By Anais Starr
I know in some parts it may not seem like Spring is just around the corner but in northwest Montana today it’s 40 degrees. That’s just over the cusp of allowable Spring thinking. Back when it was really cold. . .I pondered the question of year-round gardening. The topic begs thought because of the brevity of our growing season.
I looked at greenhouses. You can actually type an internet search for ‘greenhouses under $1,000‘ which takes you directly to a site with a very good selection of that price-range of greenhouses. A greenhouse would not satisfy year-round gardening in my back yard, however, without a heat source, or some very precision planning using ground-source and strategic placement of resource catchers (windows) and storage.
I simplified my thinking and realized I have a room in my house that could accommodate lighted shelving for growing things. The idea to grow an indoor salad was born! I bought a 3-tier grow shelf with lights from Gardener’s Supply.
Growing indoors is a topic for another post. What I wanted to highlight now is a planning tool offered by Gardener’s Supply. They call it their “Kitchen Garden Planner.” If you’re like me and tend to have a little trouble getting started, help in the planning stage is a great boon. They offer eight pre-planned gardens designed for 3′ x 6′ raised beds. It’s very similar to the concept of Square Foot Gardening which I embarked on last year, building three 4′ x 4′ squares and one 4′ x 8′ square for my raspberries. You have questions? They offer many answers. Here is a list from one of their help pages:
The site makes recommendations and using their tool, allows for planning outside the box. The first question to ask yourself is, what do I like to eat; what would I like to grow in my garden that the fruits thereof would provide me and my family with great pleasure? Plan from there.
Spring IS just around the corner! I will write more about indoor gardening in my next post. My indoor salad so far consists of little shoots of lettuce, basil and tomatoes. All healthy and happy I might add!