I always feel fantastic when it’s a nice enough day to work in the garden. It’s been a very mild winter in Northern California, but I’m still ready for it to be over. It turns out that there is a microbe in soil that boosts the levels of serotonin and norepinephrine [read: happy brain chemicals] in humans, called Mycobacterium vaccae. According to Horticulture Mag, it’s even being explored as a treatment in cancer. The article is a good read, you should click through.
I also learned something new today from an article in The Atlantic – the dirt aroma that is the essence of gardening? It’s an odor produced by microbes in the soil as they break down plants. Scientists call it “geosmin”. Whatever you call it, it makes me happy.
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You don’t say where you live, and that can make a BIG difference in how much useccss you would have growing in a greenhouse in winter. I live in Minnesota, where of course it gets really cold and days are short. I worked in a hydroponic greenhouse here, and we grew only greens, lettuces, kale, etc..in the winter. Spring through fall we grew tomatoes, basil, peppers and other greens, but they just won’t grow in the winter, there isn’t enough light. It also costs a lot of money to heat a greenhouse in winter, so do your homework before you make a decision. I should say that you can add supplemental lighting to a greenhouse in winter, but again it is very expensive.