Bwahahaha I finally sold my husband on the garden.
He's been kind of lukewarm about it for years - it's my project, my effort, and really, he has had this weird sensation that the stuff I bring in isn't "Food". He's so used to thinking about food as growing from styrofoam that he never thought dirt could provide. I'd bring in veggies, and til i cooked them, they weren't veggies. They were 'stuff from the garden'.
He lost his job a couple of months ago. Thankfully, we had some meat stored up, although we've been using it and grocery money sparingly. And I have a garden, from which I've provided snow peas in abundance, lettuces, spinach, and now summer squash and a few tomatoes. Suddenly, he's realized that we're eating properly right now because of me and my garden. He's gotten another job, but it doesn't start til later in the month, so we're still relying on what I put out to feed the family.
Today, he turned to me and said "Hey, could you provide me with a few green onions, some marjoram, and maybe a few other things? I'd like to make noodle soup tonight. You don't happen to have any leeks, do you?"
I just about swooned. He's finally sold. He's started seeing what comes out of the garden as FOOD - and asking for things he wants! WOOT! :D
Now if I could just get my oldest son to actually _eat_ tomatoes... those 15-foot plants we get might be worth more if more of us ate from them. *laugh*
Sold the man on the garden, finally!
Congratulations, sevidra! I bet your hubby has noticed how much better "food" tastes when you grow it yourself, too.
I am fortunate in that hubby and myself come from ancestors who have been growing their own food for generations. Personally, I'm not happy unless I'm "digging in the dirt."
lol I'm the same way. My mother had chickens, geese, rabbits, in addition to the vegetables.
His mother is not a gardener. She doesn't even do her own yard - she hires landscapers for that. So he hasn't had the chance to see it very much except for his grandpa, and grandpa lived in OK til he died - a long way from NJ. So I guess he just got used to the whole styrofoam-garden thing.
lol he was shocked by the dehydrator, but he loves my dried pineapple. And he thinks getting 'free tea' is fantastic. I guess I've been making inroads for longer than I thought I had.
And yeah... I keep myself happy in the basement in the winter, with shoplights and potting soil, until summer comes and I can be outside.
sevidra - I don't have a basement, but I do have a room filled with shelves fitted with shoplights for seed starting. Unfortunately, I only have one small window in my entire house that lets in sunlight, so I can't grow anything to "adulthood" indoors. I dream of owning a solarium - but it will always be just a dream, 'cause there's no way I could ever afford one.
Whyever not? I have adult plants indoors in the basement! :D
They're as fine with the lights as the little ones are - you just have to have _enough_ light and enough spectrum to keep them happy.
Actually, I have three or four citrus in pots who spend a lot of time down there in the winter... They seem quite happy with it.
You may not be able to afford an addition on the house, but if you have the shoplights already... you've got what you need for a 'solarium'. :D
sevidra - really? How long would I need to leave the shoplights on for? My experience with seedlings is that they get leggy very quickly under the shoplights, so I have to time the sowing indoors with "good weather" arriving on time outdoors.
My tubes are 40 watt wide spectrum - two sets of two tubes over each row of seedlings. Maybe I need more wattage? I set the tubes just a couple of inches above the seeds, and raise the tubes as they sprout and grow. The soil is warmed by the lights on the shelves below, so I don't need a heating mat.
I used to grow African violets to sell on Ebay. They were very happy with this set-up, but they are considered "low light" loving plants.
Sevidra that is just a wonderful thing. It gives the rest of us hope that we can inspire our friends and family to love gardening and eating healthy. Maybe someday you can even have him loving to dig in the dirt or at least be a willing helper when needed.
I got my daughter growing toms and peppers for the first time this year and it was great since I never imagined I'd really see such a thing. Now she's asked me about starting cukes and planting onions for the fall. I'm loving it.
It is so cool isn't it!! My DH is talking about making my little garden space bigger next year...WOO HOO!
Honeybee, I use a setup of 4-foot long typical shoplight fixtures, with the a-bit-more-expensive 6500-Kelvin daylight lights. If I keep the lights a foot above seedlings, I do get leggy problems - but if they're 8 inches or less, I just get happy seedlings. And the big plants are just in the room - there's so much ambient light that they get enough just being in there! (I have 8 or 10 light fixtures going at once at full capacity, more soon!).
I got the 9-yr-old interested last year as an 8-yr-old. I built him a summer house in the yard with sunflowers. He loved the idea, and even though our sunflowers never really came up (the soil stinks, and the birds ATE them!), he was still sold. He has asked for yard-long beans (string beans as tall as he is!), and funky colored veggies.
The 5-yr-old is autistic, but he likes to dig. So as long as I lay out a line and let him dig a little trench, he'll do it - and be helpful! :D
The 2-year-old (as of the 23rd of this month!) just thinks veggies rock. This is the kid who, at 1, I found sitting IN THE MIDDLE of a summer squash plant, spiky hairy plant and all, munching on the blossom end of one of my squash. He picks tomatoes. He snitches peas and beans. In the spring, he figured out he could steal all the strawberries from the wild plants we have in the front yard. I swear, sometimes when he doesn't eat lunch I suspect him of already having lunched - on my garden!
I didn't expect the man to come around so nicely, though. :)
He's even taking the compost out to the pile this last few days - I hope it lasts!
My kids were raised with my vegetable garden - plus sheep and goats and horses at the time - and did enjoy growing things but of course hated the weeding involved. But they, and my granddaughter, adore wandering through the garden and snacking on whatever's ripe. My granddaughter is still not fond of cooked vegetables but at least she eats them raw! Isn't it nice to have the opportunity to expose your kids to such an Eden as they grow? Congratulations on converting your husband!
Air movement is also helpful in building plant strength. Recreating nature, the plant builds up stem strength by adjusting to the "wind".
edited for spelling
This message was edited Jul 18, 2009 4:53 PM
sevidra - how many hours per day do you leave your lights on? I was using twelve, but maybe I should use sixteen? The 6500 Kelvin - are they tube lights, or would I need special light fixtures? My tubes are full-spectrum grow lights - the light looks kinda pinky/purply.
The room itself get lots of ambient light, but two of the three windows are shaded by trees and the overhang outside.
Thanks for being so helpful. I would really love to grow something indoors over the winter - especially some herbs.
in my house itsthe complete opposite. my wife deb only cars about the end results. when i had knee relacment surger and told her she would hve to take care of my seedlings i thought she was gonna panic but she did o.k. with them.
Honeybee, they're normal lights. I bought them at Home Depot in boxes of ten. :D
I never tried grow lights.
I also don't turn them off.
I have no idea whether this is bad for the plants, this past winter was my first time doing it - but I got so many healthy plants, and they were so big, that whatever it is, it works. :P
I think the thing is, we kind of don't give plants enough credit sometimes. They're hard to kill. Some plants (I'm thinking certain types of orchids?) aren't so easy, but generally, my veggies and herbs and the occasional houseplant have had no problems. And my citrus plants seem happy enough with it. I should take pictures at some point to show you. Dwarf citrus are funny when they get carried away!
sevidra - thank you for getting back to me. I was so surprised when you said you never turned off your plant lights, but then I got to thinking about folks in Alaska. They grow HUGE veggies there because they have twenty-four hours of daylight in the summer.
I already have the "normal" as well as the grow lights, plus all the fixtures (leftover from when I grew African Violets) - I, too, purchased them in boxes of ten - so I even have some tubes that are brand new.
You have inspired me to try again to start seedlings in the house next spring. NO SLUGS ALLOWED!