  

But make sure when you make this you have zero fat in all of the things you add.

Just a shot of my winter greens. These have been cut once and are growing another round for me to cut this or next week.

It helps when you have a yogurt addicted son who has lots of those cups for you to use as pots. This is a good way of reusing something that would have gone to the trash.  The yogurt cups are perfectsize for the small onion bulbs. Enough root space for them to grow greens. who cares about a bulb when its winter

My Package Came !

See what I got!

I ordered from a place called Gourmet Seed International, LLC

SO far i am very impressed. Great shipping, fast, good prices with decent selection of interesting plants.  

I spent $38.18 (with shipping included)

i got the following…

 (one packet of each) 

Lettuce Taglio a Foglia Liscia

Lettuce Green salad bowl

Rampion

Cress-american land

Dandelion zxdio

Chicory da taglio bionda foglie

zucchini tonda piazenza

carrot parmex persian market

tomato italian cherry

radish spring fling mix

radish white breakfast

north holland blood red onion

spinach mustard komatsuna  tokisan

Catalogna chicory brindisina

sword lettuce yu mai tsai

I know these all sound odd but these are going to be the new things i try in our recipe. 

I will be planting most of these today if i can find enough soil and containers Then placing them under the cheap grow lights that i have found to work very well i will see if i can ge a fresh veggie crop. 

but here is what i have invested this year

electricity (probably will be less than 10$ for the entire winter)

then the $38.18  for the seeds. I will have to price out any yields i get from this. 

I am so excited! Can't you tell? 

Now do not get discouraged when you see all the expensive things that they want you to buy when you search for indoor gardening or growing your vegetables indoors.

Please do not buy one thing for growing until you read what i write! 

First.  i will show you from time to time what exactly i have done in my indoor veggie production and so on but i will tell you what i have done so far when i give you all the info.. 

here is the list of the only things you will need

-pots free if you have them or you can use yogurt cups, butter containers or other plastic things you would toss out that you can puncture holes in the bottom for drainage 

-soil (free if you have good, light garden soil, but you might want to pour boiling water over it to kill bacteria, pests, eggs and other things.) but since i have clay spoil in my gardens i buy a bag of it for less than 7$ for what i need. 

-all purpose fertalizer 1-10$ (depending on amount and brand, i use store brand small bos for 3$ and it lasts for months) 

-tin foil 1-2$

-area that is room temperature  free from cold drafts

-cheap shop spot light ( i got mine at home depot for 5$)  

-30-60 watt comparison compact flourescent bulb ( this must be a daylight comparison bulb!!! this gives a decent spectrum for growing) 5-10$

-vegetable seeds and other things. (the next list will tell you about the things you should grow and why, plus where is the best sources i have found)

VEGGIES TO GROW

Take into consideration:

-amount of space and light you have. If it is a big rooting veggie or something that you need to plant a lot of then forget it! People do try tomatoes and so on but it is really not cost effective because of the heat and light you need. I have found some foods that need little light and take very little space.

-amount of time these veggies take .. most things will say how long it takes to harvest so keep in mind there are fast growing things that have a harvest time of less than 50 days (ideal for indoor growing and cost effectiveness)

thing of general cost savings.- first can you find the seeds and stuff for free or less than the cost of the already grown item?

shipping adds cost when buying seeds online! so add than in on how much you want to spend

you might need to try new things. There are somethings that you might be able to grow real fast and cheap, but they are not the typical thing you would buy in the store to eat ( or in the store at all) but keep an open mind and just find different ways to make these things until you find a recipe you like.  

 HERE ARE MY FAVS. !

-onions

   I grow these for flavoring for the most part. You do not grow them for the bulbs but the greens. so, first you start with the cheepest source of where you can get these. TRY YOUR FRIDGE OR PANTRY! chances are you are like me and every now and then you have an onion that sprouted in your kitchen. So plant this bulb and harvest the greens for anything you want.. these are best cooked tho. Chances are too that by the spring you will have offshoots of these bulbs and you can grow them like green onions or for the flower to get the seeds from.

    second choice is to get them in your grocery store. Buy green onions and when you use the gree onion you plant the root end that you cut off, harvest the greens from the new growths or the entire onion and then repeat the cutting and regrowing process

    third you can buy a bag of pearl onions (these are more expensive) but it is worth it.. Plant as you would green onion bulbs but harvest for just the greens. 

    fourth you can buy the seeds and sets. i found that no one will ship to michigan in december when it comes to ther onion set, but i can get the seeds.

all in all when doing seeds remember it takes a long time to get useable indoor crop.

-chives

great for seasoning and you can gety these cheep in seed form but they take forever to grow, you can get these from your garden if you already planted some.

