animal lover, gardener, knitter, and gourmet cook
 

hydroponics

I can’t believe I didn’t post about this earlier, but I’m trying out hydroponics this winter. I have two areas set up in my basement–one for smaller plants and another for larger ones. I planted two tomatoes, one cuke, one pepper, some lettuce, basil, and parsley. I have the smaller plants under my fluorescent grow lights and I bought an LED grow light for the larger plants.

I lined the grow room with mylar blankets. Between that and the red LEDs, it looks all crazy in there. I ended up having to drape mylar over the fluorescent lights, too, as the plants under them were getting pretty leggy. It’s too soon to tell if that strategy worked or not.

I harvested some lettuce over the weekend and made a Cobb salad for supper! The basil is looking pretty good, and I’ve used some of that already, too. The larger plants are coming along but it’ll be a while until I get a harvest from them.

Anyway, this was a nice way to extend my gardening season. Best of all, no weeding!