A Gardeners Forum Forums Members History Forum Life 2005 gardening in the garage for winter.

i once read that people did that during the winter and want to try it meself now,i know it takes artificial lights and heat and ventilation but i don t know what kind of lightbulb,wath force or will any lamp do.tommorow on our wedding aniversary my husband will build some shelf in the garage in order for me to garden this winter,so i cant wait to unearth my flowers and try my hand at winter gardening.

thank you and have a good-week-end!!

last year I put some simple flourescent lights in a closet (opened the door during the day to get fresh air in) and over wintered my plants wonderfully. I even sprouted some seeds and started some new plants in there. I have sinced moved and wish I had a closet to do that in here.... good luck!

-tracie

Hi Tracie,

thank you very much for answering,you had a marvelous idea,i ll try it over winter wiher closetth a coule of plant but i m afraid i won t be able to with all my plants ,got too much,about60ish of them;but i sure want to try your idea with a couple of them.

i wish you find another closet to do it,it s so much fun.

good luck and thank you!!

Francine,
What kind of plants are you looking to
over winter?????

yes, my closet was very elaborate. Plus, it was a bit larger than your average closet, it was located under the stairs so it went back a ways. I had shelves built along the sides, and took adavantage of the hanging bar for a few of my hanging plants. I kept about 30 plants in there :lol,

I would go for another closet, but here I have a lovely front room with a huge window that I am hoping will do the trick for my plants here very soon xx fingers crossed!

weezie,

i want to unearth 35 begonias i ve got around the tree in front and get them in the garage by next week or at the most the week after.also have waterlilies,morning glories,puppies,hostas(have 2, want to try to get in just one ),some geranium(cranes bill),portulaca,edelweiss,rudebeckia(goldstrum),lilium trumpet regale,geranium(dark saalmon),coreopsis moonbeam,petunia(summer madness),dazler orange impatients.

as you can see i got a lot to get in the garage;i m wondering if i could try to put a rose tree in also cuz keith has to redo the gaden soil in order to dig for a pond(well not dig for it,we re actually gonna buy it . and can i do the same with my hemorocalis if push comes to shovel.

thank you very much ,i apreciate.

Okay, questions........
Why do you want to bring in the....

hostas, some geranium(cranes bill),
rudebeckia(goldstrum),lilium trumpet regale,
coreopsis moonbeam and hemorocalis???

Those all are hardy and can stay out and in
the ground for winter.....
*the rudebeckia, usually is a biennal and leaves are grown the first year, flowers the second and usually dies back and the plant reseeds somewhere's*

What kind of waterlilies are they?

Things like the petunia (summer madness), dazler orange impatients, are annuals and usually meant for a one season~season...
Most of the time if you try to over winter them,
they end up very leggie and buggie...

What kind of begonia's are they? The tuberous begonias kind or annuals??

If they are tuberous begonias, can be dug up and take the dirt of of them, dust them off and allow them to dry a little wood shavings or peat moss..
Then stored in a cool basement like *(not frozen)* area...away from heat and light..
I have my tuberous begonia's in hanging baskets,
and to be honest, I don't do much to them...
just bring them indoors to the basement, and let them sit.. maybe water once around Halloween, but after that, nothing..
but I watch them come spring time, around March/April, if I see a sprig of growth come out of the dirt, I begin to water..*sometimes I've forgotten to look and suprised to see so much growth.*

Hi,

cause keith has to prepare the garden soil and dig up to put a pond for next year,so i want to keep it all since he needs all the spaCE.

AS FOR THE BEGonias theyre not the tub.kind i think the other one,i want take em as is and put them in a pot and see what happenes.

as for theother annuals it s the same and lets see if it ll be beginners luck.

is it waterlili or lili of the valley,ya i think more lili of the valley,the ones that has white little bells

just want to try it all for this winter,do you think i d rather leave my rose tree outside in a pot ddought or should i just dig them out for one day,till keith finishes his thing and leave them outside in a pot meanwhile.

sorry i m not very good to xplain thing so you ll have to please bear with me and decode me a little bit.

thank you very much.
crazy franny here again.

I decode pretty good,
but I ask alot of questions..

