I’ve been mildly interested in gardening for a few years, but I feel like this might be the year I actually learn something about it and try it for real. My first summer out of college I had a windowbox with some fresh herbs I used to cook with, but with all of the moving I did last year, I didn’t have much time to grow anything.
The Modern Family Garden Book
Recently, I’ve been finding a lot of great resources for urban gardening that I’m excited to explore more and put to good use. Lily’s mother works at a garden center, so her parent’s Christmas present to me this year was a plethora of gardening supplies including a windowbox with braces to attach it the deck railing, a trowel, some seed starter tools, and most importantly, a vintage book on gardening – “The Modern Family Garden Book“.
It’s sometimes very hard to find books on basic-knowledge items, such as the basics of gardening, especially with all the chemical advancements that have happened in that field. I’m really excited to have something so simple and basic, and obviously written before the whole “better living through chemistry” era came around.
Hydroponics
Another book I recently picked up is “Hydroponic Basics” from the Urban Garden Center on Warren Ave. in Portland. I’ve had this place on my radar ever since I started visiting Portland almost 2 years ago, so I figured it was time I stopped by and checked it out. My first impression is that this place has a lot of hydroponic equipment, but also has a lot of organic products as well, including organic soil (which I’d never seen before). I told the guy at the counter I knew nothing about hydroponic growing but wish I did, and this is the book he handed me. I thumbed through it the other night and it’s very informative and worth checking out if you’re interested in hydroponics.
WindowFarming
The last thing that I’ve been really interested in for some time now is WindowFarming. If you haven’t heard of this before, you definitely need to check it out. In a nutshell, the idea is to create a vertical “farm” made of several small pots hung on top of each other and grown hydroponically to save space in cities but still allow for indoor gardens. There are DIY options (how the project started) using plastic water bottles or pre-packaged options that still run just over $100. This is definitely something I’d love to try out this year.
