For the last few years we have enjoyed fresh produce and herbs from a sunpit I built myself. A sunpit is basically a greenhouse place about five feet in the ground. It is constructed from concrete block, laid up with no mortar, with the insides filled with concrete and rebar. The exterior walls are insulated with foamboard, with the north inside wall painted a dark color. The south-facing part of the gable roof is polycarbonate, with the ends and the northfacing roof insulated. The floor is gravel to facilitate moderating the temperatures in winter (warmer) or summer (cooler). The only heat is from a small 120 Volt heater on a thermostat. My pollen-ater is afan on a timer. The sunpit stays about 25 degrees warmer than the outside during winter nights. We've grown cucumbers, tomatoes, beans, lettuce and herbs year-round. It is bizarre to tromp through the snow to get fresh veggies!

We built a greenhouse last year - late in the season, so our winter was a huge lesson. We thought we would heat the greenhouse only to keep it from freezing using a milk house heater. The electric to run the heater was more than we wanted to use, so we cut it off after only two weeks. We had barely sprouted lettuce, beets, spinach, kale, carrots, and arugula. We put heavy row covers over the beds and watched them carefully. Our coldest night was 5 degrees outside, 12 degrees in the greenhouse - I was sure everything would be dead - nope - we lifted the covers and picked beautiful lettuce for dinner the next day.

This year, we are adding two barrels of water and stone and pavers in the walk area to help retain heat. We seeded lettuce, endive, kale, spinach, beets, carrots, leeks, onions, cilantro, basil, and chervil. We also have tomatoes, habanero peppers, celery, oregano, and eggplant that will likely continue to produce well into December. We will be planting fingerling potatoes shortly to see how they do as well.

I read further up about putting a lean-to on the side of the greenhouse - this would really work as a great solar heat space for our greenhouse also - will be thinking about this - thank you :)

I'm just getting started with indoor growing. I think I've found a source for lighting that is going to be far superior than anything to come to the market in years LED Growlights use MUCH less energy than meatl halide or hi press sodium. Check out www.sunshine-systems.com

I have grown tomatoes indoors in the winter. I took a regular florescent light fixture and in my dark furnace room hung it over a shelf. I planted seeds and when they came up I hung the fixture just over but not touching the plant. Then I set a timer to give the plants 14 hours a day of light. The plants loved it and grew right to the light and caressed the light. I thought it might harm the plant but it never did. I kept raising the fixtures as the plants grew. Those tomatoes grew like crazy until finally in Feb. the dead of winter, I put them in wall of waters next to the house in a sunny spot that the soil never froze in. In April the tomatoes were out of the top of the wall of water and got froze in a snow storm. I clipped them off at the top of the wall of water and they grew out again. I had tomatoes in June of that year. Crazy. I always wanted to apply this method to an indoor bed garden.

Currently we have culinary and tea herbs growing in the house for winter use. I have never had luck growing more than that inside and decided to step it up with solar pit help.
We have just the A frame roof to finish on the solar pit greenhouse before the cold settles in. Once finished, we will transplant a flat of short carrots, spinach, winter density lettuce and other lower temp tolerable greens. Being our first winter with it, we are hoping to journal the daily temp flucuations inside with hopes to extend next years food garden tomatoes, herbs, beans and more. If there is very little supplemental heat needed, we will use a small space heater/grow lights to keep the temps at a growing comfort for the plants to produce.
Anyone that is interested feel free to check in on our experiment of the pit greenhouse at my blog The Unusually Unusual Farmchick. Once the pit is running, I will post a weekly temp recording of high lows inside it and the same of the outside. I can not wait till that window and roof are on so I can continue to grow fresh salad for winter enjoyment!

I am planning on growing greens and other types of vegetables in my very large basement this winter. This is something new for me. Does anyone have any info on how much light vegetables require so that I can set-up the correct number of grow lights? Is there a foot candles per square foot figure? My basement is a little on the damp side. Will a little air movement around the plants help?
By growing vegetables inside, I am hoping to save money, eat healthier and enjoy gardening all winter long.

This is in response to log lady. I grow my tomatoes near a window 10 feet from my wood stove. I just have an old cast iron kettle that I keep full water. I don't have any trouble. I have plants all over the house.

We have a very small house, but I always grow miniature tomatoes (Red Robin is my favorite) and this year I brought in my basil, thyme, sage, and rosemary. I regularly plant basil seeds just so I always have some. I have a double decker 24" grow light and our house faces South. Our master bathroom window is frosted and it's great to grow almost anything there in the Winter. The window is only 30" wide, but I can get three tomatoes there! Let's just say that in the late Fall and throughout Winter, there isn't an available windowsill! Reno has over 300 sunny days a year, so when it's sunny my indoor plants go on the porch whenever I can. This year, I am also trying some lettuce under the grow light. I know it's not inside, but this year I am also trying some fall crops in the garden. The sugar snap peas are 4 feet tall, lush and green, and covered in blossoms! I wish I could grown them indoors.

