Tag Archive for 'indoor gardening'

Patricia’s Journal (17.06.10): Seeds? Oh Yes We Can!

patricia published on June 17, 2010 in build, food and superforest journal. 3 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , .

SuperForest Seedling

Good Evening SuperForest!

I’m so excited to post tonight – in a tiny version of what what SuperForester Carla was talking about a lot of this had been exciting me ‘behind the scenes’ and I was sorta kinda waiting to see how things turned out before sharing it with you. BUT! I realised that one of the things I’m enjoying most about my new activity is the process, the journey – so, I’d like to take you with me…

I’ve recently started gardening, SuperForest. Not revolutionary by any means! But (i) I live in a c.50m.sq. London apartment and (ii) I have no history of the green thumbs! I grew up in a village in the countryside, granddaughter of a farmer, daughter of an awesome dude with a vegetable garden: potatoes, onions, garlic, rhubarb, peas (incidentally, one of life’s particular pleasures: splitting a peapod with your thumbnail and eating the peas straight out of it), raspberries, strawberries, aloe vera and more! Shockingly (and perhaps because of the unthought abundance of my youth) it didn’t strike me until recently, my ability to grow things myself.

nasturtiums and marigolds (picked because darlin’ big sis’ SuperForester Fiona historically planted every seed in a nasturtium pack in the garden when I was a kid and those little troopers grew everywhere. Seriously, my Mum took years to get them back to a manageable amount. And I thought: that? that is exactly the type of tenacity I want in my fledgling gardening efforts)

Well that was sort of dumb of me, but partially borne of a lack of confidence in my ability to do it – and so, in case any of you awesome SuperForesters have that too (my apartment is too small! I don’t have a garden! I’ve killed every plant I’ve ever touched!) I thought I’d share.

Here at SuperForest we’ve written extensively on the importance of seeds. SuperForester Jackson is living it fulltime at Zero One and our very own SuperForester Heather has an incredible food-based blog right here – the practice (and it is a practice) of eating sustainably can’t be understated. But (I hear you urban SuperForesters cry;) I live in a tiny and/or shared apartment! I rent it from a lovely, but fairly strict landlord so cannot drill in a windowfarm (oh, but if you can, do – or build a JackPot!). So, I’m unlikely to sustain myself right now on what I grow at home,  at least until I get the go-ahead for a goat in the flat! but I decided to give seed husbandry a shot:

So, I’ve sown seeds.

5 days: you see, that shameful post-work aubergine-craving, oven-ready moussaka wasn’t an entire waste – see how the handy sized foil container is perfect for planting seeds and recycling thereafter!

And I’ve found that the act of engaging in the growing process has been almost instantly valuable in the following ways.

I present: “A Short Play On Novice Gardening In One Act”:

Me: DUDE! I AM GROWING STUFF!!

Me: Aw, I’m speaking to my Mum and Dad even more often to gain their advice on the growing process. They like that. Gardens build families.

Me: Holy Crap! It’s actually growing!! SEEDS ARE CRAZY! I wonder if this is going to turn into Little Shop of Horrors up in here?!

Me: Mummy, Mummy, they look sad. WHAT DID I DO WRONG? I CAN NEVER BE A PARENT. DID I UNDERWATER? DID I OVERWATER? DID I NEGLECT THEM OR KILL THEM WITH TOO MUCH LOVE?? What’s that you say?

Mum: leave them alone for a bit and stop freaking out?

Me: Okaaaay…

Me: DUDE, IT’S STILL GROWING!! ONE DAY I MIGHT *EAT* THIS!!!

It turns out there are many ALL CAPS sentences in my version of gardening.

tiny french marigold seedlings on the windowsill in their own moussaka dish

zucchini, spinach and sunflower seeds

no zucchini (yet! [SPOILER!]), first sprouts of spinach, note the seed-tray: “liberated” from the skip outside the super-fun and socially responsible Camden Garden Centre

I guess what I want to get across, dear SuperForesters, is that it doesn’t matter if you are a “gardener” or if you are “good” with plants (and I have friends who just are: Grazie SuperForester Iolanda for my awesome chili plant:) – why not see what you can nurture?  Life is confusing sometimes, things seem complex and changeable and disturbed. But coming home to a new seedling just poking its head through the soil to unfurl? Grounding and empowering and, for want of a better word, priceless.

