Grow Away Little Girl

Since March I've been experimenting with gardening - a couple of things have sparked this interest. In December I moved into another position at work which keeps me busy but I also now have more free time on my hands. I work from home two days a week and that means no travel and I can spend my lunch hour pottering in the garden. The other reason is why everyone else has a sudden interest - prices. David and I spend about $80  to $100 a week in vegetables and given the financial state of the world these days - it will not get better anytime soon. So, I thought I'd let you know what I've figured out in my horticultural travels. First off, I have inherited my Grandparents green thumb.

Hooray. 

Hydroponic Gardening - my first outing - I researched units and found some horrifyingly expensive. What's the point if I'm spending a thousand dollars (or more) on growing $50 worth of lettuce? Amazon has some cheaper versions, the one I bought holds 72 plants, the net cups and sponges, came with a pump and cost $114. You can also DIY with PVC pipes but the labor and cost end up being about the same. The unit came with almost no instruction so I Youtubed it.  I checked out lighting at the local shop and  nope - $500 to $1000 for a basic set up - $80 Amazon. I bought a seedling heating pad ($14) and trays ($12) plant nutrient mix ($15). Discovered old tissue paper ($0) works just as well as special growing paper. So. I bought rock wool to replace the sponges, it's biodegradable - I'm not sure if the sponges are reusable. I planted zucchini in the hydro unit and it's growing great guns! but it takes up a huge amount of real estate covering my other little plants. So far I've counted about a dozen little zucchini, the rest are pretty new seedlings.  But in the end everyone is growing well. The only issue is pollination, since the unit is outside not a problem but if it's inside you have to do it by hand. Which was not hard at all. You Tube. I change the water once a week, my reservoir is a 10 gallon black covered tote ($6) and you have to keep it out of the sunlight or you get algae. Algae will take all the oxygen out of the water and kill the plants. 

Dutch Bucket -  I'm doing this passively right now - you can buy a set up with a pump which works like the hydro unit but it's more expensive ($225 for 6 with a pump) and it takes up a lot of space. I do have a lot of Amazon points though.... but for now since I'm still figuring it out I'm not investing in something that may not be workable. So. 4 inch net cups ($12 for 25), clay pebbles ($11 for 2 pounds which is a lot), 5 gallon pail with a lid from Lowes ($7.50). I'm using the Kratky Method for this which I'm loving. I took a plant from the hydro unit, in the cup with the clay pebbles (for holding it upright and aeration), David cut a hold in the lid for the cup to sit in. Add plant nutrients, fill to the top, pop the top on and that's it. I explained the Kratky method below.

Raised Garden  - David built these (about $500) - we spent more because it will be a permanent structure. David also had to put a fence and gate because Bee and Dutch were using them for playing King Of the Hill and would not stop. Bastards. We got a load of topsoil for the yard anyhow to fill a dip and we had the rock left over from the driveway, easy peasy. I had seedlings started, seeds, etc... I bought belles, lavender and hydrangeas for the middle garden to attract the bees for pollination and a couple of started plants at the small nursery down the road.  Since I started quite a few seedlings I have most of it filled, I have another set of seedling started and they will probably go in next week.  I've also inspired some neighbors to start their own gardens, one waved at me yesterday and shouted rather cheerily "we're copying you!" so my efforts are not going un-noticed. 

The Kratky Method -  this is the addictive one. I've got 3 going, rock wool ($12 for 100) or net cup and any light blocking container ($0). I have 3 so far using a kombuca bottle, a yogurt container and an old hydrogen peroxide plastic bottle.  Same as the Dutch Bucket - the way it works is you put your seeding in and fill to the top. As the plant uses the water the space left provides the air to the plant and gets the roots to grow to reach. You just need to add it occasionally and you can use a container depending on the size of the plant you want to grow - I will be using the Dutch Bucket for zucchini in the future. You can only do one plant per container (unless you use a tote sized one ) so it can look kind of junky. 

The whole reason I'm experimenting is I'm planning on year round gardening. David will be finishing the green house and I have the big lights  - FYI look on FB marketplace, Craigslist, etc.... failed growers sell that stuff for nothing!! The only downside is everything smells vaguely of pot. But I bought about $1500 dollars worth of equipment for $75 so no complaints here. So far I've been pretty pleased with my progress. 
 

A Year Of Dutch.

Today is Dutch's official One Year Anniversary of being our dog. A year and a half ago was the horrible dog year, Molly first dying 32 hours after being diagnosed with a terminal abdominal tumor. Then Rueben following on her heels to the Elysian Fields not 6 weeks later with so many tumors they were on his heart and one lung was obliterated. No, we were not asleep at the switch - both cancers are insidious, there were virtually no symptoms until it was too late. Molly we didn't have time to breath - for Rueben the vet told us we could pursue treatment but best case was 6 months and he would spend the 6 months with surgeries and treatments. And just when we thought it couldn't get any worse Rueben and I were attacked by a raccoon  - we were both mauled and bitten multiple times - that just pushed everything over the edge. As hard as it was, we let him go gently. Crying for two months straight  doesn't even begin to cover it. 

I was destroyed. 

