Ted’s essays

growing garden with snow covered ground

It is a joy to putter in the garden, looking out its windows at snow covered ground.

Thanks to significant time, effort and expenditure, year-round gardening is now possible in my corner of Montana.

While our picnic table looks a bit shy of inviting, my spinach crop is stellar.

In honor of the March 2nd full moon, and thanking those seeds that germinated in the last two plantings this year, I planted some carrots and cabbage seeds today.

I also added a couple more lights to extend and brighten the days for my babies.

You can, by the way, blow up these little thumbnail photos to see what I am sharing here.

The aluminized thin insulation panel was an economical way to reflect the low-sun-angle light onto the plants. I have one more to add for my additional plantings.

The plants thanked me thoroughly for adding them.

Where they previously had been growing, stretching, reaching for the low-angle sun, with the panels in place they are now growing upward, in balance.

The sampling of lighting fixtures is still an unanswered experiment. I have some favorites, but it is still too early to know which the plants really like. I will tell you all about it when I know more.

I am running all of them on timers that give 12 hours of ‘daylight’ and 12 of night… 7 to 7. It does feel a bit odd to leave the room in the evening without turning off the lights. A bit habituated we are.