Exciting updates to come SuperForest! And if you are a gardener, then I would love to hear what you’ve gained from it (and! full disclosure! likely your advice!)

Love to the growers of things,

Love to you

P

Jackpot Update: In Which We Meet Britta and Rebecca from WindowFarms.org, and Seedlings Get Sewn

jackson published on June 1, 2009 in build, celebrity, food, technology and zeitgeist. 3 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , .

picture-9(Britta and Rebecca and their most excellent Window Farm prototype)

Hello Sexies!

Last month I posted about the Jackpot, which is a DIY home hydroponics food machine, and I wanted to update you as to the status of the project.

Just before I left for Texas last week, two fun things happened:

I met with Britta Riley and Rebecca Bray from Submersible Design and got to chat with them about their own rad window farm project. (Britta and Rebecca also came out with DrinkPee, a clever home kit that let you turn your pee into plant food, via the miracle of chemistry. Swoon!) Check it, check it out:

These talented ladies have an exhibit up of their window farm design at Eyebeam here in NYC, for those who wish to see in person.

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We met up at Eyebeam, and Miss Rebecca was kind enough to show me their design, which uses a high-powered water pump to move the water from a bottom tank to reservoir up top, where it trickles down through a cascade of growing chambers. Super smart.

I love how their design can fit in any window, and is easy to make and set up, as it uses recycled 1.5 liter bottles. I mentioned to them that my design uses an airlift and only requires a low energy air pump to lift the water. So, a hybrid system, where one uses a window hanging cascade instead of one central pillar AND an airlift instead of a water pump, would be a big winner.

The problem with a water pump is that one: it has to be really powerful to lift the water from bottom to top. And two: because it’s so powerful, it does its job rather quickly, and thus sits idly unused for the majority of its life.

And the problem with my central pillar idea, while being visually appealing, is that you have to rotate it every week, so that one side doesn’t get more sun than the other.

So by pooling our ideas and sharing freely, we’ve already begun a refinement process that helps not only the three of us, but anyone who later stumbles upon (ahem) these blog posts.

The internet has allowed for huge multiple wins. Thank you internet.

And secondly: Although I’ve already grown past the first design for the Jackpot, I still want to try it out, because it’s cute and makes my heart glad. So I’ve sewn a bunch of seedlings to later transfer to the Jackpot. Here are a few of them:

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Melon in the foreground, and assorted yumyums behind
(including a lovely little sculpture by my friend CEO, which makes an excellent jalapeno drying rack. <3)

photo2A milk carton, split lengthwise, makes two very nice growing beds.
Here we can see marigolds, tomatoes, salad greens and nasturtiums poking their wee little heads out.

photo3Mean Mr. Cilantro and his pals Jackson and the Kitra the rosemary sprigs. You’ll notice that J & K are alive and well.
From garnish to growing plant! It makes the heart smile.

photoHere we behold Jeremiah Salad Greens and Edward Cullen the vampire-basil.
Both are looking well and spry.
The salad greens are a mesclun mix and will go in the top chamber of the Jackpot.

Britta and Rebecca have been kind enough to invite me to join their Window Farm project and I’m thrilled to take part!

Check out the Window Farms site.
And definitely check out Submersible Design.

Thank you Britta and Rebecca! Thank you lovely growing plants. And thank you to all the makers and dreamers and doers out there.

Love to All,

-Jackson

The Jackpot: It’s Alive!

jackson published on May 25, 2009 in build, food, technology and zeitgeist. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

Yesterday and today I really bore down and tried to finish the Jackpot prototype. I learned so much about my own design. I cannot stress how fun and valuable prototyping can be.

So, now it’s 2:30-ish on Monday morning and here’s a picture of the Jackpot just before its first successful trial run, standing looking silly in my bathtub…

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Me sooooooooo tired!
To sleeping we will go!

