‘Dig’ The Earth

What is hydroponics?

The easy answer is growing plants without soil in a nutrient rich solution. There are several ways to set up a hydroponic system but each have a few things in common.

• They must allow enough room for the roots to grow.
• They must offer proper aeration for the roots so they do not drown in the water.
• They must offer a pH balanced and nutrient rich solution specific to the types of plants you are growing.
• They must offer sufficient lighting of the proper spectrum to support photosynthesis for proper growth

What is aeroponics?

Aeroponics is a division of hydroponics that suspends the plants above the nutrient rich reservoir.  The roots are fed the nutrient laden water either by drip irrigation, misting, fogging or highly aerated bubbles.  The most widely recognized aeroponic system is the Aerogarden by Aerogrow.

If you have the cash to lay out for the Aerogarden it is a very nice system that has all the necessary parts, pieces, nutrients and even seeds to make a small seroponic system work.  Whether it’s for flowers to britghten your mood or herbs to brighten your food there are a number of plants that can be grown in the Aerogarden appliance.

If you are more frugal and like DIY projects search for homemade aerogarden and you will find a number of alternatives.  None of them are as pretty as the aerogarden and it will take some time and expertise, but the DIY systems all seem to be practical and will grow plants.  Make sure you have enough space to accommodate a Rubbermaid tub with a lid and an external lighting apparatus.  Space issue and the potential for marital problems because of a loud ugly tub sitting in the front window.  The only place I have that has the space is the back porch, but it is way too cold out there right now so I’d have to rig up heating to.

Year Round and Urban Applications

Upon doing further research on hydroponics and searching on ebay I came across another idea – vertical hydroponic gardens.  I searched how to make a vertical hydroponic garden and I found a grass roots movement called WindowFarms.org.  They encourage the use of hydroponics to grow herbs, greens, and fruit crops year round in available window spaces.  Their system can either be purchased or built with readily available tools and items and repurposed plastic water bottles (they suggest using ones made by Nestle).  Their community forum and blog, our.windowfarms.org, offers the opportunity to read about the experiences of others using the windowfarms idea and how they have succeeded, modified and improved the basic windowfarms concept.  So whether you are a gardener that longs to have fresh produce from your garden in the dead of winter or an apartment dweller who does not have an outdoor space available for gardening a window farm is a space saving way to “get your green on” .

It is so gratifying to be able to make meals with vegetables and herbs harvested from your own garden. Yesterday I made a mushroom soup that called for a mixture of herbs like sage, thyme, marjoram and rosemary. I had all but the marjoram – which I substituted with oregano – right in my garden. It felt really good to do that. I have a huge load of tomatoes that I need to process – chop and freeze or allow to ripen.

I did get one small watermelon from my garden this year. There were about a dozen sweet dumpling squash I was able to harvest. I might make some soup or pies out of them. Next year my plan is to make the garden even bigger so we can have more of a variety.

It’s Saturday morning and though I got a late start on seeding my flats this year I am pretty happy with my progress.  I have one mini greenhouse, one milk jug and 2 of the 10″ x 20″ black plastic flats with clear plastic domed covers planted.  After just 4 days I even have some sprouts from one of the flats.

Green Mini Greenhouse: The Basil Flat

I had forgotten how many varieties of basil I had until I went through my seeds the other day.  This will be my second attempt to get some decent plants out of these seeds.  Instead of using store bought peat pots or plastic trays in this mini greenhouse I used my hand rolled newspaper pots that I made a few years ago.  There was enough room for 11 rows of 7 little pots.  I labeled the lid with the seed name and L for left and R for right and the base with L and R so I could keep tabs on which row was which.  They were planted, watered and set in a south facing window with the cover on and vents closed on 4/14/09.

