Nice interior garden, nice to see something different, here's something a friend of mine just finished up it's pretty awesome It's hard to see on the picture but theres a waterfall coming down into the pond and all plants are alive and well. It now houses dart frogs and is already pretty overgrown. This is what got me into biology when i was a teenager.
from the indoor garden one day a few weeks back I hear they are pretty good although I don't eat them.
Tell me about it, i own a CSA organic farm plot and have to force myself to eat vegetables, why is it the best tomato tastes worst than the worst steak...good thing shooting a dear is almost free....the tomatoes i grow at home all get turned into sauce or given away...giving vegetables away is by far the best way i have found to have peace and harmony amongst neighbors, they even plow my driveway now.
strange isn't it... love to grow stuff, just don't eat them! LOL It's the growing part that is fun and magical though. The rest of my family enjoys the fruits (and veggies) of my labors though Ironically, while I don't eat tomatoes for example, I love most products made from them - awesome homemade tomato sauce for pasta, salsas, ketchup, etc. I don't eat peppers at all but others in the family do so I love growing it for them. I do grow the strawberries mainly for me. if anyone else wants any I'm thrilled for them to enjoy but I planted the berries for my own happiness to enjoy since I don't get to eat the rest of the garden lol When I first started the tent and was doing DWC in a big storage tote I had different lettuces and I'll admit that growing different varies of greens did tempt me a few times to actually try a few of them which SHOCKED my wife as i do NOT normally try new foods, especially vegetables! LOL I'm like a little kid when it comes to most veggies - get them away from me! I did try the mustard and the arugulas I grew and was actually surprised I enjoyed them. The arugula especially had a very black peppery taste. wow! you own a farm plot? I'm jealous! would LOVE to have some land to grow and farm. I grow up on a farm my first 16 years but moved away. Always wanted nothing but that farm to work since I was born but it wasn't to be. Haven't be able to step foot back on that land in over 35 years. I'd be happy with even just 2 or 3 acres, just enough for some nice garden plots, a greenhouse to garden and grow year round, and enough room for a big area so we can take in some rescue dogs. my wife would disagree since she is a nicer person than I am, but for ME, peace and harmony amongst neighbors means being far enough away from them to actually not have any! LOL
Check out CSA programs in your area, thats how i got started, many large and failling farms (which are basically all over america) will rent you a small part of their land for next to nothing. CSA will most likely have ready have farmers lined up. The first year i rented 1 acre of so-so soil from a old dairy farm for 600$ CA...so 400$ us more or less...so any money i was making after say 1000$ (when you factor in expenses) was all profit. After a couple of years i was renting 5 acres, i was then offered the plot for sale (most stressful thing i have ever done). Since then i have partered up with friends and have created a COOP since i no longer have time to take care of it with school.
interesting idea, I would never have thought of it. can definitely see how that could work. for ME though not sure how well it would work, just because of how I know myself. first, it's different to walk out your door and be able to work on your own land - it's yours and it's also right there whenever you want. maybe I'm up at 3am (usually I'm up anyway) and want to play in the garden or whatever the situation it would be right there on my land anytime for "free" for me to enjoy. Having to travel to a close-by farm somewhere to do my gardening / growing now becomes work and a chore. Next, if I have my own land I can use for whatever I want, including growing / gardening / farming / whatever it's because I want to and enjoy it. But now if I have to rent or lease a plot now my brain says i HAVE to go and do the gardening work and i HAVE to make it work well because I'm spending money monthly or yearly for that land I HAVE to do it now or else it's just a waste of money and if i HAVE to do it than it's not a hobby or relaxing pastime to help relieve stress and to relax - now it's adding more to my stress. I just know myself - if i had to travel to the garden or farm plot I won't do it.
I actually sleeped in a large prospector tent with my wife on the plot. Adding travel time would have killed us. Not trying to deter you or anything...but if traveling to the plot is to much work....dont get into farming....i can garantee you will not be up at three am playing in the garden, unless high on coke...since you'd have been up since 5 the morning before. Having a farm and not going broke is NOT and will never be an easy job, hell even when things go right its hard work. Worth it though. I'm presently trying to get my farm to be considered ''experimental'' so all salaries and expenses would be paid by the government and all grown food would be given away.
