A Place to Grow Vegetables All Winter Long

This project took my husband and I most of the day yesterday but it was fun to put together. We basically made a 3x3x3 foot cube cage to keep the cats away from our plants. The front panel is on hinges and opens so we can easily access the plants. There is an eye and hook latch to keep it closed. The lid is not attached. It lifts off easily in case we want to work in there for a while. We covered the whole thing with chicken wire, the door and the lid separately so they can be removed. My husband bought the grow light online, it makes the whole room pink. Now I just have to fill it with plants. I'm not sure which ones work best in these conditions. There will probably have to be some experimentation. I think leafy greens like kale and spinach will do well. The pictures are not great due to the lighting but you get the idea.

 

Get More Out of Your House Plants

I really like having plants around. I heard a study recently that said having plants around you has a de-stressing effect so I am squeezing as many plants into our place as I can. Maybe it will counter the stress inducing effect of the constant highway noise of the 401.

I am fortunate enough to finally have a bright apartment where plants grow well. In the past our places were too shady to grow anything or the windows would not accommodate them. Though decorative plants are nice, and I have a few that serve only that purpose, I like my plants to earn their keep and save me money.

 

I have a row of cabbage growing in our bedroom. The blue tones in the cabbage incorporate really well  with the rest of the room which has blue accents and pillows. And while the cabbage looks good in the room, we do still intend to eat the mature plants and then start again.

In the living room, we have eight pots of herbs. I was buying a lot of fresh herbs for cooking and I hated how pricey they were and how quickly they went south in the fridge. Now if I need some fresh herbs I can just harvest a few leaves from my mini garden. It should save me about $3-7 per week.

I purchased six of these as potted plants which cost $12.00 in total. I grew one from seed (takes forever) and since I use so much cilantro I tried buying a bunch from the produce section, snipping off some roots and planting them. It worked too. So if you don't have potted herbs at your grocery store, you can try just planting some roots.