The Citizen, 2009-10-15, Page 14As the leaves change colours,
thoughts of home projects generally
turn indoors as we say goodbye to
our gardens and the fresh produce
harvested from them.
It was rather surreal, therefore, on
a recent brisk autumn afternoon to
find myself looking at a leafy green
space, lush with an assortment of
peppers, tucked away in my son’s
basement.
It has been a continuing surprise
for us to see that Joshua’s thumb,
until a year or so ago, utilized for
guitar picking, is a vibrant green.
The first hint came last fall, when
he and his wife Terri-Lynn were
given an aerogarden as a
housewarming gift. This is a
hydroponic system, in which he
planted a variety of herbs.
A bit to his surprise they did
extremely well. “We had huge plants
within weeks, and after they were
transplanted into pots they continued
to do well.”
He then decided to test the system
further. “We eat a lot of peppers, so
thought we’d try to grow them. We
started with cayenne and chili and
they germinated so quickly that we
put one of each into one pot.
Considering they were sharing space
they were quite prolific and gave us
a few ripe peppers every day for
meals all last winter.”
This despite minimal indoor light,
effectively eliminating my favourite
excuse for being unable to keep
houseplants alive. While the house
gets good light at various times of
day outside, narrow windows and a
front porch cut this significantly
inside. To remedy this he kept the
plant beside the aerogarden. “So
while it was germinating the new
seeds I’d planted, it was enough
through the winter to keep the plant
alive.”
That’s a bit of an understatement
as I recall my husband and I being
stunned by the healthy 2-foot pepper
plant adorning their kitchen in
February.
“I was a little surprised,” he
admitted of this new talent. “I didn’t
think this could be that easy or work
that well.”
Then again, he’d only had my
example to follow, so where did this
interest come from, I had so ask.
“When I lived with Nicki (his
sister) and Francois (her husband)
while going to school, I helped in his
garden. Seeing his enthusiasm was
something that got my attention and
PAGE 14. THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2009.Bringing the garden’s goodness indoors for winter
Get growing
Former Brussels resident Joshua Gropp’s son Mitchell
shows the root growth of a pepper plant in the family’s
basement hot house. Gropp discovered his green thumb
after becoming a homeowner, and has set up a system to
continue growing peppers, tomatoes and spices through the
winter. Gropp currently has a dozen different kinds of
peppers,. (Bonnie Gropp photo)
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Continued on page 15
By Bonnie Gropp
The Citizen