These are the seeds planted in the mini greenhouse from left to right:

• Cinnamon Basil
• Purple Basil
• Italian Sweet Basil
• Dwarf Bush Fineleaf Basil
• Spicy Globe Basil
• Greek Basil
• Fino Verde Basil
• Summerlong Basil
• Siam Queen Thai Basil
• Lime Basil
• Easter Egg Plant (no this isn’t basil, but I had an extra row )

Flat 1: Tomatoes and Peppers

I have a myriad of tomato and pepper seeds.  Since they have similar requirements for temperature and light I decided to plant them in one flat together.  The flat has 16 rows of 8 cells each.  The seeds were planted, watered and covered and placed over the top of my 30 gallon aquarium on 4/14/09.  The temperature above the aquarium and aquarium light is about 80 degrees providing a warm enough temperature to encourage germination.  After 3 days some of my tomatillo seeds (that are 6 years old) already started to sprout.  Yesterday morning, the 17th, I moved the flat to the south facing window.  This morning I noticed that one of Robbie’s Tomatoes had started to sprout.

These are the seeds in Flat 1 from left to right, and bottom to top (or front to back):

• King’s Choice Hybrid Tomatoes/Beefsteak Tomatoes
• Robbie’s Tomatoes/Spike’s Tomatoes (unsure of varieties, harvested from relatives gardens 2 years ago)
• Mom’s Tomatoes/Mystery Hot Pepper
• Olena Ukranian/Italian Market Wonder/Bonny Best/Golden Queen – only had a few seeds so I planted 2 of each
• Costoluto Genovese/Cosmonaut Volkov/Marglobe VF/TigerLike Tomatoes – 2 of each
• Assorted Tomatoes/Speckled Roman Heirloom
• Tomatillos
• Delicious Tomato/ Mystery Tomato
• Jelly Bean Hybrid (commercial ’07 pelleted)/commercial ’08 pelleted/harvested ’07 fermented
• Chile Arbol
• Chile Bola
• Chile Guajillo (4)/Cajun Tabasco (2)/Cuban Hot (2)
• Chile Ancho (aka Poblano)
• Green Bell Pepper/Red Bell Pepper
• Jalapeño Early Pepper/Serrano Pepper
• Marconi Red Pepper/Cayenne Pepper

Milk Jug Greenhouse 1: Mary Washington Asparagus

In this milk jug there are 19 hand rolled newspaper pots with Hoffman Seed Starter mix.  There are air holes cut in the top and sides and drain holes in the bottom.  The pots were seeded and watered and placed outside on 4/16/09.  The Mary Washington Asparagus seeds from 2004 season were put in warm water and allowed to soak for 10 days (hope it wasn’t too long; I kind of forgot about them ).

Flat 2: Herbs and Veggies

This 10×20 flat was filled with 8 9-cell trays.  Each tray holds one variety of seed.

These are the herbs and veggies planted in flat 2 listed as laid out in each tray (since I didn’t plant them in rows per se):

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Fennel	Oregano	Lemon Balm	Summer Savory
Marjoram	Curled Parsley	Early Golden Acre Cabbage RadicchioMilano (1) Early Golden Acre Cabbage	Broccoli Waltham

Well then here is the start of my planting for the 2009 season. I truly hope I didn’t get started too late. I think this afternoon Yeyda and I will go outside once the baby falls asleep so we can start cleaning up the yard. It feels phenomenal to have the windows open finally after being trapped in the house for so many months.

Last week I noticed as I looked out the window that my tulips are peaking out of the ground as are my daylilies, wormwood and phlox.  It won’t be long and we will have a lush display of many shades of green with different textures and shapes of leaves.  It made me itch to do some gardening.

My “winter” sowing has become a moot project.  Since it is officially spring I’m going to try the same technique but without the benefit of snow cover or so I thought. Last night in an effort to keep my little 3 year old entertained I asked her to help me go through my seed collection and remove seed pods from some dried out sedum flowers.  She thought that was great.  Later I checked the weather report since it had been raining most of the day and it mentioned something about snow on Monday.

