Window Farming

Super interesting TED Talk Video on Window farming. Via the Greenists and RNDIY

I Made a Gutter Garden!!!

I became so obssesed with the Gutter Garden I had to make one for myself! First problem is I couldn’t find the “U” shaped style gutters they used in theirs, but I did find this kind of hermaphrodited "V" shaped at Lowes for $6.19 for a ten foot section, since I am making 5 levels to my gutter garden, that was great… although the end caps were $2.77 each or $16.62. Still, Under $5 for each section… is more than Do-Able. Of course my garage has those crappy vinyl gutters, and they must come off soon so it is good to know I will have a use for them after their existence has been terminated. Anyway back to the project:
First- I cut the gutters to 5- 23 ½ inch sections

Then I drilled to holes for the Eye Hooks and for drainage
(A quick hint: Since the holes have to be approximately the same measurement on the gutter, you can stack the gutter pieces together and drill them all at once to dave some time and frustration.
Then I installed the end caps
Then I put the eye hooks in,
a ¼”-20 X 2” on the bottom,
and a ¼”-20 X 4” on the upper or inside of the gutter using a coupler nut (so I have an eye hook above and one below so a person could stack the gutters by chain
Then it is done- you can go hang your gutter garden.
I suppose a person could just build on a wall or a fence by installing the gutters like they are on your house, but where is the fun in that? Besides I needed something in this space on the front porch. Now to start planting with chard and lettuce seeds! This would also be perfect for planting strawberries. The total cost ended up being $30.75, but would of course be a lot cheaper if I reused those old gutters on the garage!

I only party down with the best at:

My Mind is in the Gutter!!!

I am loving this Gutter Garden I found on Apartment Therapy~ now a really cool garden you can hang from the balcony above you! Here are the instructions from AHA! Home and Garden - and this hanging, vertical garden will be featured in the book, "Garden Up!" by Susan Morrison and Rebecca Sweet.

Bygel Kitchen Rail Herb Garden

I made a "window box again, this time using an Ikea "Bygel Rail" and some Bygel Containers. And I planted some herbs and put it out under one of the kitchen windows... Lemon Thyme, Onion Chives, Mexican Tarragon and Variegated Oregano are whats planted. The Bygel containers make perfect little pots the even have drainage holes and cost a whopping .99. This whole project set me back $5.95. I am thinking... A series of rails mounted on some Cedar boards might make a new Vertical garden. Y'all know how I love my Vertical gardens... hmmmm......
I only party down with the best at:

Another Vertical Garden

Another vertical garden- this time via Green Roof Growers, this one uses pallets and gallon milk jugs. read more about it here. Presented by Dr. Job Ebenzeer, Ph.d and the Technology for the Poor organization,, He also goes into using wading pools and tires. Very cool for a patio garden or apartment balcony.

No Space Gardening

Live in an apartment or condo- want to grow some fresh veggies? Have no room?
There are many answers for folks with no room to garden. Some of these links are local Seattle links, the rest everyone can use!

1. P Patches- Contact your city on info for community gardens, for a small fee, you may be able to rent a garden space

2. Urban Garden Share- In the Seattle area, Folks with room to garden who, for a small share of the garden bounty, or in some cases for free, will let you garden in their space: as of 10/8, there were over 10 gardens listed in the Burien area http://www.urbangardenshare.org/

3. Container Gardening- Great way to grow some veggies with a limited amount of space. If you have a balcony or terrace, you can grow a whole assortment of veggies to help supplement your food budget

