And They’re Off…
The spicy microgreens I seeded under the grow light are growing. Obviously the flat I put on the heating mat germinated quicker, but the second try caught up quickly and they’re pretty much the same now. Which shows that with these the heat mat isn’t worth using.
These are supposed to be ready to harvest in 10 days to 2 weeks, as soon as the first set of true leaves appears. I’m anxiously watching and waiting to see how long it takes and what they taste like. While I’d never grow enough greens for an entire salad like this, they will be nice to add a bit of green to certain dishes, like fajitas, soups, or omelets. I’m thinking of seeding a tray of cilantro microgreens for enjoying on fajitas in a few weeks.
What’s growing in your house this winter?
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Friday Favorite: Wood Heat
‘Tis the season for heating the house, around here that means firewood. Every couple days we carry in wood, stacking a little by the stove in the kitchen and a little in the entryway.
Wood heat a warm heat, probably because it’s a radiant type heat. There’s nothing better than sitting by the woodstove on a cold winter evening circling seeds to order in my catalogs.
Have you ever experienced wood heat?
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The Orchid
My grandpa’s second wife gave my mom and orchid a year or two ago. She’d had it for a long time, but no longer wanted to take care of it. My mom tried splitting it and thought she had killed it. Then she noticed that all three starts were producing new growth.
When I came home from visiting her at Thanksgiving, she sent one of them home with me. After a little research, I put it under a grow light upstairs. Amazingly, within a week it started to produce buds. One fell off, but the other one is just starting to open up.
I’ve never grown orchids before, so this is completely new for me. I read that they like little water and lots of light. So far I guess I’m doing OK since it’s blooming.
Do you have any new houseplants this winter?
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The Indoor Garden
This winter, the indoor garden in flourishing. I’ve always had houseplants, probably because my mom always had them scattered throughout the house. I have a dwarf banana that should be fruiting here soon, I’m pretty excited at the possibility. There are also a host of different things under the grow lights upstairs, herbs, African violets, orchids, ivy, lemons, and so much more.
Some of these plants are new, some are old. In fact one of our houseplants was on the stage during our wedding 18.5 years ago. Some plants come and go, I don’t like some, some don’t like the climate in the house. I enjoy having them around, not only for their air cleaning qualities, for for the beauty and greenery during the long cold winters here in Maine.
Do you have lots of houseplants? Do you have a favorite?
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It’s a Race
This time of year it’s always a race to get all the chores finished up that still need warm weather. We have been working on replacing our screen door and painting our little entryway. Since the new storm door was a special order, it set our project back by a few weeks. Then came all my traveling and we were behind another few weeks. Now it’s a race to get things painted, caulked, and trimmed out before the weather turns cold. Overall it’s coming right along, most of the painting was completed weeks ago. This is what it looked like before:
I didn’t want to paint around all the nails in the ceiling, so I simply added corrugated metal roofing cut to size to cover it all up.
We painted the walls white and the floor, trim, and doors black. Two new doors were installed, a full glass storm door and a full glass entry door (which was being painted when I took these photos. I purchased a new mat that says “Welcome” and overall it’s HUGE improvement over what was there. Now the entry is clean, bright, and welcoming. Since we go through this space many times each day we decided it was worth the time and money to give it a bit of a facelift.
There are lots of garden chores that need finished up as well, but they can be done after the weather turns cold. Having doors off the house isn’t really a great idea when the days are only in the 40’s. So I can now check this off my list and move on to things like painting the kitchen ceiling, which is the last warm weather needed chore to finish this year.
What are you trying to get finished up before the cold weather hits?
