Getting Ready for Spring 2010, Part I

Where on earth in my house can I winter  geraniums, spider plants, small ferns, and other cuttings over the winter?? I have places for two big ferns in the dining room, and I take a hibiscus and a fern to my office.  But there are so many more plants.

As I’ve mentioned in an earlier post, we had a big construction project at our house, and number two or three on the list was a greenhouse type of corner.  That did not happen because there were so many much more necessary projects.  So, for the last several years, I’ve given up bringing in plants because our house, while remodeled, is not much bigger than it was to start with.  The past two years I’ve looked around for one of those greenhouse, well-lighted shelves that I’ve seen in catalogs, but they cost more than $400, and that is for the smallest size. Not an amount I am willing to spend right now. However I am so eager to try to root cuttings, find a place for a few plants, and perhaps grow a few herbs from seed, especially basil.  So after thinking about it for a while, I tried to get creative.

A few weeks ago my husband and I eyeballed the unused large claw-foot tub that is in an old and mostly beat up bathroom in our basement.   We began to think about putting or building a shelf to stand in the tub, and then installing plant lights above on the joists (the walls and ceiling are mostly unfinished).

So last weekend we got to work.  We found in the garage an old metal shelf with four levels, cleaned it up, and  lined each shelf with the contact shelf paper that is sticky but not glued on.  We put a piece of plywood in the tub, and set the shelf on the plywood.  At Merrifield Gardens, our wonderful plant, garden, greenery, flower, and Christmas store,  we purchased two plant lights, with huge clips.  These clips easily attach to the joists so they can be moved as well as aimed in different directions.  We finished up the job by rounding up two old lamp timers, setting the lights to go on and off at specific times of the day.  Voila!  A plant shelf for the winter sequestered off in a small room in the basement that has one small window, a place for watering and gardening materials, and most importantly, a sink.  The top three shelves are well lit and will easily hold cuttings and small plants.

I believe we spent under $60, including the lights and the shelf paper, and maybe even including gas.  Pretty cool.

That was last weekend.  In my next post I’ll describe what I did this morning with cuttings of geraniums and impatiens.