What you're saying is, where you had all this stuff, is where your husband is going to dig up,
put a pond in and now you have nowhere's to put the stuff back in the ground???

Question, when he digs up the area, can he not just dig you somewhere's else, sort of a make~shift bed until the spring time???
That way, plants that really should over winter~do so out side...

If it's lily of the valley they can and should
over winter outdoors..Very hardy plants....

I'm pretty sure, if they are the annual type,
they have to stay in some type of pot/container with the dirt... *not like the others, that can be pulled out of the dirt/soil and left*
So, maybe get yourself a bunch of pots/containers
and put them in the house...
What growing zone are you???????????
I've probably asked, but I forget
They would not be able to with stand freezing
temps', even from inside your garage...they'd
die for sure...If you put them in the pots/containers and bring them indoors, inside
somewhere's they'd live, get a little leggy..
but should *just watch for bugs.*

And what do you mean by "rose tree"
one that has a long stem, and then the rose is
up on top of it..???..

I am by noooooooooo means a rose expert, but
I have heard of those being up rooted a bit,
and turned on it's side and it's supposed to
over winter better..

If annnnnyone else has heard of this method,
wish they'd pop on and give some hints....
if you remind me, I'll hunt some info down for you.

Perennials really need to go dormant for a rest, if they don't get their rest they will die in a few years.

I think they like real rain water, wonder if it is all the chlorine, flouride, chemicals our treated water that they don't like?

Some of the plants you could take cutting from like the impatients and geraniums.

I can't believe how fast this summer has gone. I'm not quite ready for Fall!!

I have a question along this line: We had a really short growing season this year in Montana. My peppers did not finish up in my garden. Can I dig up the two plants left and let them finish inside? I have a big window in my computer room and can also plug in artificial light if I need to.

Hi BoothX3....you have a very good question...would you do me a favor, cut/paste to start a new topic in the Fruits and Vegetable Gardening forum.

Hopefully you will get an answer sooner.
Thank you, Catlover

I think if you type in "growing plants under lights" in your search window you will get ideas. I used to belong to 3 plant clubs and they grew under lights. The lights have to be "plant growing" lights, with the problem color spectrum. The people in the clubs replace their florscent bulbs every June or July. That is because the color spectrum sort of gives out, tho it is invisible to the eye. Home Depot has these lights and other home improvement stores. They are usually called full spectrum lights. If you use just reg. florscent light bulbs, plants get leggy and weak, and do not grow well. Hope that this helps.
Darlene

Hi Francine,
Last winter I left my lily of the Valley in a 7" plastic pot outside in the cold and snow and it still lives.

Hey Hoa,

just noticed your post,but am afraid by this time my lily of the valley is dead and berried,but thanks for the info.

hey,i m so glad to speak to you,i think the first other person from this province ,the nearest canadian i talked to was from to.ontario.what part of mont. are you from.how did you happen to find this site.what kind of garden do you have,have you been gardning for long...ooohhh so many questions i m sorry.

me i m from ste-dorothee ,laval.have been gardening for a good 3 or 4 years,got a garden in my backyard ,20 x 20 about that ya! and also a vegetables bed in bkyard also,with pool and nice patio,rather small but rather proud of it.

if you are new to gardening don t hesitate to ask me,i don t have all the answers and that s why i m here on this forum but i ll try to help as much as i can.

i loove this forum ,the people are so nice and they help you a lot.

am looking forward to hear from you,english or french is allright with me.

have a good week-end.

Hello every one,
I am so glad that it stops raining after 15 days of cold and wet. Yesterday Saturday, I cut many trees from the backyard like maples... And I used the branches to cover some of the plants. I dig some holes and put some green leaves in there. Do you think they will develop some mildew or some sickness which could contaminate my plants?
Francine, how are you those days. Did you get your begonias and other annuals inside yet?
One of my neighbors gave some tuberous begonias, I broke the branches too soon and I don't see much of a bulb on them and I dried them on the newspapers. Now I reread this message of Weezie and I'm kind of regret what I did, but with what I still have left in my garden ,I will try Weezie's method, it's seem so convenient. The branches I put in the water will they have roots?

Another neighbor (my lucky days) gave me a lot of landscaping stones today. He promised to you me some of his hostas next weeks.