that is a switch next to the door.. is there not an outlet next to the sink ... for a hairdryer or electric razor???

btw.. how are they attached to the wall ... looks pretty cool ... i presume no drainage hole ... if not.. that might lead to issues in the future.. and i would suggest pot in pot ... but that is the future.. not important right now ... fi we dont get some light in there ...

lights need to be on.. 6 to 8 hours a day ... i bet there is no battery that could do what you are dreaming about ....

and lights need to be rather close to the plant to mimic sunshine .. and that might be a secondary issue ...

ken

Yes there’s an outlet next to light switch. The planters are really cool. You don’t top water! https://wallygro.com/collections/living-wall-planter/products/living-wall-planter-white

We can run a cord around the door and over, but the design part of me is just going “ick.” Now I’m wondering if we can take can light above the tub and make it a directional one with this?

Another option would be to buy one of the strip-type mountable grow lights that have a USB connector and connect it to a compatable battery operated mobile charger.

Ooooh okay! The light in the photo is from a west-facing window, and I think most of the year will keep the plants happy. I just need to supplement during the dark winter days!

so that isnt the sink under the pots???

The bathtub is below the pots. A double sink is on the far right, out of frame.

I use standard daylight LED flood lights. They are less than 1/4 the price on sale.

Steve

Anything battery powered won’t offer enough power. Replacing the ceiling light with anything will still be too far away.

besides dropping power from the attic into the wall and adding a junction box, running a cord and mounting a light will be your second best bet.

Hire an electrician and tell him what you want to do. He should be able to give you exactly what you want and what the plants need.

Battery packs have actually gotten quite good, especially those designed for charging phones and the like on camping trips or long hikes, and there are some low power LED grow lights that, I have heard, work quite well. If the plan is only to use the lights during winter for a few hours when there is no light, a setup like that should be able to do the job (it IS important to look at the specs for the USB LED light and the pack you want to use and make sure that they are sufficient) but it would be necessary to charge the packs daily. A permanent installation would definitely be more convenient, but a lot more expensive. Another option would be to run the wires under cut-and-painted PVC to disguise them until they get to the wall outlet.

Battery operated lights might be good for emergency lighting but using it for a grow light would be next to impossible unless you had one big battery in the house.

Yes there is those hide a cord strips you can add to walls that are fairly easy to install (did that in a closet at our last house). Not the most attractive but it beats the cord itself.

Thank you everyone for the ideas and tips! I’m learning all I can about interior design and plants too, but just a newb. Here’s another picture showing the tub before any seeds were planted. I know I can run a cord from a ceiling-mounted light over the door frame to the outlet to the right of the door. Hopefully if we go that route, we could buy an all-white system so it wouldn’t be too much of an eyesore. I really do believe the plants will do well most of the year! My potted citrus (in CO) always “survives” in this bathroom over the winter but is usually much happier inside during non-winter months or outdoors in summer.

This is destined to be a messy dust collector plus leaves etc. plus the electrical issue. Are you sure you can't find a dedicated place elsewhere with power and water walking distance away. You could grow 100% under light and have total control.

Part of the reason for this location is the toddler issue. He can be kept away from here. Actually his room is the perfect place in terms of light 😆. We’ve had the seedlings a few months in there and have been really happy with it, but I’d say they seem to be growing slowly. It’s easy for me to water in the AM in there.

There are plenty of houseplants which would be happy in that location but it really isn’t a good place for herbs. Most of them make poor indoor plants, needing much more light and fresh air than is possible in a house.

What is more important your beautiful and productive healthy plants or your toddler.

Steve

Gotta love those toddlers. When our youngest daughter was raising herself up she would often pull the table lamp over along with any plant on top of the table. The natural inclination is to save the child and sacrifice the plant but sometimes I wanted to do the opposite (just kidding). So I started putting the plant on the floor but when she fell it was usually on top of the plant, breaking a lot of new stems. I started calling her "lead bottom" after the first couple of times. I finally gave up and learned to put the plant elsewhere when she was learning to walk. Amazing what parents have to put up with! HAHA! At least they were easier to deal with than teenagers they would eventually grow into.

I would have to disagree with floral_uk, in my experience herbs make excellent houseplants and I have had a lot of success growing them indoors. Oregano, parsley basil and marjoram are spices that grow great on my east facing bay window or anywhere else with minimal supplemental light.

An electrician could easily convert that outlet with all the switches to all the switches PLUS one plug-in outlet. The simplest solution would be to run the electrical cord over the door within a plastic conduit and upward to power a grow light above the pots. No battery powered light would last hour after hour, day after day. I'd be VERY leery of having something electrical live over a bathtub, however. If for any reason it should fall, any user of the tub could be electrocuted. The best solution, in my opinion, would be to have low light plants in those attractive pots and raise the herbs elsewhere. It would be easier to come up with something to protect the growing herbs from the toddler than to run any risk of electrocution. Show us an alternative location for your herbs and I could likely imagine an anti-toddler measure you could take.

you could try some of these. Do a control experiment -light up one set of plants and not another set of same plants for a week or two and see the difference. Also, you will figure out whether the battery life, recharging every day etc. is something you would be up for a few months every year.

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No for an electrician, just use these

Thank you everyone for weighing in here. We’ve decided for the time being to convert the overhead light right above these to a directional can with a grow light bulb and see what that does. The citrus tree will move to another room where we can safely add a grow light with cord. I just don’t feel I want to take any chances with corded lights in the bathroom for the moment. It’s a project we could’ve tried out when this window gets more light, but it’s fun to do home projects now while we’re all inside! We have a setup to grow herbs outside next summer, but in CO we’re trying things out in the meantime, and happily taking a Ron Finley approach. If the wall ends up becoming a houseplant wall, that’s fine too. We been enjoying fresh greenery in our bathroom with small hopes of a little food from it too. I will keep the electrician idea in mind when I don’t feel nervous with covid about having anyone else in our home. Happy New Year. ❤️