My Winter Basement Garden

Thanks Gordon, I really am not ready to move stuff out.. we have had no winter to speak of, everything is budding or blooming ( spring plants and trees ) outside. Joe did get the vegetable garden plot overturned and ready to plant, he is anxious to gt his potatoes and beets and green beans in, I have tomatoes already vining and producing, and some seedlings, about 120 of them.
In answer to your question, Julia, if you are talking about thebrugs branching out, it is up to you.. I perfer mine to be tree type plants, but some of them end up being shrubby types, especially the ones that come up from a root ball with no trunk showing. you should go look at GordonHawks thread, he has his gardens up on his rooftops in NewYork. Imagine the heaven he creates up there, it is awsome.

My buddah belly I started from seed is going to be repotted this spring, it is really growing.

I'm late to the basement garden party. It looks amazing as always, Debra. I wish I had half the green thumb you do.

Debra...got your seeds yesterday...LOVE them...been planting in my little plastic water bottles LOL

hopin the storms were not around you, Julia, such devastaton is usually in my area, not yours. What is up with thei weather? Got your box of loverly salves, is the pretty bars in the organza bags soap?
I will have to hide those from my daughter who collects weird and unusual soaps.

hmm that is an idea for a swap! LOL

Heading back to indy but kansas is nice and sunny today..just got into mo....on I 70 right now..daughter driving.

Yes, that is soap. Hope you enjoy

Happy for you, Julia.

You are a lucky woman. It has been a longggg time since I have held a baby, let alone one from my family.
Anyway, here is an update from the first views of this thread.... this is good to keep these online, in case a tornado comes upon us. We are due for a big one, I am afraid..I have been snapping pictures and uploading like crazy, of my whole place.. in and out, and then I will have to move that to a memory stick, and keep those in the basement.. sheee.. feel sorry for all those families lost and hurt all over the place last week.
I started in Charlies room first..

Charlies room has a stair well closet. That is where we are supposed to go if a tornadoe did come.. I think everyone knows this plan anyway..
sister gave me some shlelves/curtain rod holders last fall, charlie put them up for me in the closet last weekend, and it was full of all kinds of stuff..
the 3rd and 4th picture is looking out south of that closet ( to the left) there is a clothes bar rod in the closet., it is very sturdy. I did have three huge pots of vines hanging there.. now it is cleared out under the stairs so I can hide.. LOL in the center of the room I have his old9 drawer maple dresser, covered up and holding EE's under the ceiling light.

still in charlies room in the closet looking straight ahead ( west) I am using the door for hanging spots.to the right is the old couch minus it's pillows, plus a blue plastic covering from used table cloth liners , holding firespike, cape honey suckle, philo gigantum, tai caladium, Big EE, Hoya pot, bell pepper plant, clerodendrum, antler fern, chinese lantern hibiscus, diffenbacia and a few other things,
. on the floor is a humidfier I found at the DAV for 3 dollars. All the lights are strung up and hangin at various levels.to the left out the closet door is a round tale and some plants in pots, and some hanging baskets, I keep waiting to hear crashes moises from things falling .everything is really big now..then on that same side, I have a wrought iron shelf , holding little things gone wild, still in their original pots..

it's watered once a week..I clean the fish tank filter out in the water tub and use it, it seems to fertilize these things..
the toher side of the room ahas wire shelves on the walls, and plastic shelves on the bottom for everything to sit on..

Goodness you have been busy! Praying those tornado's do not come your way!

Just beautiful Debra!
I was wondering about those tornados when we were heading in to Kansas....my daughter said several places were destroyed.
Glad all is well in your neck of the woods...stay safe!

Thanks, I think we are safe tongiht, even tho the wind has been horrible for the past 24 hours..

lookie here.. pics taken this am..

Debra, what is #4 please? Pitcher plant?

calico pipe vine.. very weird, can't wait to see it in blom, was told they do not smell good tho.. it has been growing for a year now.

That is a cool plant!

Oh wow....they are awesome. You do what I do in the mornings. I love turning on all those lights and saying good morning to those babies LOL.

Oh dear, I used to go around turning on and turning off lights, but I am on timers now. Worth the trip up and down the stairs in a hurry before work. Of course I still go down to see what is blooming new.

What a lovely way to start the day. :)

My iguana stomped thru some seed trays the other day and I discovered a windowbox full of sedums that I brought in to overwinter was dug up by a cat yesterday. -sigh-

That's why I so enjoy pictures of YOURS!

Debra your pictures are amazing! Cant wait to see the pic of the vine, that is too cool.