Today so far has been a soggy, messy, rain/snow mix.  Not enough to look pretty or stick, just enough to make you feel blah.  My only consolation is that my flowers and plants that are in the ground are getting plenty of water right now.

I’ve picked out the seeds that I want to start indoors today.  Tomatoes, basil, and easter egg plant are among the candidates.  I also have several varieties of peppers that I want to get going before it gets to late.  When you think about 90 days to mature that means I’ll need to have plants ready by the first part of June if I want fruits before the first frost.   Any later than the mid part of June and I’m asking for a very short window to harvest any fruits off my warmer weather plants.  I’ll keep you posted how things go.

This site, FreedomGardens.org,  is mostly new to me.  Our friends at New York Renovators blog joined and when I read their post it moved me to sign on too.  The premise of this site is to encourage families all over the US and the world to become more self sustaining – at least as regards their food.   They were inspired by the Victory Gardens of the late 40s and 50s that were encouraged by the US government after the end of World War II.

Today we have a different war to wage.  A war against rising food prices, fuel prices and global warming.  Even if you don’t completely agree with the global warming argument you can’t fight the fact that prices for everything – especially our daily necessities – are going through the roof.  Freedom Gardens encourages the “pioneers” of today to use every available space in their yard, containers, patios, rooftops or wherever to grow some plants for food that you know you will use.

Personally, I like to grow herbs in doors in the winter.  Just last week I planted some basil seeds.  I love to make Caprese salad with basil, tomatoes and baby mozzarella cheese.  Margherita pizza is awesome too.   Other herbs that are good to cultivate indoors are chives, parsley and sage.  These three are actually perennial (or biennial for parsley) in most areas.  I have peppermint, chocolate mint, strawberries and a second year sage plant in a plot outdoors.  The sage has bloomed, dropped seed, dried up and regrown already once this year.  I collected a bunch of seeds from the sage, but I’m not going to bother with the strawberries or mint plants since they spread readily from runners.  Last year I buried cuttings of the chocolate mint that didn’t have roots on them or had been damaged and that space ended up being my most prolific producer of mint this year.  I planted a stevia plant right next to the mint and my little girl absolutely loves picking the stevia and mint and eating it together.  For her it’s like candy and I don’t mind it because it’s good for her digestion and not bad for her teeth .

Check out Freedom Gardens.  There are many knowledgable, kind gardeners already in the network.  Look for me on the network under the name “geckospyker”.  I’m in zone 5, but would love to be freedom garden friends with anyone who’d like to share experiences, knowledge or seeds.

I learned the hard way that even with proper storage commercially produced seeds lose their viability with time. In 2003/2004 I bought a boatload of seeds and have been trying ever since to get them all used up. Well I think I’ve finally succeeded. I should have thrown them away about a year ago. None of the carrot seeds I sowed in the garden germinated, nor did the chrysanthemum, corn salad, arugula, dill, beets or chard. Thankfully, after years of trying I do have a successful and attractive bunch of cilantro. My mache is growing and so is my craquante de quatre saison. Rabbits ate the tops off all my radishes before I could harvest so they were a bust. You could see their little teeth marks in the top of the radish.

Here is a plan to not get stuck with too many seeds. Find a friend that likes to garden and share your seeds with them. Sometimes one package of seeds is too many for a small home garden so splitting it gives both (or more people) something to share. There are several sites across the internet that offer seed sharing and trading, including, Wintersown.org, Gardenhere.com, and Gardenweb.com from iVillage. There is a plethora of people willing to share their seeds and plants for postage and you can too.

When you buy seeds don’t go cheap. It is tempting to buy cheap packs from Big Lots that offer a lot of seeds, but often their viability is much lower than other seeds thus the bulk just gives you more to gamble with. Really consider your space and pick plants/seeds that will fill but not overwhelm each other and you. Also, think about what your family likes and will likely eat in one season.