-Lettuces

Look for looseleaf producers. Head lettuce takes too long and it is cheaper to buy that in head form

so look for cool weather crops. gourmet, and oriental lettuces are good too. There is a asian lettuce called sword lettuce that says is grows real fast so i am trying it this time

Others i am trying

-spinaces

-radish

-gourmet greens

and more, but i will update later on what i get.

Things i would loive to introduce. 

Weeds! 

(I know this sounds sick and i do need to tell everyone to take special procautions when trying some of these because there are certain things that are poisionous and not good for you so when experimenting in these make sure you follow  proper safety precautions. know what is harmful and do investigation before use) 

weeds such as dandeliions can be eaten for greens or cooked, wilted and so on. But we all know these plants to be easy growing and fast growing (due to the observation of the pesky things in out lawns) but remember that these could be beneficial to you!

you can get these from your yard if you have them, remember you do not use any that have been sprayed with anything or are contaminated with anything bad like bacterias from manures and so on.

but there are places you can buy hybrid dandellon seeds for cheap. these plants are heavy on the yummy greens provoiding you with lots of yummies in small compact plants.

but keep your mind open and experiment on things you might not have tried before.

Here is DAY 1 for me

I have potting soil left over and some pots laying around so i was covered with those. using a sturdy box i covered the inside with tin foil top help my plants get more light and not lean to the light source. I clipped on my light and filled the box with pots and trays that had the following:  

1 large onion from my fridge that was old and close to sprouting

1 potato that had sprouted oin my pantry (put in a large plastic dixie cup for now)

chive plants  from my herb garden. they had already died back from the cold and now will think it is spring now that they are inside. 

gourmet pearl onions that i found in a mesh bag at the store. I found the ones that looked like they were sprouting so i asked for a discount on them since no one else was going to buy them.

some sprouting garlic. I took the bulb apart and planted the individual cloves.

some salad mix seeds that were left over from the summer.

One venus fly trap (just because it was lying around and i needed to get it more sun.  

This just filled up the box so i stopped for the day.

I then hopped online  and searched for unusual things finding the site

Gourtmetseed.com  

This has lots of cool seeds. decent prices and decent shipping!

so i ordered a lot from there…  and will keep you posted on how it all is. Keep in mind i did not get paid to review them and i paid for the seeds myself so i will express my real opinion  about this company and product (score one for the consumer) 

I basically kept my grocery cart to the seeds that had the quickest grow time. You can't find this stuff through BURPEE seeds!!!

But keep in mind i am trying to grow a lot, and fast!

as soon as i get my order i will have to do some work

I have a green house fram to bring in for the basement. The cover is wrecked so now it makes a great plant shelf for this project.

then i will rig the shop lights with the compact daylight bulbs to the shelving while covering the sides and back of the shelving with tin foil.  

I have to also keep in mind tha the basement where i am doing this is kind of cold. I will be  going the extra mile and insulating problem areas and sealing hiles and cracks with spray foam insulation (needs to be done anyways)

but this area will still be too chilly to grow tomatoes, peppers and other things like that. I then have to think that my other things will grow a little slower because of the cold.

well that is that for the day., Keep poste for more!

Always on the prowl for interesting landscape and garden ideas. I came across this amazing thing. I could only imaging having that in your yard with a nice sitting room in it. some wicker couches. real comfy and maybe some lights on the inside. I could picture the romanic evening I could spend in there. But i could imagine how much work went into it!

I had an empty window and some miniature peace Lilly plants that needed dividing. So with a yogurt cup, some heavy yarn, glue and pins I made a small planter to hang from the window latch.

I hope this inspires you !

I am sick and tired of trying to decorate and there is a hindering factor. CA$H.

Well I just do not give up completely. When i want to put something in my house or garden I search all resources. I first think of how I can make it on the cheap then buy it on the cheap. 

First I go through things that I have on hand, then move to things I toss out, then think of places whee you can buy on the cheap.

For instance I want to have large planters in my yard. the type I want are running anywhere from 30 $ on up. but the cheaper end of 30$ does not get anything that matches my landscape design. So first I think on how I can make it on the cheap (must be cheaper than the cheapest pot you can buy in the store) so I found a tutorial on making planter.

But then you think that maybe you might have something else around the house that you can use that is already a container that you can punch drainage holes in and maybe add some paint and sealant to it to make it a planter such as, formula or coffee cans, plastic dishes, old bowls, pots, If it can hold a handful of soil or more then it can become a planter. Remember it is best to do this route for the reduce recycle and reuse aspect.

Here is a an idea for all the old shoes that are lying around.

Then there are great resources for used.. This takes a lot of time but search your local garage sales. I have found a lot of pots that can be revived with a coat of paint or a good scrubbing.

 But as for the next dilemma I have.. WHen do I have time??