But then there was Bee the puppy and even though we were still recovering it was like the world was righting itself.  So smart, cute and her crazy antics  - you couldn't ask for a better dog. And then a few months later I got a text from Jess letting me  know that Bee's brother had been returned due to some unfortunate circumstances, was I interested? It was an almost immediate YES and I was on my way 5 days later - his name was Red which I changed of  course, a red dog named Red just makes you sigh, doesn't it?  The ride home was me being excited with Dutch quietly sitting in the back seat, trying to take it all in. When we got about 20 miles from home my new car died at the gas station which resulted in a slightly hysterical  phone call to my office since I couldn't reach David. Carmen came and got us, calmly loaded Dutch in the backseat and took us home. And it was of all the simple things the battery. When we arrived Bee was beside herself with joy - Dutch not so much. He went from pillar to post to pillar in a span of 3 weeks so he had some catching up to do. And dogs do grieve, I'm sure there were a few weeks he waited for his family to come get him and bring him home, he waited. But the sad, quiet days grew shorter and - I don't know if they really ever forget, but like us they move on. 

David gets tired of my lauding his virtues, yes he's the best looking dog he's ever seen, he's very smart, so nice and yes, he does seem more talented than other people's dogs, but honestly I don't think I've had a dog that I've loved this much in a long time. You know how sometimes you'll get a pet and they're just the best thing ever? But he is - he's so gentle and sweet  - when the granddaughters are here all he wants is to be with them. At night he lays on my lap,much to Bee's annoyance. Like any sister she does things to get under his skin, she'll take the favored toy and hold it so he can't have it, get in my lap and refuse to move - Dutch takes this all seriously and becomes a drama llama by throwing his head back and howling. Bee just keeps it up. But for the most part they get along well and they play well. David continues to train them to hunt and hopefully this fall they will get out there a few times. Dutch got some new stuff for his anniversary much to David's eye rolling and Bee got too since you cannot explain this anniversary stuff

Happy One Year With Us Dutch! 

You're the best!

 

Bumbling In Botany

I have a tendency to bulldoze through anything - I rarely approach anything slowly with great thought and research. I get blindsided by inspiration often - I'll just be toodling along and suddenly will think I should take up learning Udo or maybe live in a Yurt. In Idaho. While raising Alpacas and then next thing you know I'm attending YouTube College getting my PhD in Binge Watching How To Shear Alapacas. David is a big Nope on many of these ventures if they incude requirements such as Work  Visas, snowshoes or livestock. His take is I will lose interest as soon as the next Fun Thing comes along and he'll be in charge of a herd of bleating sheep. And he doesn't like sheep. He might not be wrong. But if it's something that doesn't require anything from him, moving or a loan and might possibly of use he's ok with it. Which is how I ended up playing with hydroponic gardening. 

I have a few reasons I'm interested in this - you can do it year round, it can be inside or out and if I can get to the point of growing real food - we will be saving tons of money plus decreasing our footprint. I initially started looking in the pot growing shops and quickly abandoned that - the investment was way out of my comfort zone. Lighting starts around a thousand dollars - and that's just the lighting. Most people frequenting those shops are pot farmers and start ups, not zucchini and lettuce people. So - on to Amazon. My set up plus the pump, plus the lights came to under $200 so I was happy with that. In the relative scope of things that's not bad for a hobby. We have a closed in sun room in the back - i was going to start off in the grow room under the house but realized starting out it would be difficult, there is no water hooked up down there so I would have to carry buckets of water up and down the ladder for the weekly water change so that was off the table. Plus David pointed out we have plenty of room up here so aside from the fun factor of telling people I was gardening under the house there wasn't any benefit to it. 

So, my first round of seedlings I had about 20 survivors, I just added the second round. I am going to be gardening outside with raised beds but I want to get this down pat for the winter. David is also building me a greenhouse off the back deck - the whole idea is to be able to grow vegetables all the time. I had no idea what I planted in the unit but it's become apparent a good number of the survivors are zucchini. I have no vegetables yet but I have blossoms and when they open I will have to pollinate. So far I've had two flowers but they were both males so it was a no go. My second round of seedling are bell peppers which I grew from the seeds I took out of the peppers I used for dinner. I put them on wet paper and then in the dark for awhile, they all sprouted! So during this I decided I wanted a bigger pump than the one that came with the unit. I found a reasonable one - Amazon again! When it came I realized this one did not come on a timer so I had to order that and then wait for it's arrival. That came and  yesterday I started hooking it up with David trying desparately to ignore me as it was not going well. No indeed, not well at all. First, the tubing was too big so I tried a rubber band, then David used a clamp. I fired it up and it leaked like crazy out the top and then down the side. 

Of course. 

Sigh. So David taped and clamped it - sucess! I had just drained the water and refilled the reserve bucket so I plugged it in and went to figure out the timer I had bought. I was sitting at the table with the directions when i heard the not so gentle sounds of a waterfall.Hmm. Took me a second. I ran in to see the water gysering out of the unit - gyser!! Thank goodness the floor is a deck so the it just drained out - I got it unplugged and I guess it's a bit more powerful than i had anticipated. I reinstalled the old pump and all was well in Plant World once again. And no, the new stuff with not be wasted - i will be doing a dutch bucket system for the fall so it goes into the future greenhouse pile. The other thing I've discovered is around here we have a lot of pot farm fails - people think they'll make their fortunes but reality is the competition around here is fierce and then by the time you get through all the government regulations....but the upside is I bought about a thousand dollars worth of fairly new greenhouse equipment giant grow lights, fans, etc.... for $75. Even if I don't use half of it there is almost nothing invested - she even threw in extra filters (they're huge!). It all smells vaguely of pot but for $75 I'm good with it. David is working on the raised beds and then I'll transfer the zucchini out - it's growing like crazy as you can see in the picture but it's overtaking the entire unit and covering the new seedlings. I think in the future I'll be growing lettuce. Or whatever sprouts!!