Have never grown anything before and for the first time moved into a place that had space for it. I was not expecting to fall as hard for it as I did!
I’m in zone 6a and we had our first hard frost a few days ago. Never knew I’d feel legitimately sad cleaning up plants at the end of a season.
My mental health has been in a rougher spot the past year and this garden became my solace. It provided me with a small chunk of peace and purpose everyday. I’m also grateful for this sub that gave so much helpful advice.
How do you feel the void over the Winter?? I need something to take its place until I get to start again next Spring.
Photos in order are of June, July, August, September, early October, Late October, and some of the presents the plants gave me this year 😌
by Polish_Hotdog
32 Comments
Get a greenhouse!
I’m in 4b. I started overwintering tropical plants a couple of years ago and they are really thriving. You need window space and a couple of grow lights but it’s really therapeutic. And moving them outside in the Summer is fun. My neighbors are jealous. I looked into a greenhouse but in my zone they are incredibly expensive to heat over the winter.
One word: Houseplants. Gardening can happen both indoors and out!
Grow mushrooms over the winter
Indoor plants. Also planning for next year. You can start things from seed in the spring. I had great luck with a milk bottle mini greenhouse (instructions are easily googled) starting lettuce before the last frost.
I learned to sew and crochet 😅 not quite as good but close
Also seedlings are fun and you start them 8 weeks before the last frost.
Seed catalogs arrive the Friday and Saturday after thanksgiving.
“Gardening starts in February with a dream” is a nice quote I’ve always liked. Spend the winter planning!
House plants are also fun. You could also try one of those mini hydroponic gardens to grow herbs or flowers.
I have that problem, too. It’s not just planting, it’s the whole yard work thing. 😕
Hydroponics! There’s tons of used systems Facebook marketplace. I personally use aerogarden systems and love them!
https://preview.redd.it/9zc4drcgphyf1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=554f224ba799b83ea5af468cd39cc17c47373a0e
Grow weed indoors!
Lovely, great job newbie. Ornamental kale & grasses, a small lime green evergreen u can put lights in the top middle area & white lights around the edge outlining all or part of it. What a fun project, as much or as little as u like.
Perusing seed catalogs and dreaming of spring gets me thru the winter months. 😊
I agree with putting in some ornamental cabbages and kale. Brings a spot of color into your winter garden.
Oh, great job! It’s beautiful 🤩
I do it with a hundred houseplants 🎃
I have an aerogarden. I only use it from about January – May. I usually am a bit burned out from gardening during November and December, but by the time January rolls around and the garden catalogs start arriving in the mail, I am ready to start some herbs indoors in the aerogarden. Then I start tomatoes and peppers under a grow light in about March. By the time the herbs are getting unwieldy, the tomatoes and peppers are ready to go outside. I harvest any remaining herbs and put away the aerogarden until next season.
Get 1-2 evergreen plants (azalea, gardenias, roses etc). They will help attract pollinators during the growing season and provide foliage year round for the downseason.
Seed catalogs and plans. I work on selecting varieties and the garden layout for the following year.
I bring a tender perennials inside! Some don’t like it, but others do. It’s its own learning curve to set up LED grow lights, figure out watering levels, and fight off the pests that have no predators inside.
My biggest success was the year my geraniums had giant red blooms in midwinter. (I didn’t figure out how to prune it back the next year so it didn’t do the same magic the 2nd winter.)
Oh, there is lots of winter cleanup and other thing you need to do during dormant season.
Look up “winter sowing” or get a grow light and start some seedlings indoors. I also spend a ton of time perusing my favorite seed companies websites or drawing out my plans for which plants to grow and where. 🙂
I have a small condo and I use half of my dinning room table to grow plant cuttings over the winter. I take cuttings of all my favorite plants and put them under 6500K light bulbs (no need for full spectrum to grow leaves). Sometimes, I have to take cuttings again in January if the plants get too big for my tiny space. And in January I clear off the other half of the table and start seeds with full spectrum lights. The seeds are ones I collected in the fall. I think it really helps with those short dark days to have crazy bright lights in my dinning room!
Learn to grow mushrooms
I started growing greens indoors. I got a small plant shelf with built-in lights and the whole thing takes up, oh I dunno, about 18″ x 18″, three feet high or so. Lettuce and radicchio going right now. I keep my apartment at 70F and below and they seem to just love the conditions, they’re going nuts.
I was going to overwinter tomato cuttings but with my last harvest of the year I realized I don’t really care much for them, and they don’t do well in my area. I’m overwintering my peppers and eggplants instead, so I’m excited to baby them all year.
I kind of have the opposite problem, though. I can do so much cool season gardening; peas, greens, fava beans, turnips, kohlrabi, kale, broccoli… but once summer kicks into gear everything just slumps and all I can do is water it and keep it alive til autumn when it goes nuts. I feel your pain!
Nothing really fills the void for me. But I try. I started a couple tiny tim tomatoes last week. And in February, I’ll start my seeds for the spring.
I have a bunch of houseplants, it isn’t the same.
November through March is a great time to take a long travel break. Australia, New Zealand, Argentina. If your budget doesn’t stretch to that, January is the cool season in UP and Rajasthan, go see the Taj Mahal, Hawa Mahal, the blue city, many palaces and gardens
Other than houseplants, seed starting, and garden planning, I also like to go to Echter, plant stores, or the botanic garden and just walk around and look at their plants in the greenhouses. It helps me get my fix of looking at green stuff
House plants lol!
But seriously… I always buy a couple of new ones in the fall or early winter or I divide current ones. My interior turns into a jungle, I gift them for Mothers Day and I have some plans for Christmas gifts for my son’s teachers (I checked, they are plan people).
And then come late winter or early spring, depending on where you are, you starts your seedlings inside. And then it’s summer
This is so beautiful. You can tell it’s not just about the plants but the peace they brought you. Maybe try some indoor plants or grow lights this winter it helps keep that green energy going.
To fill the winter gap, set up a small grow-light shelf for herbs and microgreens, plant a bulb lasagna in your biggest pot for early spring blooms, and sketch a simple PVC hoop or plastic cold frame over that pergola corner to try cold hardy greens. I usually use [Gardenly](https://gardenly.app) to visualize my ideas. Maybe you could give that a try?