-Jackson

The Jackpot’s Bones

jackson published on May 24, 2009 in build, food, technology and zeitgeist. 1 Comment Tags: , , , .

The Jackpot’s Bones from SuperForest on Vimeo.

It totally works. I’m totally stoked.
More to come!!!

Missed the first Jackpot post?
Missed the second one too?

Jackson’s Journal (5/14/09) – Hydrodynamics Can Be Vexatious

jackson published on May 14, 2009 in build, food, superforest journal, technology and zeitgeist. 12 Comments Tags: , , , , , .

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Gooooooood Morning SuperForest!

I’ve been home a great deal lately, with moving my office here, and getting sick (again!) I’ve had plenty of time to really get to know my apartment and to develop a game plan for its growth as an organism.

That means I’ve been doing a lot of planting and thinking about plants. Last year, I bought a Prepara power plant, which is basically a little desktop hydroponic garden. Now I’ve got five healthy cherry tomato plants growing in it. I’ve also got an aloe, a comfrey plant that SuperForester Severine gave me that refuses to die, a flower box with an wild assortment of green beasties growing in it. And I’ve been rescuing plants off of the street whenever I can, so I’ve got a few things that I haven’t identified.

But it isn’t enough…

I won’t be happy until I’ve got basil up to my eyeballs. Enough basil to make pesto for an army. And green onions, chives, rosemary, jalapenos, lettuces. I want it all, ladies and gentleman, and I want it cheap and easy… I want a living space that truly is a living space. I want to live in a machine that gobbles up carbon, filters the air, and make food for me to eat. Later on we can working on making the whole thing run on poo. Ha!

How to achieve this indoor, urban Eden is something I’ve been giving considerable thought to. Many waking (and dreaming) hours are spent daydreaming about DIY hydroponic gardens, water pumps, filter systems and creative uses for the two liter bottle.

I found my way into the vertical garden/hydroponics section of youtube, and there I feasted like a wild wildebeast.
I gorged on gallons per minute tables, pvc piping comparisons, and silicone sealant. I learned about pump volume ratios and outflow units and bleeder valves and plastic tubing.

And in the end I thought: I could design a system for growing food and flowers just like these but much, much simpler.

And so I went to the drawing board and tried out some ideas…

And here we are now.

My idea, which I happily share with you all, is to use a six-gallon bucket, a few lengths of pvc, an air pump, a short section of tubing, some zip ties, and one-gallon milk containers to create a personal, scalable, hydroponic (soil-free) drip-irrigation food machine.

I call it: The Jackpot.

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The Problem: Moving water upwards is both energy intensive and usually quite noisy. Water pumps are loud and expensive.

How then do we move a column of water from a standing position to a position approximately three feet higher, using only the pvc, a cheap and quiet air pump, some sealant, an a tin can?

I believe I’ve found an answer: An air lift. Or rather, a series of air lifts, working in parallel.

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An air lift is a wonderful and simple device. It’s just a length of pipe, open at both ends. You feed an air line into the bottom of the pipe and submerge it under water. The air bubbles within the pipe form an upward current and water is carried up to the top of the pipe. Simple, cheap, effective. Here’s a viddy to help explain.

The problem with a single air lift is they can only lift water a short height. Conceivably, combining multiple air lifts within a larger pipe would allow one to lift any amount of water to any height required, provided you had sufficient air flow. This idea probably originated in ancient Persia, I’m not making any claims to it.

So, a hanging garden set up, where water is pumped to the top and there trickles down through multiple growing containers before eventually feeding back into the main reservoir, all built around a central multiple air lift is the problem that’s been bugging me for the past few weeks.

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Please forgive all this technical jargon, my basic point is this: For very little money, we all should have fresh, growing foods within arms reach all year long. And this system, properly de-kinked, should help us achieve that.

The Jackpot idea, like all things on SF is free. Yours. Share-ware. Take it, refine, package it, sell it. That’s the whole point of the internet. We can all copy each other so easily, it’s really a wonderful time for both openness and communication.

