Gardening

I am starting a garden in my apartment! The goal of this experiment is to see was is possible with limited space and access to the outdoors. I want to grow as much of my own food as possible and see what an ambitious apartment dweller is capable of. I think I'm channeling my grandmother who passed away this past December. She was an avid gardener and until January, I've had no interest what so ever in gardening.

I've had my eye on the Aerogarden for a while because of my propensity to buy expensive fresh herbs only to throw the wilted rotted remains in the garbage after just one recipe. But the Aerogarden is expensive and I've heard bad things about the sound of the pump. Not to mention the energy it uses! What kind of environmentalist would I be growing my own herbs using electricity when the sun provides all the energy my plants will ever need?

I started about three weeks ago with a selection of herb seeds - basil, chives, parsley - and two packets of flower seeds - petunias and sweet peas. In little plastic contraptions call "mini greenhouses" I started the seedlings. They germinated quickly and I found that watching their changes from day to day was absolutely enthralling. When the sweet peas and basil began to push against the top of the greenhouse I transplanted the seedlings. All are doing well except for the petunias, which while they seem ok, are still quite small. The Sweet peas are HUGE!

I've since planted peppers, tomatoes, rosemary, and coriander. These are starting to germinate also. The tomatoes have been transplanted as have the rosemary seedlings. The coriander seems to grow very slowly, however it's roots go very deep - I thinned a few seedlings that looked crowed and discovered thick roots holding the little plants in place.

Addicted to this new gardening thing, I ordered more seeds from Amazon.com. Carrots, mini Eggplant, container lettuce, arugula, strawberry, cucumber and oddly a mini olive tree. The olive tree is a bit of a whim and I don't expect much from it and the carrots will be a challenge. They are baby carrots but I will still need to find a very deep pot for them and I still don't know if they will survive inside. The other vegetables are all selected for indoor container gardens.

Thinning is my biggest challenge so far. Having expectantly watched each tiny plant poke it's little head above the soil I feel so ruthless ripping it out of it's bed to make room for it's big brothers. But this must be done or the plants will suffer and not bear fruit, or strangle each other. I bought Organic Fertilizer Spikes, as these were the only organic plant food offers at Home Depot and while they are not specified for indoor container use they are specifically for vegetables. This is another experiment. I could very well kill my little crop with improper feeding, but it also, just might work.

I look forward expectantly toward harvest time when I will have herbs, fruits and vegetables to cook with!

One More Reason I Heart Solar

http://www.technologyreview.com/communications/24511/page1/


also why I heart EV's:
http://gas2.org/2009/01/02/prius-powers-home-during-ice-storm/

Could we see a world in which we are nearly free from reliance on the energy grid?

http://en.afrik.com/article16124.html

A world in which most homes are powered by cheap, high efficiency solar cells, stored in our EV's rapidly improving batteries? Or perhaps a combination of our EV battery and a home hydrogen storage system?

http://poptech.org/popcasts/dan_nocera_personalized_energy

Decentralization. Less dependence on government and a delicate network of services. The recent snow reminds me of our dependence of government services. Without the skilled snowplow men and women of Michigan, Delaware was a royal mess all week. What happens if the power goes out for days or weeks? What happens if the water is shut off? If apartment complexes, homes and neighborhoods could become energy, heat and water self sufficient at a low cost, it wouldn't be such a big deal. Solar power stored in batteries and hydrogen storage tanks. Water collected from rain, snow, runnoff and gray water, reprocessed cheaply for washing and toilets and hydrogen, while purified water (waste from the hydrogen fuel cell) could be piped up for drinking. If all products (and packaging) were designed to be biodegradable and homes and complexes practiced composting, we wouldn't have to worry much about trash pick-up either. What would we even throw away if all packaging was biodegradable and products were reclaimed by the company after you used them for up-cycling?

http://poptech.org/popcasts/eben_bayer_biopackaging

What if we could be data independent also? I think about my iPhone's 3G capability and the above cellular base station idea. Apple and AT&T claimed to introduce tethering at some point. If I didn't have cable, if my cellular data offered enough bandwidth, I could tether my phone and get internet on my phone and computer anywhere that cellular signal was available. Solar powered, wireless world. Clean safe equitable profitable beautiful just transparent and diverse.

Idealist that I am I see this in the not too distant future. It may be messy, take a long time, and not look quite how I imagine, but I see some variant of these dreams just over the horizon.

Chelsea Buns!

The Chelsea bun is a type of currant bun that was first created in the eighteenth century at the Bun House in Chelsea, an establishment favoured by Hanoverian royalty and demolished in 1839. The bun is made of a rich yeast dough flavoured with lemon peel, cinnamon or a sweet spice mixture. Prior to being rolled into a square spiral shape the dough is spread with a mixture of currants, brown sugar and butter. A sweet glaze covering is added before the rolled-up dough is sliced into individual buns and baked. The process of making this bun is very similar to that involved in producing the cinnamon roll.
~Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chelsea_bun)

I better not eat any of those ...or this Chelsea's buns will get to be the size of those Chelsea's buns! I love puns... :)

This is not your parent's energy crisis

http://poptech.org/popcasts/thomas_friedman__poptech_2006

a little old but worth a look

All this for only 400 calories! Sweet Potato fries, veggie pizza with cheese, mushrooms, peppers and onion. Delicious!

http://www.socialedge.org/blogs/generating-blueenergy