AdmandaEsq, I have a buddah belly plant and it put out seeds last year and I gave some away, I don't know if anyone got them to grow, but one day I was watering the big ee and low and behold there was a buddah belly growing! When the buddah goes to seed it explodes the seeds out quite a ways so if you want more seeds you have to put a bag over them before they explode. Buddah bellys are so strange, really like them.

Awesome greenness you've got going on there, Debra, and blooms to boot.

Just give me a cot, I could live in there. Thanks for sharing Debra!

I have 3 budda belly seeds and they are next on my list. :)

I was very disappointed today to find my corkscrew vine seeds probably rotted (?!). I guess I nicked them when I should have knacked them.

O well - on a positive note - the 3 Pride of Barbados seeds I got in the Round Robin are all sprouted, as well as a jumble of WS seeds I can't mention here. I'm using the journal online and enjoying myself.

Hope all's well with you today Debra and my fellow basement garden watchers. :D

A.

Amanda, would love to see your sprouts. You guys are gonna freak out on that calico pipe vein bloom, it is open.. will post in a bit.. been re-arranging evrything, as it is still not time to take anything outside other than WS tubs and Jugs.

Can't wait to see it Debra - thanks for sharing. :D

all the christmas and easter cactus think it is time to be blooming now..

calico pipe vine is so weird..

silly salvia thinks it is fall..

this is baby wood rose from seed..
Next is a dark velvet leaf philo
Forgot to post the night before the opening of the bloom on calico vine, ( third pic)
this is baby elena EE
Lastly is baby Boa EE

Coleus are still hanging in there waiting for outside, I just sprinkled some yellow celosia and some brugandy celosia pampas plume in with it..
then here is kalanchoe "mariner"
Yellow Shrimp plant is blooming again, I am glad, I really like it.
I like all the hanging stuff around me..

remember this window area the other day>?
here it is this am..

O my goodness - I get giddy just looking. :)

Beautiful blooms Debra! Love that pipe vine.

That pipe vine is just too cool. Everything is beautiful. Such blooms everywhere. Beautiful.

Debra luv your garden tour and especially the Pipevine blooms!!

here we are almost a year. some changes have been made in the basement gardens, I got new t5 lights installed and a new breaker box and a dedicated breaker for each outlet with more ampage for my clamp lights in other areas. I love it. Today, Got the fish a bigger tub, son came over so I could show him where I want the plastic swimming pool in the basement. He is bringing sand from his lake to fill in for the box turtles, He has to move all the plants in this area and insert the pool under the weight bench legs, then replace what plants he can into the pool and then fill in with the sand and a bag of fresh potting soil and then I will dig a well and have the water for them in a shallow tub, and that is where everything there will stay all summer. I am having my handy man cut the tile inside there along the walls and make a trough for the rain ( if it ever rains again) to flow to the sump pump, then I will have him fill the trough with sand on the bottom and grow water loving plants in it. Then I will have him turn charlies room into a walk in closet for college girl and I. I have thought out these plans a lot. Right now all the non season clothes are hanging on poles right under all the drains and plumbing, so I think Charlies room will be perfect it is under the dining room.
using the old fish water to water the plants with this week and next week. Free plant food. last three pics are where the swim pool will be with all plants in it and the turtles too.

Love your basement garden Debra!

Good Grief woman! That's a lot of planning. I'm especially excited about the turtle pond. Post some snaps when you get that set up - and the trough for the sump. :)

xox
A.

looks great Debra... good you did a bunch of rewiring... makes things go smoothly... and safely.... I do enjoy my T-5 light too... cool and bright...
one of my new joys this year are the new screw in flourescents... great new power for them.. using only 85 watts.. and screwing into a standard socket... but delivering a cool 350 watts of light ... warm for flowering or cool for growth... they fit righht in to my winter light scheme of things
here's one of them... randomly chosen... google it and you'll find lots of them... have to go to the local hydroponic store to find them about here .. but there's alot online if you can't find them
http://1000bulbs.com/product/8253/FC85-S27OD.html

Thanks Gordon, hay Amanda! Yes I have several of those scattered about, especially in Charlies room, which wil also be revamped soon.
I love that site, Gordon, and have frequented it often to get information ;)
here is room.. i asked him if he wanted to move back in ( he is 36 and single) and he said uhmmm nope! under those flags is buckled ceiling tiles form the wall moving, so that is being fixed. this room will be a walk n closet for us girls.

Debra, I wish I had half the green thumb you have!