We have a small apartment but I will be bringing in my pots of herbs. I'll keep them on top of the frig so they will have the overhead kitchen light.
I'll be growing sprouts too.

I have a green house, 12 x12 and have lettuce, leeks, celery growing inside, and in beds outside against the greenhouse have more beds. There i am growing more lettuce, cilantro, bok choi, chinese cabbage and other greens. I made a lean to frame on the outside of the greenhouse wall and put an old 8' window with sliders in place onthe frame.

It is not complete yet, so i don;t know how well it will continue to produce when we turn off really cold but there have been several killing frosts. But lettuce and other greens plus green onions continue to thrive.

We are fortunate to have double story south facing windows in Minnesota. The leaves go away and the days that we have sun...the room is gloriously sun filled. I have been experimenting with a Meyer lemon which does well, field mix and sunflower sprouts. I have a pot of rosemary that does fine as well. I am considering strawberries as well as a worm tower. (So I don't have to go traipsing down the steep stairs in the freezing cold to the compost) Winter is bearable with the indoor garden. I also use the windows for starts in spring.

I set up three flourescent T-5 lights in my basement suspended from the rafters on chains above an old freezer. I can adjust the lights as the plants grow. I also add a spot light for the tomatoes which need more light than the cold weather crops do. I use a mixture of Miracle Grow potting soil along with some composted horse manure in the bottom of each pot. I bring the planters from my deck inside and use them. They are a foot deep. I started all my plants in flats for the garden last winter. They did very well. I have parsley, rosemary and chives inside for the winter. I plan on doing spinach, chard, and cherry tomatoes as well as basil which did very well under lights last year. I also am going to plant some onion sets for green onions and lettuce. If I can grow my own salads and fresh herbs then I can save some dollars, I hope. Also, I can feed the extra to my chickens who will be missing fresh greens, too. The basement is more damp and the plants do better there than they do upstairs where it's dry from forced air heat. Also, any spills and mess are easier to clean up on the concrete floor. I have the lights on a power strip connected to a timer so they come on and off by themselves. It's great to have a little garden inside when winter socks us in. Michigan has rotten winters.

Over the years and the same this winter I've grown the cool season crops in winter. I installed window garden boxes on the house and on our usual sunny CO winter days the plants go out there to get as much sun as possible. I then transfer in to my growing rack which has a set of 4-foot fluorescent lamps on each level. Since I have kitties, I had to make creative ways to keep them out of the plants as the kitties will want the greens also. I've had success with everything from lettuce to tomatoes and as spring comes around, I get my garden crops going with this set up. I don't grow a lot, just enough for two but the knowledge that all is from heirloom seed and organic is worth it when the snows are deep. We heat with wood also so I just keep a spray bottle around to keep the leaves moist. Anyone can do it even if they don't have direct sun. Some light, warm, water and a good organic fertilizer and you have good home grown food all winter and actually all year long.

I have very often over the last several years grown indoors. We lived in Germany, the growing season is short and the light is weak during the fall and winter. It can be cool and rainy very often. I lived in an apartment and had no balconies or patio. Container gardening and indoor gardening were my friends. I had miniature tomatoes growing in pots, I did hydroponics and grew stuff for the kitchen, basil, chive, dill, etc.
1. Get a grow light. Winter is weaker sun and if you live above Zone 5, you'll need it or you'll get tiny weak lettuce like I did one year.
2. Instructables.com Best resource in the world for the DIY'er. Hydroponcs, container gardening, etc... all with what you have in the house or whatever's cheap and sometimes for free with what you can scrounge. Just remember to read the comments to get even better tips for doing things.
3. Experiment. My Aunt is a certified organic farmer and Master Gardener. I asked her how she got that way and she said the only way to become a Master Gardener is to kill 10,000 plants. In other words, plant, plant, plant... kill some, lots will grow!
4. Use the space you have! I grew cucumbers in hanging trellises from windows down, I grew tomatoes (bush type) in pots and put basil and chive in the kitchen window.
5. Figure out what your watering schedule is and figure out how to water your plants when you are gone or the power goes out, over and under watering causes bugs, disease and poor problem resistance.

Last winter we grew basil, sage, lettuce and cherry tomatoes indoors. We hung a 3 ft flourescent fixture on the under side of a shelf and kept it about inches from the top of the plants with a grow bulb in it. The least effective was the tomatoes, but they still put out a few and when spring came those plants when into the garden, where they did very well. This year I plan on all of the above and some spinach too. We also heat with wood and when needed, I supplemented the plants with a small space heater and a fan, which strengthens the stems. We approached this with the KISS idea and it worked. The area was in the kitchen pantry with the bottom shelf serving as the light area. It worked great!

Since we heat with wood our house is too dry to grow anything. Our mushrooms can not grow and we've given up trying to start plants in the house. However we can and do grow sprouts of all kinds during the winter and have had good success with them. Hey, it's better than nothing, and we certainly would not consider buying them at the store.