MELVILLE, N.Y. — If you’re like most gardeners, you grow fruits, herbs and vegetables outdoors from Memorial Day through Labor Day or, if you’re lucky, Halloween. Then you either shut down your horticultural endeavors until spring or focus on houseplants.
If you’re like Bob Clark of East Setauket, N.Y., you pick plump, juicy vine-ripened tomatoes to serve for Thanksgiving and set your eye on freshly grown peppers in the dead of winter.
Clark, 61, grows what many other gardeners consider summertime plants in containers under a 4-foot shop light in his basement, and he reaps a nice harvest.
Besides helping us save on produce bills and — even better — avoid pale orange, mealy grocery store tomatoes, indoor winter gardening allows those of us in colder climates to enjoy the miracle of seed-to-table food year-round.
Undertaking such a project requires commitment, but those who love growing things will enjoy the process.
The first thing you’ll need to ensure success is a good light source.
Light is essential for photosynthesis, by which plants make food to nourish themselves. Without it, plants grow spindly and don’t produce well. Although you can try placing plants by your sunniest window, that isn’t likely to provide all that is necessary for plants to thrive. Days are shorter during winter, and even when the sun is shining, it simply isn’t as strong as it is during summer. For optimum success, fluorescent lights such as those Clark uses are ideal.
Knowing that he starts his summer vegetables in his basement every March, Clark’s daughters gave him a heated 2-by-4-foot grow mat for Christmas last year.
He built upon the potential of that gift by building something he calls a “veggie thermos” — a rectangular enclosure made from Styrofoam-insulated panels, which he placed under a four-bulb fluorescent light fixture. The combined warmth provided by the mat, insulation and lights kept seeds “nice and warm at around 80 degrees,” he said, and they just “took off.”
Last summer, he said, it occurred to him that if his seeds could germinate so successfully indoors in March when it’s so cold outside, his system might enable him to grow plants all winter long.
“So I got some bush and patio tomato seeds, some small pepper plant seeds and carrots,” Clark said. He planted them in 2-gallon plastic pots after drilling holes in their bottoms for drainage.
Next, he affixed the shop light to a chain, which allows him to raise it as plants grow, ensuring the light source is always just an inch or two above plant tops. In addition to daily waterings, he applies weekly doses of Miracle-Gro.
After enjoying homegrown tomatoes at Thanksgiving, Clark became even more committed to the concept.
“My wife even lets me grow some carrots in a container in the bathroom,” he said.