Column by Kathy Hummel, University of Illinois Extension, Coles County Master Gardener

Windowsill Salad Bar

Because lettuce and other salad greens germinate so quickly, it's easy to grow a salad garden inside on a sunny windowsill during the winter. What I like to do is grow a mix of "baby greens," harvesting the leaves while they're just a few inches tall. I mix these baby greens in with store-bought lettuce for a flavorful salad or snip off a few leaves to top off sandwiches.

Good Choices for Baby Greens: Lettuce, arugula, basil, spinach, chard, red mustard

Good Choices for Micro Greens: Radish, broccoli, lettuce, mustard greens, peas, sunflowers

Micro greens are another way to enjoy fresh produce during the winter months. Harvest micro greens when they have about 4 leaves. They may be small, but they are very flavorful.

Growing baby salad greens and micro greens couldn't be easier. Their roots are shallow, so even a 2" deep plant saucer will serve as a planter. Simply sow the seeds in damp sterile potting soil, cover them with a dusting of soil and keep the seeds moist by lightly misting them with water daily. Or if you're going to be gone for a while, cover lightly with plastic to conserve moisture.

Keep the pots in a warm location until they begin to sprout and then move them to a sunny window. If the plants look spindly or anemic, they need more light. The baby salad greens may require as much as 12 hours of light for healthy growth. A grow light is an easy remedy for this problem. Hang the lights about 6 to 12 inches above the plants.

Micro greens are ready to harvest in about 14 days. Baby salad greens will be ready in about 3 to 4 weeks. Trim them off at the base. They will regenerate and be ready for trimming in another month. For a continuous supply, start several containers 2 weeks apart.

Winter Animal Problems

University of Illinois Extension horticulture educator, James Schuster gives the following advice about minimizing critter damage in your yard during the winter:

Voles, rabbits and deer are animals that can mean headaches for homeowners trying to protect trees and plants during the winter months. They can and often do cause injury or death to trees. Rabbits are the number one offender. They feed on landscape plants when they can no longer get down to grass and other normal food supplies.

Rabbits are light enough to walk on the surface of the snow. The higher the snow is, the higher the damage can be. They will eat buds, tender shoots, and even the bark on the trunk. When rabbits eat the bark on only one side of the tree, there may or may not be die-back in the crown of the tree. However, when they eat the bark all the way around the trunk, the tree has been girdled and will die.
Some types of grafting can be done -- if done right away -- in order to keep the tree alive for several more years.

Rabbits will also eat a large variety of shrubs, sometimes girdling or eating them to the ground. However, this kind of damage on a shrub is not fatal. In fact, it can provide an incentive to correctly prune and "re-start" misshapen shrubs.

Rabbits are protected animals so it is illegal to trap or kill them. But it is legal to prevent them from eating the bark on your trees by placing a chicken wire collar around the trunk. The wire collar should be in contact with the soil and be at least two feet higher than the highest snow level expected and at least three inches out from the trunk. Or as high as the second-lowest branch on small trees.

Another damaging animal is the vole (sometimes called a field mouse or lemming). This animal usually eats the bark off plants at the soil line but sometimes can eat its way up the plant. Voles easily pass through chicken wire so one-quarter-inch hardware cloth is recommended.

It is very important that you anchor the wire well to the soil so that the vole cannot get under it. You can also keep voles away from plants by keeping the snow shoveled away from the base of the plants. Shovel at least a two-foot area out from the trunk all the way around the trunk.

Deer can also be pests. They cause damage by rubbing their antlers on the trunks of trees and rubbing the bark off. They also eat buds and tips of branches off the tree.

Protect trees by using heavy gauge fencing out a foot from the trunk.Use stakes to support the fencing. The wire needs to be five to six feet high to minimize damage. Deer are also protected animals.