Category: Planning

by jamieleto

After securing the garden space in Staten Island and sleeping on it the past few days, I came up with a plan to make this more affordable and environmentally friendly.

I did as much research as I could into what would be the most affordable, environmentally sound and healthy way to do this project.

The first thing that I looked into was which plastics are food safe and environmentally safe? The numbers on the bottom of the containers surely mean something. Sure enough they do.

Then came across another site, which spoke about which plastic water bottles don’t leach chemicals.

So now I have a better idea on the quality and grade of the plastics that I’ll be recycling and using.

Next onto the self watering containers. Instead of using two buckets or bins, Inside Urban Green filled in the hole that was left from the Incredible Vegetables book. It had a post on building a Simple Sub-irrigation Insert using vinyl tiles.

Vinyl tile likely isn’t the best option in terms of water leaching, but need to balance the affordability with the money.

Up until this point, I still hadn’t thought about the wicking container. I could easily go to the pet store and buy a pond basket, but that would cost money and I’m sure that there ways to make my own.

I started to rummage through my grandmother’s shed and came across the jackpot. She had some old slot containers from Atlantic City (Now get it. Jackpot. Slot containers. Atlantic City). That gave me the idea to use plastic deli containers also that I can drill holes into.

So I asked my grandmother to start to save hers, even though she has an entire cabinet filled with them. She swears she needs and used all of them. My gram, always willing to help, put out a bulletin to all of her friends as well. Also, called my parents to ask them to save as well.

Now that I got the building aspects behind me. Need to compile all of these materials and put all of this together. Oh yea also need to figure out what I am going to plant and where. There’s that too.

I am taking this project beyond my small fire escape garden and back to my Brooklyn roots in Canarsie. Yup, I’ll be growing a vegetable garden in Brooklyn. What?

A few weeks ago my grandmother offered up her backyard to grow what I wanted. The offer was turned down because I didn’t think that I’d have the time to tend to it, and I wouldn’t expect my 90-year old grandmother to take care of it. My gram still lives in Canarsie, which is about an hour commute from me.

Now that I’ve come across self watering containers it seems more realistic. I can handle doing that 2-3 days a week. Not like I’d need another excuse to visit my Gram, but it’ll give me another.

So I gave her a call and she was more than happy to give me some space as long as I didn’t disrupt her tomato plant. See my Gram used to grow a sh!tload of vegetables in her backyard. She no longer does for many reasons, but just has one tomato plant.

I agreed on not messing with her tomato plant and explained to her my plan to grow. She gave me the idea of going to the local bodegas and asking for the buckets since they usually wind up throwing them away. That would be great because it would cut down on costs considering I priced them out at like $8 a piece at the local hardware store.

The plan was to go to her spot over the weekend to negotiate the land space.

Also scored my first two soda bottles at work today for the upside down gardening. Doesn’t sound like a big deal, but I didn’t want to have to don the medical mask, trash bag suit of armor and hit the streets. I ain’t messin with them crazy old women.