This site is an archive of ChiotsRun.com. For the latest information about Susy and her adventrures, visit the Cultivate Simple site.
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Fresh Basil

December 21st, 2017

Every year I expand the number of herbs I grow indoors during the winter. This year, I added basil to mix. I figured I could grow it upstairs under my grow light in the warmest part of the house. It’s thriving and starting to bloom.


When I brought it in towards the end of October, it was already looking fantastic. It’s nice to have a bit of fresh basil here and there. I still need to get a flat or two of cilantro going, that’s the one herb that we both LOVE and use lots of in the kitchen.

Do you grow any herbs indoors?

Warm & Cool

December 18th, 2017

In the winter, the sun is at such a low angle all day, the light is always warm and golden. This always is such a difference from the cool blue of the snow and ice that dominates the landscape. When we have freezing rain and ice builds up on everything, it makes for a stunning show.








Days like this always get me to grab my camera and head outside, even despite the cold. This day was really cold, with the wind chill in the negatives. I thought about heading back to the main garden to take photos there, but ended up deciding the ones I got were good enough.

What’s one of your favorite things about how the light changes throughout the year?

So…….Dry………

December 15th, 2017

We heat with wood, which means the air in the house is dry. There are houseplants and pots of water on the back of the wood stove, but even with these measures, the humidity in the house hovers between 28-30%. Finally, we decided to break down a get a cool mist humidifier.
humidifier
After much research, we settled on this version, mostly because it has the capacity to add essential oils to it. This time of year we love putting balsam fir essential oil in our diffusers to add a wintery scent. Now we can just put them in our humidifier.
humidifier
So far, we’re happy with the amount of water we can put in the reservoir and how much humidity it adds to the air. We probably should get another one or two since our house is so large, but for now, this one will do. We were lucky in Ohio, our home was always at a good level, we didn’t need to add any moisture to the air.

Do you have to run a humidifier in the winter?

Houseplant Cleanup

December 14th, 2017

Now that it’s winter, I’ve been looking around at the houseplants and noticing they need a bit of tidying up. The banana plant was a bit crazy, though in my defense, I was hoping it would fruit this past summer, and I’ve always heard that you don’t trim off the dried leaves if you want fruit.

I meant to get a “before” photo, but completely forgot until I had already trimmed it up. Oh well, you get the idea. The pot wasn’t even visible because there were so many dried leaves all the way from the floor up to the leaves. While I was pruning, I also cleaned up the leaves with a mild detergent as they were a bit dusty.



While I was pruning, I decided to give all the plants a bit of a haircut. The elephant ear in our bedroom got a bit of tidying, as did the spider plants in my sewing room. Most of the other houseplants don’t any tidying. All of this brown material will go into the chicken coop as litter.

What’s your favorite houseplant? How often to do clean & prune them?

Snow Day Activities

December 13th, 2017

More snow, freezing rain, and ice rolled through yesterday. After office work and house cleaning, I started processing some of the many seeds I saved this past summer.

I’ve been developing better systems of processing them. Using a fork to remove the seeds from the dried flower heads is a huge finger saver, these seed heads are super prickly.

I’m looking forward to lots of tithonia in the garden this coming summer, hopefully in many other gardens as well (you can purchase these seeds over at Seeds & Sundries). Finding gardening chores that can be done when the snow is falling outside is always a nice way to brighten up those dark winter days!

What seeds did you save from the garden this year to plant next year?

About

This is a daily journal of my efforts to cultivate a more simple life, through local eating, gardening and so many other things. We used to live in a small suburban neighborhood Ohio but moved to 153 acres in Liberty, Maine in 2012.

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