you are a very generous neighbor! not sure if I'm more envious of your neighbor or more jealous of your greenhouse! LOL
LOL no deterrent at all! I already KNOW I'd never travel to get to a plot at 3am even when i'm already up. not gonna happen. nope, only way I'm out in the garden or field that early or basically the way I would want it "when ever I damn well felt like walking out to the garden, including any instant urge" means I need a place to garden right at home - out my backdoor. most I'd ever want to 'travel" would be if I won the lottery and was able to have sizable land again I'd be ok hoping on the tractor and driving out to the "back forty". That kind of travel I'd do, but otherwise... nah! ad since that means I'm stuck with my backyard i'm screwed because where i'm currently at it's a TINY backyard, plus totally surrounded with tall trees we aren't allow to touch putting my tiny backyard in 95% shade all day. even grass refuses to grow back there and most soil eroded away and most what is there is threadbare soil, wisps of grass, and lots of tree roots just barely below the surface. Add to that I hate our local climate in the summer - FAR, FAR too hot and humid for my liking so to adapt to the problems my solution was to garden inside. definitely close enough, and constant comfortable temperature to work in.
now that I have a nice sized area in the basement to move and expand the veggie garden to I have the fun job of planning how i want to eventually make the space into. I already have a general idea of what I eventually would like it to be..... but I'll start off small - i'm thinking a single bed. get a soil mix dialed in and learn wtf I'm doing than expand to basically add beds throughout the space for different crops - including companion plantings within each bed, just like you would in raised beds outdoors... just indoors! except for one angled corner it's almost a perfect 14' x 14' space. that's a fair amount of room for raised beds. i'll be starting small - thinking 50-60 gallon pot / bed. or maybe a 4 x 4 fabric pot. after that I can expand after I've learned and mastered the first one with lots of room to look forward to. I think that will take awhile, quite a while.... LOL
My GH is simple. What comes around goes around. Its amazing how happy folks in their 70's are, to have plants to take care of, and to be able to have good, fresh food to eat (especially where I live). The first time I gave these neighbors plants, they were cherry toms. I will never forget the excitement in this woman's voice. She came and got me, and in a hurried but happy voice, speaking a mix of, Aleut, Russian, and English "Dr., Dr., come, come. The green berries... bleeding. The green berries,,, come' come, " In typical form, I had absolutely no idea what she was talking about. Low and behold the 'berries' were the cherry tomatoes, for which she knows no words. She fell in love with tomatoes. That is enough reward for me, to last a lifetime. They call me Dr., cause I also taught her to use aloe and comfrey and a ton of other plants. They don't trust real Doctor's too much. They think the hospital is where people go right before they die. (I actually understand that one.) Happy growing cheers os
great story I don't eat much of what I grow but i do love to see others enjoy it. and I understand their feelings towards doctors and hospitals..........
since this is a veggie thread thought I'd throw this out for info, i just got it in an email it's from Seedsavers.org
that's pretty much it - not a veggie person! I do basic lettuce, corn, potatoes, pretty much that's it. i will say, because of my growing i have tried a couple veggies or herbs I would never have tried before. probably still won't eat them but the fact I actually tried them was amazing enough (wife was in complete shock) and only because I grew them.
Well - it’s still a frozen solid wasteland across the street where my garden is; where my raised leaf lettuces/herb bed is as well as everywhere else I suppose - But I’m looking forward to the garden relatively soon - we are almost in April - and once the snows are gone I’ll start prepping in there - so much work - naw, I’m kiddin’ - all I’ll be doing is mulching for the most part and yanking whatever weeds try and poke their heads up - I **DO** need to take down the old fence and get some new cedar posts - and most likely stretch some new 4’ chicken wire around it - build a new garden gate... I want to hit the woods and cut a mess of young swamp maple and make it a woven fence with thicker horizontal and a lot of thinner whips woven vertically through the thicker horizontal pieces - but of course that’s time-dependent - At least Spring is super extremely slowly starting to poke its head out - Need me some kneeling in the dirt garden time - Winter is a long proposition up here in Maine and after so long of no garden time it’s a pretty wonderful thing when the time actually comes... Another month.... at least, just to start playing and prepping out there...man - a couple months before actually planting anything.... J
I'm really really late for my spring seed starting but since most of the them will be indoors anyway I guess it doesn't matter too much - indoors it's spring year round. Finally had time to get a few seeds started anyway.... under the humidity dome..... 4 varieties of tomatoes, 4 varieties of peppers, ground cherry, 2 types of basil a lot of seed packets still waiting for me to get to.....
never gardened outdoors at this location before except a few plants on the deck last summer. damn slugs ate everything in sight the first 2 nights I put out plants.... want to do a raised bed or two off the deck on our currently TINY backyard - but I'll need a deer fence and rabbit fence. Deer especially use our backyard as their personal grand central station. in our zone we are getting ready to get into the ground between now and the next few weeks. I won't be IN the ground and I will be late but that's ok