Cold Outside, Vegetables Inside

The temperatures dropped this past week, with cold down to -27 degrees C one morning. With the windchill, it was -38 degrees C (-36.4 degrees F). Yeah, that's enough to make your nose hairs freeze, tinkle like icicles against each other, and then break off. At least that's how it makes me feel. Of course, all the vehicles now appear tethered by stiff, kinked extension cords to power outlets, with everyone plugging in their block heaters. Where I grew up in BC, I never know block heaters existed. Oh, the naive climate-innocence of the southern British Columbian!

So on the indoor front, my houseplant-vegetables are growing well. I've had to repot the peppers and tomatoes, because they were getting rootbound. The new pots are 5 inch square or 6 inch (diameter) round. I ran out of potting soil though, so I dug stuff out of the worm compost boxes to fill the bigger pots. There's a few worms living in the pots, but they've never caused damage so far.

The pepper and one tomato (Red Robin) are growing into the light fixtures. Tomatoes can be "height adjusted" though, which is fortunate. If you bury a tomato plant stem, that stem will just grow roots and be happy underground. My rootbound tomato had a few branches dying at the bottom anyways, so I just replanted it deep in its pot and now it's not crowding the light.

Micro Tom tomato:

Gerbera daisy I am attempting to grow from seed:

Tasty salad in a pot: I have decided that the "Baja MI" butterhead lettuce is the best performer of this winter's lettuce. It also has the nicest texture and flavour. I highly recommend it. Last winter, I also had success with a romaine called "Paris cos".