My Winter Basement Garden

OW! LK half a thumb sounds like a liability for a gardener. ;)

so here we are in february.. new lights new shelves and a tub for the turtles in place..

Debra, that is looking really nice!

Thanks, Linda ;) here is Turtles Lagoon ..a medium sized plastic kids pool ( 5.oo end of season bargain at Lowes) is under the feet of an unused weight bench, odd ball dresser mirror perched on the barbel stand part..
potted plants and the whiskey barrel water tub filled with rooting plants, some sand and potting soil, bark, rocks, shells you name it.. all inside the pool.the tube ends that are empty on the weight bench have poles in them for the vines and light over the area.. Spot lights have warm bulbs and the T5's above have cool light.
This is Gamera, She is old. Her shell has been cracked and she has a scar on her nose from almost being squished on K15 outside of Winfield. Every Summer in this same location I rescue a turtle or two, and wonder why so many carcasses are around the road. I swear it looks like people aim at the poor things.... I hAVE RESCUED Gamera, Goji, ( Kansas state reptile Box Turtle) she is just a squirt, and I let big Herietta go in a small public city pond here. She was a water turtle. A HUGE one.. I didn't even stop to thing about the goslings and ducklings soon to come on that pond, but Natures takes its course..There will always be more foul than turtles...
Gamera Loves Tomatoes. So.. I grow these above her in plain sight.. This is the south side of the pool, Looking down at it..

Love that you rescue those poor things, pretty sad people purposely try to hit them and other animals!
Love your basement garden!

Thanks, LK, I know for a fact they do, because I have heard people tell other people at work it is like a "Target Practice" Disgusting.
anyway here are some more shots of that area..

and on the very south wall under the window ( if u can call it that)
The second pic is of a cutting I actually was able to root from the snow queen hibiscus, fruitys amarillys bulb moonlight, and a crown of thorns, morning glorys and what not
a view of the pool and contents

there is a table on that wall further east of the window Holding a varigated podreanea? vine and a snowqueen hibiscus, shrimp plant, chalice vine cutting and a crimum

a roll around table holds queen emma, and a hibiscus with wandering jew, and I move this around under the t5..
i have a board on cinder blokcs that i had some tall things on, but moved them for now, on the wall outside the pool area to the window
and across the room from the pool area i have shelves and stands it is almost under the east window, which doesn't help much, but the T5's took care of that

I have a snow queen also, it is just now putting out new leaves. How did you root it?

Hi Linda, I stuck it in a pot really deep made up of peat,pearlite and vermiculite... Here is one of a peach one I cut off and it is pouting right now, it will feed off the leaves that are wilted, when the tip straightens out I will clip off the heavy big leaves to give it more time to grow roots.. here are all the things I rooted either that way or in the rooting tub ( water tub)
second pic is a chalice vine i rooted, from the momma, who has never bloomed, actually I have two this size..
the third pic is a night blooming jessimine,
4th pic is a tip off of kaitlyn brug that got broke off so it is in a round glass vase, and the things in the fishpond filter are rooting as well..

I got some nightcrawlers from wallyworld to feed to the turtles, they loved them.. here is goji and gamera.. having dinner..they also eat any bug we throw in there, right now being crickets, rolypolys, bananas, tomatoes, and an occasional dried mealy worm.. there is water in some shells scattered about..

this is directly across from the turtle area on the east wall.. mama chalice vine is behind this shelf.3rd pic is what you see across from that shelf..
4th pic is long view standing south looking north in this room.. it is a very spacious area..
I run a humidifier on this side, the water tub in the turtle area gives humidity and the wonderful sound of water running on the other side of the room..

view looking north dead center of south end
2nd pic is west side of room looking north (weight bench mirror and turtle pool)
4th pic is south west corner.. I just roll queen emma around..
in that area is the newest morning glory area and bloom..

I grow the vines out and plant some more.. they all like it there, they get the sun from that horrible small south window
some of the pots inisde the turtle pool are pretty big
and there are pots around the outside of that pool , as well.. I am trying to figure out what kind of vine this is...(4th and 5th pics)

it is eating some kind of tree here, I do not know what kind of tree either.. I have young trees coming out of pots everywhere..look at the pin oak growing in the portedora ( i do not know how to spell it) EE,
Joanna spied the Iochroma blooming in there
Gamera eating her dinner again
One of their water spots..

we are prolly getting bored with this area, but want to see how it looks in a photo
Goji dragged her worm and went under the bench here to eat under the ginger canopy/// she is stingy can u se her?

you can see the water tub in the pool under the weight bench .. sheese! yes it is micy rigged, but it will work this winter and has worked for me, and next year will be even better after I get the water capture inside gutter built, and the long warm lights actually attached to the walls around the outside perimeters.. only inside.. yeal, come on rain bring the water to me inside LOL

shrimp plant,seed tray 1, ransplanted tomatoes, ( better boy) seed trays 2 and 3 under the big lights,

my lil silk floss tree has bloomed..the hibs keep blooming,the glorys keep blooming,

it is hard some times to get good photos of these things...
this is the second chalice vine I started from a cutting..
a staghorn from a DG friend, some pretty plant from a small cutting a different DG'r sent me two years ago, a tomatoe plant that is getting very big, and some morning glorys from a DG'r behind it..

Wow! Your basement is awesome, and I love that you have turtles down there too! I have never heard of the chalice vine, but I love the flowers I found on Google image search!

Bump!

Hey Debra, how about some new snapshots? :D

well here we go.. October started the inside bring in.. altho a few things stayed in all summer..
I moved things around over and over..

Are you getting things back outside yet?

oh good grief,, we went thru the whole winter and now the basement is empty LOL
Lets see, end of October..
confederate rose bloomed inside..as did the canna, hibiscus and pleckanthrus,,
view of end of October basement without the lights on..

This message was edited May 29, 2014 8:39 PM

the Iochromas, purple and red bloomed, as did the firespike and others

Looking good, Debra. The Confederate Rose is bee-you-tee-ful! :)

Thanks. Will update more later. We are in LeesSummit Missouri tonite. JOANNA AND I are going home from RU in am. It has been a fun trip.

Hope you have some pictures to share!

I saw the photos over in the Roundup forum. Looks like everyone had a wonderful time. :)

Do you have a link for that forum?

Debra, do you know happgarden/Joyce. She was there too!

Here you go ...

http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1347516/

Thanks for the link, Glad to see that Debra and Joyce were there!

We all had fun!!

Waiting for you to post pictures of what you all got!