Apartment Garden Blues (Blog): Daylight Fluorescent Bulbs
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- Published on Friday, February 22 2013 18:26
- Written by Alexandra Martin
When compact fluorescent light bulbs first came out a few years ago, they were all dim and kind of … well … yellow. I was so happy to find “Daylight” bulbs at Home Depot a few years ago. The white light that really does look like daylight can brighten your mood. Ever heard of S.A.D. (Seasonal Affective Disorder)? These “winter blues” come about when the seasons change, and some people can benefit from light therapy. Just turn on a daylight bulb, and I’m sure you’ll feel a bit more chipper. I do, especially because I turn my daylight bulbs on over my seedlings!
Let’s face it. If you’re on BalconyContainerGardening.com, you’re probably a small-space gardener. If you have a small space to garden in, you probably have a small living area. A lot of us live in apartments and don’t have greenhouses or garages where we can start seedlings under giant grow lights. But we can devote a little bit of table space to a couple used plastic Starbucks cups where we start our seasonal tomato or pepper plant seeds. Take a cardboard box or stand a sturdy book up on its side and clip on tiny shop light with a Daylight CFL bulb, and you’ve got yourself a small-space area where you can start growing plants before your last frost. Not only do you have some pretty green container plants during the winter, but you have some extra light that will make you feel much better about it being crummy outside. Just remember to change out your Daylight bulbs every season, as they lose some of their oomph. They won’t go to waste, though. They’ll replace your old crummy yellow CFL bulbs that will just depress you anyway.
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Alexandra Martin is a professional writer from Southern California who grows vegetables, herbs, lots of aloe vera and one giant Boston fern in her balcony garden. She also grows dracaena, pothos and English ivy indoors. She loves traveling and birdwatching in addition to gardening.
