Fresh Salad from the Inside Garden – in March!
You can’t do it all in a life time no matter how long you live and that makes having a friend who does it differently than you – all the more fun.
Our friend is an engineer by trade and he loves gardening. Its part of his nature to look for different ways to do things and he finds great joy in experimenting.
He and his wife enjoy a wonderful southern exposure in a home that he designed and built. Thus, he grows several vegetables inside in the winter with varying degrees of success.
Last fall a volunteer tomato came up which he selected for his “winter” tomato. It was potted using soil from an old chicken house. The plant has not been fed anything this winter — just water.
In spite of an unusually cold Virginia winter with lots of snow, it has thrived. Unlike the typical inside-raised tomato that is lanky and lean, it has lush growth and good foliage just 
as if it had been outside in the summer sun. It has unusually thick foliage and vines. As of March 6 it had about 20 fruits, most of them tangerine size, and was still blooming!
Having more lettuce than could be transplanted in the cold frame he left some in the flats behind the glass doors. It was ready for eating before that in the cold frame.
Big salad coming up. And hey — don’t forget the cucumber. He has that too!
Seeing is believing so Bill went over to take pictures. Scroll to see the picture of the full size tomato plant below. I counted 12 tomatoes. How many can you see?
Now we can all be looking forward to harvest even though we may have to wait a bit longer than our friends.
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