If you happen to have seeds leftover at the end of a season that you weren’t able to use don’t fret. Keep them in a cool dry place until the beginning of your next season. A freezer is OK; a small college size refrigerator or a corner in your fridge (if you have room) would be ideal. Put them in small plastic boxes with silica gel packs from your shoe boxes so that no moisture bothers them and causes them to mold and rot. If you visit Trudy at Wintersown.org you will see that she has a number of ways to store her seeds, most of them out of cold storage. You must remember though that she turns over those packets very quickly and will rarely have all of those seeds in her possession for a whole season. In any event, try to get your seeds shared or used by the end of the next season. After that it may be time to add them to the compost heap.

It has taken a while but finally the pepper seedlings have come up.  Probably, I could have taken the tomatoes out about a week ago, but morning sickness had me doubled over and too tired to care much about seedlings.  If you look inside my fish tank greenhouse you’ll see a plethora of tomato plants and some new dark green pepper plants.  In blog hopping this morning I came across a post at Ken’s Trees about hardening off seedlings.  I wanted to share with you the schedule he came up with that I am going to follow for hardening off my little plants.

Day 1: 15 minutes in shade

Day 2: 30 minutes in shade

Day 3: 1 hour in shade

Day 4: 2 hours in shade

Day 5: 2 1/2 hours in shade, 1/2 hour in sun

Day 6: 3 hours in shade, 1 hour in sun

Day 7: 4 hours in shade, 2 hours in sun

Day 8: 5 hours in shade, 3 hours in sun

Day 9: 6 hours in shade, 4 hours in sun

Day 10: 6 hours in shade, 6 hours in sun

Day 11: 14 hours in sun location

Day 12: 16 hours in sun location

Since I live out in the country and there are some large trees and outbuildings on the property there are plenty of areas for both shade and sun.  To the north of our house where our back yard is it is very windy most days.  We do have a fence and a few little nooks for windbreak so the seedlings don’t get toppled.  Being inside the tank will also help prevent them from getting too windblown.  The days that will require sun exposure I will put the tank out on the east side of the house early in the morning.  This way the sun won’t be too hot and the temperature of the mornings is still fairly cool.  As the need for sun increases beyond a few hours I’ll have to move the tank to the front, or south, of the house and keep them well watered as they could dry out quickly in full sun.   Like Ken mentions in his post we don’t get full sun in any one spot in the yard for 14 to 16 hours (unless I want to drag the tank into the middle of the neighboring field) so I’d imagine by day 11 I’ll probably be getting ready to plant the little guys in the garden.

This is always one thing that makes me nervous in the growing process – repotting your new seedlings. Sherxr from Ur Resident Chef had a question about when and how to repot. Well, I’ve had my share of successes and failures in this regard, but I’ll share with you the process that seems to work best.

I’d wait until they have one set of true leaves before you move them to a pot (unless they are too crowded). As the seedlings grow make sure they have some airflow to help stave off dampening off fungus and also to make the stalk strong before you repot them. If you plan on setting the pots outside – like on your porch or a rooftop garden – harden them off before you repot unless they are overly crowded.

Hardening off is a process where the plants get accustomed to the conditions outdoors – gradually. Take them outside early in the morning for an hour or two so they get used to the air flow and sunshine. Increase the time they spend outdoors gradually as the days go by. At first keep them out of the heat of the midday sun or you’ll end up with dead seedlings fairly quickly. As When you are getting ready to repot let them dry out a bit and stop fertilizing. Get your pots ready with a good potting mix and use the first leaves that came up after germination to pull them from their current location. A pencil usually works well to lift the roots from the dirt.

For tomato and pepper seedlings if they have more than one set of leaves you can probably bury the plant up to the lowest set in the ground.  This gives the plant added stability as it grows.

