Reflections

BRING IN THE GREEN

March may roar in like a lion or a lamb. Still, we know winter does not release its hold without a struggle. Thaws come and go. Lack of sunlight contributes to depression both physically and emotionally. We human beings NEED green. Even an article in the online magazine Astrobiology speculates how moon colonies might establish ways for plant life to survive that inhospitable environment.
And where there is a potential customer, innovators step up to the challenge. As my husband stood in line at a home improvement chain over the holidays, he was taken aback at how much retail sales aims at the indoor gardening market for the home and office. The flow of garden catalogs arriving at our house every day bears out that trend.
Live plants in the home are nothing new. Still, the art of bringing the outdoors in has come a long way since bulb-forcing kits and chia pets.
TABLE-TOP GREENHOUSES. These vary all over the map—from fish-tank terrariums and plastic hydroponic kits to hi-tech sealed glass bulb eco-systems. Personally, I can’t resist those miniature Victorian-design conservatories. A friend also gave me a lovely wooden fairy garden kit complete with grass seed, miniature fences and benches.
Unfortunately, these products can be high-maintenance venture. One of my lovely glass terrariums now works as a to-scale greenhouse for one of the dollhouses I built—its plants are silk. The other has hosted a wild assortment of mosses, mini ferns and even a Gulf Coast air-plant collection over the years. It now contains some very realistic plastic grass for that fairy garden scene. Enough said.
SPECIALTY HERB OR FLORAL WINDOW BOXES: Again, not my forte. But I was AMAZED to discover that bringing inside a well-established herb pot actually seems to be working this winter. Before he knew my intentions, my husband got me an herb-garden kit for Christmas. Planting is set for this week. Stay tuned.
GROW LIGHT SYSTEMS: My Mom built a simple version with grow-lights set in a fluorescent fixture raided from my Dad’s wood-working shop. She successfully raises everything from African violets to Christmas cactus. All of them bloom like mad. Only problem, the apparatus is in the basement and even SHE doesn’t see it much except on the way to the laundry. Well-meaning neighbors often over-water the whole garden to death.
PAPER BAG OR UPSIDE DOWN self-watering systems: Has anyone had experience with these out there? They look so happy in the pictures, but the traditionalist in me has rebelled. The whole idea of torturing plants into a gimmicky growth mode seems a bit unsettling, if not downright wrong.
Whatever the batting average for these products, as gardeners they hit home how precarious a balance keep green things growing. Makes outdoor gardening look downright easy by comparison.