New Plan: Gardening in Containers & Upside Down


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After some research, I got more info on the self watering containers. The Homegrown Evolution had a great resource on Self Irrigating Planters posted on April 5.

One site that I checked out, Instructables, had a few different variations. One using 2 liter soda bottles and plastic totes. I like it cheap and green. Fits the criteria.

Before I got too far ahead of myself, I had to talk to my roommate to see if he’d let me put these containers out on the fire escape since it’s out of his window. Luckily, he and I are cool with each other and had no problems with it.

Now I am addicted to checking out how I can recycle materials to grow things for this project and found a way to make an upside down hanging planter for herbs.

Also reserved Incredible Vegetables from Self-Watering Containers from my local library.

This project is back on. Don’t call it a comeback.

Ideas on Container Gardening

For the past few days I’ve been lamenting in my stupidity of building a window garden in a spot that gets no sun. Smart move on my part. Good job.

But things done changed. I was trolling around on this here internet for what I can possibly grow or do. I came across the idea of self watering planters. Most importantly this video:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZUCxBHeq04

The basic concept of self watering containers is that the water is on the bottom of the container and the soil above. There is a separator between the two and a small basket that allows the plant to get the water. So ultimately, the plants are “drinking” the water when they are thirsty, which is what occurs naturally. So the plants drink when thirsty and get fed, instead of us forcing water on to them. Not much of the water even makes it to the roots.

Looks pretty simple. Looks environmentally friendly because most of the materials are reused plastics or garbage. Looks cheap. As Freedom Williams would say, “Thing that make you go hmmm.”

Need to look into this further…

Why Planning is So Important


Attribution-ShareAlike License by Tomás Fano

Great. Got the compost going and the shelves built. Walked down to the Farmers Market at Union Square today to talk to some of the farmers about what I grow on my newly built window garden. To sum it up real quick – nothing.

Yup, that’s right nothing can be grown out there. It gets about two-three hours of indirect sunlight a day on a good day, which doesn’t allow for most vegetables. So the window garden is out of the question.

Great planning on my part.

Back to square one to figure out what if anything can be done…

Building My Window Garden

The compost bin is set up in my kitchen. Wanted to keep the momentum going and build the shelves for the garden.

First thing I had to do was to measure the area of the window garden. Wasn’t sure exactly what dimensions were required so took a bunch of different ones, hoping that all or a combo of them would be good enough. You can see my masterpiece above.

Gathered my list of what I needed and headed to the local hardware store.

    Tools for Building the Window Garden

  • Saw
  • High gloss paint
  • Paint roller
  • Pen or marker to markup the wood
    Materials for Building the Window Garden

  • Enough wood to cover the area

Luckily my fifth grade diagram was useful and the dude at the hardware store understood it. I wound up needing two boards. One that was 1x12x6 and another that was 1x12x4

He said that paint would stand up better to the weather than stain. So I picked up paint and a roller.

The construction of this was harder than I thought it would be, but got it done. It took about 3 hours to complete.

Building the Shelves
The board had to be cut at an angle, which confused me at first. I spoke to my old man and he suggested that I get the length across at each end of the board and then connect the dots. This would give me my angle. Sounded easy enough and sure enough it was for the first board.

With the first board in, I thought that this was going to be simple. I’ll spare the details of each cut, but the second and third boards took me three to four cuts each to get them to fit. They eventually fit. Not perfect, but functionable. That’s the purpose to be functionable. I ain’t Bob Villa or Martha Stewart.

Once the boards were cut and finally fit into place it was time to paint. Painting was much easier than cutting.

Then it was time for cleanup. The saw dust was swept up and dumped into the compost bin.

Now need to figure out what we can grow.
Building a Window Garden - The goal is turn these two pieces of wood into shelves.Building a Window Garden - To get the angle, the length of the area was measured at the shortest and longest parts of the board.Building a Window Garden - Once the board was cut at each end, it was placed on the window sills. Luckily it fit. Wasn't even on each end, but it works.Building a Window Garden - The second board wasn't as easy as the first to cut. Took about three to four cuts to get it to fit. Didn't line up perfect, but made it across.Building a Window Garden - The third board was the hardest and took the longest amount of time. After about five cuts, it made it into the tiny space.My Finished Window Garden Set-Up

Deciding to Grow a Small Window Garden

When I first moved into my apartment, my roommate had a small window garden. It was a shelf that bridged the areas between the window in the living room and my room. It was a small area that he use to grow plants.

On a rainy winter night, the wood had enough and collapsed. It happened while I was home and the crash scared the shit out of me.

Personally, I was never into plants, so it wasn’t much of a loss to me. I knew that my roommate enjoyed them though.

Shortly afterwards, he and I talked about building a new window garden, but this time I wanted to grow some vegetables out there in addition to the plants.

Today was the day that we decided we were going to start planning and rebuilding the window garden.

I don’t know much about gardening, planting or anything of the sort, so it’ll all be a learning experience.