Monday I spent most of the day driving around because I had appointments everywhere but home. It was nice though because my baby girl got to spend some time with her cousins. I took the opportunity to get some cow manure compost, petunias, basil, rosemary, sweet marjoram and lavender at the local Lowe’s store. There were a few groceries I had to pick up so I took the opportunity to peruse the garden center at Meijer and found they had Stargazer Asian Lily bulbs packed in bags shoved in a small end cap hanging box. I found one that had sprouted and was semi upright with no other signs of abuse. They were so cheap I just couldn’t leave them. Not to mention the Asian lily bulbs that I picked up last year probably rotted in the ground. Well, all but one that seems to have divided as well even though it never broke ground last year. I got them in a pot as soon as I could, but with all the stuff that was clanging around in the back of the car the little bud and topmost leaves got pinched off. I also lost half the basil plant (that’s why I got the biggest one I could find).

Tuesday, Earth Day, was such a nice day from the get go that we had all the windows open, the lights off and the air conditioning off. I don’t think I even turned the lights on in the aquariums that day. Poor fishies. Eh, they don’t care as long as they’re fed. It actually got pretty hot in the afternoon. My little one wanted to be outdoors with me and I doused her with SPF 50 before we went outside. She covered herself in sand while I spread compost and gypsum on the garden. After a little while even though she was mostly in the shade you could see the rosiness of her cheeks increasing. So, I convinced her that it was time for her afternoon nap.she wanted to go to her room, but since she was covered in sand (though I couldn’t see it I was convinced it was there and didn’t want to try and get it out of her carpet) I had her sleep on the couch, which she loves anyway. She was out for three and a half hours. Plenty of time for me to plant some 2 year asparagus plants, re pot all my herbs and plant the lily bulbs. I wanted to keep the herbs fairly close to the house so I found some old pot hangers and a birdbath that was left with the house and used them to display the little herb garden near my front door.

Until lately I haven’t done much to follow the progress of conservation efforts. I think having a child now and also having a little plot to cultivate yearly has really given me a sense of perspective about the future of the planet. That’s pretty much why I wanted to start this garden blog in the first place. It’s not only to share my gardening progress, trials and tribulations, but also to share information about how we can daily help improve the future of the planet. Through conservation, using organic items, encouraging biodiversity when we garden, etc. are all things we can do to help. We need this and our children will benefit.

The other day at Wal-Mart (whom my husband calls the evil empire) I saw signs all over the place for Earth Month 2008. Being the largest retailer in the world it would make sense that they should offer their customers products that do not overtly harm the environment and encourage the millions that shop there to be more ecologically responsible. If you are a budget conscious shopper it is sometimes difficult to buy these certified organic products. Stores like Wal-Mart and Meijer (in the midwest) are coming out with natural and organic products that are cost effective for most any consumer.

If you can have your own garden in the summer try to grow some easy crops like salad greens, potatoes, green beans and tomatoes. Being able to harvest fresh food from your own land or container without it being contaminated by pesticides or herbicides or hormones is something of which you can feel proud. With the rising cost of food because of fuel prices being able to go a season without having to buy these things could save you some serious cash and add peace of mind.

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In zone 5 we have about 5-6 weeks before the last estimated frost which gives us enough time to start tomato seeds indoors. You could also wait until the end of May and buy some tomato seedlings from your local garden center – buy heirloom varieties if you can and save seeds once you harvest. This will encourage biodiversity and give you and your friends seeds for good juicy fruit next year. It will cost you the same as buying 2 lbs. of tomatoes but will yield at least 10 times that before the growing season is over. Salad greens, lettuce, spinach and carrots can be planted outside right now; the sooner the better. Once it starts to get warmer the greens and lettuces will get bitter tasting and the plants will bolt (go to seed). Green bean seeds can be planted directly in the garden once the danger of frost is past – probably the last week in May/first week of June.

As a matter of fact, today I planted 20 varieties of greens, herbs and root crops. My earliest harvest will be in mid-May. I could resow every 2 weeks for continuous harvest or leave the space clean after harvest for summer and fall bearing fruits and veggies.