My vertical garden

4. Try making a Vertical Wall garden- simple to make, just take a hanging shoe organizer, fill some used paper coffee cups with potting soile plant a few seeds in each one and Voila! a garden that not only gives you fresh veggies and herbs, but looks pretty good hanging up on your wall. Good info on making your own here
5. Try growing sprouts- Growing your own sprouts is fun and easy if you follow the six rules of sprouting:
1. Rinse often (2-3 times/day).
2. Keep them moist, not wet.
3. Keep them at room temperature.
4. Give them air to breathe.
5. Don't grow too many in one container.
6. Keep them in a dark place.
The first step is choosing which seeds to sprout. The standard sprout is the alfalfa sprout. This is the sprout often served on salads and sandwiches and your favorite restaurant or deli. However, there are many other seeds that make excellent sprouts, each with their own flavor and nutritional composition. You can sprout barley, broccoli, buckwheat, cabbage, fenugreek, garbanzo, green peas, lentils, mung beans (found in Chinese food), radishes, red clover, wheat, soy beans, sunflowers and more.
About Seeds
I have bought regular lentils and beans from the store; and they have worked fine. However, must add the following: Always use seeds packaged for sprouting. Buying bulk seeds and grains may seem cheaper than seeds packaged for sprouting, but they may not be worth it. Unless they are packaged as high-germination spouting seeds, only a portion of them will sprout. The ones that do not sprout, will likely ferment and spoil the batch. Do not use seeds meant for planting. They are often treated with chemical pesticides, fungicides and mercury coatings. Also, do not use seeds that have molds growing on them. Molds produce toxins which can cause food poisoning.
Growing sprouts in a jar:
The easiest method is to grow sprouts in a glass canning jar. Any size jar will do. To provide plenty of fresh air, cover the top of the jar with muslin, cheese cloth or nylon mesh screen and secure with a rubber band. You can also buy specially sprouting lids designed for this purpose.
Step One: Soaking
For a quart-sized jar, put 1 ½ to 2 tablespoons of small seeds (up to 1 cup if using larger seeds like green peas or garbanzo) in the sprouting jar. Cover top of jar with cloth or sprouting lid and rinse the seeds in warm (not hot) water. Drain and refill so that water is about an inch above the seeds. Let the seeds soak 8-12 hours (overnight). Protect from light by covering with a dish towel or placing in a cupboard.
Step Two: Rinsing
Rinse 2 to 3 times per day for 2 to 3 days. After thoroughly draining the rinse water, lay the jar on its side to spread out the seeds. Do not expose to light. After 2 to 3 days the sprouts should be filling up the jar.
Step Three: Removing Hulls
After 2 to 3 days the sprouts will have thrown off their hulls. To remove the hulls, place the sprouts in a bowl and run cool water over them. Most of the hulls will either float to the top or sink to the bottom making them easy to remove. (Note: not all seeds have hulls.)
Step Four: Harvesting
Rinse sprouts in cool water and remove any remaining hulls. Drain in a colander, but do not allow the sprouts to dry out. Place in an air-tight bag leaving room for air circulation. If your sprouts need to develop chlorophyll or carotene there is one final step. (The seed package directions should tell you whether greening is necessary.)
Step Five: Greening
Once the hulls are removed, place the sprouts back into the sprouting jar or into a clear plastic airtight bag. Put the sprouts in indirect sunlight. It takes about a day for the chlorophyll and carotenes to develop. Once the sprouts are ready rinse, drain, and eat, or refrigerate.
Storing: Sprouts will keep for about a week in the refrigerator if you rinse them once every day or two. Be sure to keep the sprouts from freezing as they are frost sensitive.
Seeds are easy to store. Put them an a glass jar with an air-tight lid and keep them in a cool, dark storage area. They will keep for a year or more.

Something new up, Courtesy of "Cheap Like Me" is Organic Acres, a CSA type garden where they do the work and the growing to your plans and their land; and in the Portland area- The Backyard Farmer, who will come and do your garden work for you-Both Cool Ideas.

Taking a Look at the Vertical Garden

Thought I would take a peek at how the vertical garden was doing. As you can see things are sprouting up! I had to use a catch for the water when watering it, so I thought why not put a planter at the bottom to catch the water going through the vertical planter? Works out great- I think if I where to do anything different, I would use Coco Coir instead of soil or a good mix of potting soil and Coco Coir to keep in the water. I have this hanging on the south wall of the house, in a spot that gets some sun and mostly shade as it is full of plants like mustard greens and lettuce- don’t want them babies to start bolting!
Looky here- the Nasturtiums are peeking out of their pockets!

Stealing all the good ideas

My vertical garden (taken with crummy cellphone camera)

The original from Instructables-

I was looking at my blogroll, (right side of page lower) and I noticed The Patio Farmer had a post "Instructable - Vertical Planter In A Shoe Pocket Thingie" well not wanting to miss out on a new technique, I went there and she had a link to an "INSTRUCTABLE" (on of my fave spots on the web), Anyway it was this gal who made a vertical garden out of one of those hanging shoe thingys. Not being one to miss an oppurtunity for blatant plagarism, I immediately went out to the thrift stores... Bingo the first one I stopped at had one of those "shoe thingys" for 1.99, which I greedily snatched up, went home and made my own "Vertical Garden", which has mustard greens, Turnip greens, Chard seeds, Romaine Lattuce seeds, and Nasturtium seeds. IF this works next year I will have one with shady flowers. This would be a cool idea for apartment dwellers with little or no space to garden to grow forth and grow something. And yes those are christmas lights hanging from the eaves. I am changing those out for LED christmas lights for my porch. It gets dark back there!

Editors NOTE: I found that using 16 ounce Used Coffee cups, Filled with The soil mix works better than just filling the Pockets with soil. Only a problem if you have an aversion to digging around the garbage cans at Starbucks. Of course I don't have this aversion, and proudly dig cups out of the garbage. LOL I am just po' white trash!!! Don't forget to poke a hole in the bottom of the cup!