I spent this afternoon feeling like a pioneer woman in the face of an oncoming blizzard - harvesting and hauling plants inside, because tonight it will get down below freezing. 50 mph winds added to the sense of urgency. We moved another set of shelves in front of the biggest (and hottest) window, and that window has 2 massive tomatillo plants in 5gal buckets, a pot of basil, four tomato plants, and one tomato plant that's hanging. Our crown-of-thorns is in a yet-bigger pot, a masive pot of aloe is on a bookshelf, an ivy and a wandering-jew are on another bookshelf, a German ivy and unidentified philodendrony thing in the kitchen window, two aloes, a kalanchoe, and a pot of ferns in the bathroom, three more philodendrony things and a jade plant in the family room.
We will have VERY clean air this winter.
Almost everything had to be repotted. I am now to the point of "if it doesn't produce something, I might not have room for it." Basil, tomatoes, and tomatillos produce. Aloe produces. Anything else may become expendable, especially if it requires sun. You should have seen the front room, full of pots and plants and shelves, with me sorting "needs sun - doesn't - needs sun - doesn't." Three philodendrony things are posted on Freecycle, and an aloe and the kalanchoe are going to my mom. Another aloe is going to a friend in exchange for lemon balm and catnip. This is necessary because philodendrony thing started as one plant and is now four (got divided AND repotted), aloe started as two pots and is now three, and I'm going to be planting some cherry tomatoes shortly and will need the space. Speaking of cherry tomatoes - anyone know where I could get a CHEAP grow-light? Because propping up our fish-tank's light this spring got to be a hassle. There's got to be something easier.
I'm beat! Goodnight!
2 comments:
Any kind of shop light will work, the four foot bank of fluorescent lighting. I think you can buy special colored bulbs, but the regular ones would work too. I think a bank of lights might cost $10 or so. This works especially well when it supplements natural light.
I piled up a laundry basket full of green tomatoes. So far, I've made pickles, and canned 14 jars of them. I picked up the last and only dill I saw for some fermented green tomatoes. And hopefully, the rest will magically turn into green tomato ketchup. Whew.
carey
Oooh, that cheap? SWEET. I have a shelf I'm going to clear off (if people I've e-mailed ever get back to me about philodendrons) and put ALL my sprouts on. Then we won't have to move all that stuff when we need access to the fishtank (just other stuff!).
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