Growing Lettuce Tonight

Today I finally cleaned up the sun room which has it the Growing Power box that we built many years ago. This year I just planted lettuce in the box and tonight for dinner we enjoyed the first fruits of our labor. With my new fluorescent green lights and a little help from the sun, water, good soil and the worms in the compost in the box I hope to have enough lettuce for a few dinners a week.

A key ingredient to good growing inside is light. For some of us, light is a good ingredient for feeling good in winter times. I seem to suffer from Seasonal Affective Disorder, a type of depression, as my father did and my eldest son seems to be.

A friend told me about Full spectrum lights. When I researched it I discovered that studies have shown that lighting called full spectrum lighting cost more but is about as effective on this disorder as ordinary fluorescent lighting. So I changed to a higher wattage the energy saving bulbs in my office and behind my chair in the living room. I think it is working and even if it is not, thinking it is working helps make me feel less down.

Now if I can only find something natural like light to counteract the tiredness that I feel this winter season. Once I published on the Featured Article page an scientific study called Nature’s Bounty: Soil Salvation. The article explains how working with soil improves our physical and mental well being. At the time I proposed taking a bowl of good soil to tense meetings (which I avoid anyway) and putting your hands in the soil during the meeting. I never tried it but believe it will work since I know how good I feel after I work with the soil in the garden.

There is soil in the Growing Power box below the lights and the lettuce. Also I have buckets of good soil for growing in the basement. Maybe I should try a double dip of soil and light.

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