Subterrania, Gardening in my Basement

I have big plans for my little basement this winter. In the past I have always taken my outdoor potted plants to a friend’s greenhouse for the cold season. Last winter I put all my plants down in my basement as a test. I bought a 4’ grow light, which I left on all winter. My plants not only survived, they thrived! It’s a constant 65° down there so I imagine they slowed down a bit. I only had to water them once every week to ten days. By the end of the winter every plant had significant new growth. It was so much easier getting them down there and getting them back out this spring than it had been to haul them all the way to the greenhouse and back. It was a very successful experiment.

At the beginning of the summer I started a worm bin in my basement. I love my worms. They are busy making black gold aka vermicompost for my garden next spring. Now I’m ready to increase the productivity of my basement. In addition to my outdoor potted plants, this year I’m going to try and actually grow something down there. I have some long trough-like planters arranged on a table I made out of boards and milk crates set up under the lights. I’m going to plant some lettuces and maybe some broccoli in them. A friend gave me two more long florescent lights, part of a group that she discovered strung up in the attic of her new house. I guess we know what the previous owners did for a living! I did a little research on the Internet and evidently there’s no scientific proof that plants do better under “plant lights” than they do under regular florescents so I won’t need to replace the bulbs. I may even start some peppers and tomatoes from seed down there, which will keep me from having to buy them in the Spring. I’m going to harvest a little of the vermicompost to mix in the planters to help my seedlings get off to a good start.

I’m very excited about my plan and have high hopes for a successful winter growing season. In addition to the worms, my wine and my washer and dryer are already down in the basement. Once I get my plants going, it is going to get crowded! I’ll leave just enough room for a camp chair and a shotgun. If worse comes to worse with the economy I should be able to hole up down there quite comfortably! Okay, I’m kidding about the shotgun but if the world comes to an end, that’s where I’ll be, down in Subterrania!

I’ll be posting pictures and updates as I go along. Wish me luck!