I’m home, nursing my zillionth cold, and working out the kinks on the Jackpot. I’ll get this thing built and running and then post a how-to so y’alls can build your very own! Cha-chang! Then we can all work to improve and refine the design! Double win!
And to the 4fives: When next I come in I want you all to know the definitions of “hydrodynamics” and “vexatious.”

Love to All,

Jackson

P.S. I awoke from a fever dream and drew this schematic! Cool, no?

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8.21 gigawatts!

Jackson’s Journal (5/5/09) – Plants, Animals, & Train Rides

jackson published on May 5, 2009 in art, build, celebrity, superforest journal and transportation. 2 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , .

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Hello, my lovely fellow SuperForesters!

Yesterday I went to lunch with my friend Kitra, who I hadn’t seen in a long time! Kitra has been working as a photographer/journalist all over the world, from the Gaza strip, to the Congo, to Polynesia, and so there was much to discuss.

We were sitting in a little cafe in Chelsea, and our food arrived: two crepes, hers with mushrooms and mine with ham and eggs. In the center of both crepes stood two proud sprigs of rosemary. Not just any rosemary, super excellent rosemary, freshly picked…

They were too good looking to leave behind! Both sprigs rested comfortably in my water glass throughout the meal (abominable manners, I know,) and then I wrapped them in damp napkin and brought them home, where with a little tinkering, two plastic cups, some potting soil, and two classy plastic champagne flutes, I constructed a wee little green house for each to encourage them to grow.

Like this:

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Kitra and Jackson, (as I have named them,) are now resting comfortably in their bespoke biodomes, with lovely white light keeping photosynthesis happening while they (hopefully) send out new roots. Fingers crossed. I’ll keep you updated.

After lunch yesterday, I saw this great sticker which made me laugh and want to kiss the genius who thought it up. If it was you Shepherd Fairey, you’re beyond cool.

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And speaking of animals, I was in Brooklyn on Sunday and discovered this incredible little scene:

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I had gone out to Brooklyn to participate in an art project that my friend Meg Wachter was doing. She decided to take 24 portraits in 24 hours. I asked for and was given the Sunday 3PM slot, and if you head over to Meg’s lovely blog, you can see my slender self and SuperForester Baloo looking dashing and shirtless. Correction: I’m shirtless, Baloo is modestly still wearing his. (Warning! There is some light full-frontal male nudity, but nothing that Daddy doesn’t have.)

Finally, in my wanderings and wayfarings, I found myself on the R train coming from Brooklyn back into Manhattan.

Sometimes a subway ride can be pure magic:

Riding the R Train from SuperForest on Vimeo.

In the words of the immortal Bill Waterson: “There is treasure everywhere.”

If you wanna view paradise, simply look around and view it.
Anything you want to, do it.

Wanna change the world?
There’s nothing to it…

Much love to ALL!!!!

-Jackson

UK Builds Giant Greenhouse!

jackson published on June 13, 2008 in Uncategorized. 1 Comment Tags: , , , , .

Fresh veggies all year round! Good thinking.

“On the chilly Isle of Thanet in Kent, England, farmers are placing 220 acres of land under glass so they can grow vegetables all year round. The greenhouse, when completed, will house 1.3 million plants and increase the UK’s crop of green vegetables by 15%. Called Thanet Earth, the project will be a series of 7 connected grenhouses with a relatively small carbon footprint. And nothing grown inside Thanet Earth will ever touch soil.”

” Says the UK Guardian:

“Growing hydroponically, in nutrient-enriched water rather than soil, allows the suspension of the crops at waist height rather than ground level, for ease of picking . . . The site’s developers say they have taken steps to ensure the environmental impact, considering the scale of the operation, will be minimised. The huge reservoirs, which will capture rainwater and recycle the water in which the crops grow, will allow the site to be self-sufficient from May to September, draining nothing from the local utilities. The 32MW generated by the combined heat and power system, uploaded to the National Grid, will offset significant costs from the site, while some of the CO2 produced by the burning gas will used to enrich the glasshouse atmosphere.”"



via io9.com