Plants To Grow Inside During Winter?

[Nyla]

Okay so I would love to know all the types of plants you can grow inside during winter and be able to feed them to chickens, ducks, quails, ect.
Also how to grow them!

 

[hlhutchinson]

I have started to grow fodder for my chickens (we have 4), right now I only have one batch going at a time but for winter plan on setting something up like this: http://bharabbitry.weebly.com/growing-fodder.html

So they can have a daily supply of fresh greens

 

[lazy gardener]

I start sprouting for myself and the birds as soon as the garden is put to bed. I move a lot of flowers into the house to enjoy upstairs for the winter, or to try to hold them over until spring in my basement/garage. Only a few "down months" between end of green house plants in mid December and renewal of green house plants mid Feb to mid March. By March, I'm starting seedlings for the following season.

 

[itsasmallfarm]

For me i would love to so some indoor aquaponics for the chickens and ducks that we have. Plus the fish would be awesome. But right now i grow nothing indoors.

 

[CapricornFarm]

I have grown plants inside during the winter when we lived in TN. I would like to do so here, the main constraint will be space in our cabin. Maybe i can build a hot box.

 

[lazy gardener]

CF, a good solution for you would be to make some hay bale cold frames. You could most likely plant them now and then harvest from them all winter. The secret to cold frame gardening is to get good plant growth before the days get too short. Then, the plants kind of go dormant, but you can harvest from them any time the day time temp goes up over 20*. They will resume growth for me here in late Feb, to mid March.

 

[CapricornFarm]

CF, a good solution for you would be to make some hay bale cold frames. You could most likely plant them now and then harvest from them all winter. The secret to cold frame gardening is to get good plant growth before the days get too short. Then, the plants kind of go dormant, but you can harvest from them any time the day time temp goes up over 20*. They will resume growth for me here in late Feb, to mid March.

Really? Interesting. Might have to buy some more shower doors, lol. I remember Dad had a cold frame when i was a kid but i don't remember much. I think he had old windows he used. Something else to build!
What sort of plants would do well?

 

[lazy gardener]

Any of your cold weather greens: lettuce, spinach, kale, miner's lettuce, mache, lamb's quarters (a weed!), chard, radish, any of the mustard family, Tat-Soi, collards. check your habitat for humanity re-store. I've picked up some really nice windows, shower doors there. I can often fine very nice windows at my town dump. Had to pass up 2 very big double hung windows in excellent shape last weekend b/c hubby was with me. (he's not very fond of some of my dump scavenging!) I have a stash of building materials, that I need to use up.

Make your cold frame about 18" high. You might want to make it so you can put a second layer of plastic just over the growing plants. Each layer of plastic essentially creates a micro climate that is 1.5 growing zones warmer than your outside climate. For instance, in my zone 4.B green house, if I cover my beds with a layer of remay or plastic, the temp in the beds is equivalent to zone 7.B. But you don't want any plastic to touch the plants.