KEEPING MY EDIBLE FRIENDS' SELF ESTEEM HIGH
Last spring, my friend Carolyn, in Edmonds, Washington told me about a Tower Garden that she and her family had, growing prolific amounts of leafy greens and tomatoes on their deck, all without dirt. We strategized for several weeks about the feasibility of my successfully using one here in my apartment in Barrow. The cost of the non-organic vegetables sold in the store here are high and organic ones that can be ordered often arrive wilted and spoiled. I calculated that the cost of the Tower Garden, tomato cage and lights that I’d need would pay for itself in about a year while providing high quality, nutrient dense greens.
The garden was developed by Tim Blank, a man who grew up farming in the Midwest, had a passion for learning and wanted everyone to have the opportunity to grow fresh vegetables no matter what their living space. Tim worked and learned as Epcot Center’s greenhouse manager prior to founding Future Growing. There he worked with various ideas and in five years had developed the Tower Garden. Plants are watered by a pump that moves water and tonic up through the center column, showering root systems on the way down. I require lights mounted on tomato cages here as I don’t have an outdoor space with sunshine and it’s not warm enough outside for them to survive.
Here are some pictures of the seedlings started in late June, transplanted to the Tower Garden in late July and subsequent pictures of the leaf and romaine lettuce, cilantro, chard, kale, dill and chives I’m enjoying now.
I often find myself sitting next to them in the evening, talking with them and of course, telling them how beautiful they are. It struck me that it would be difficult to eat them after bonding like this until a friend wrote to assure me that they’d feel very badly about themselves and would be very unhappy if they weren’t eaten.
I’m learning to harvest them so that they continue to grow and am hoping that the kale becomes as large as the photos of Carolyn’s!
I have a pot
of carrots growing in dirt at the base of the Tower Garden and two apple seedlings
that I’ll bring to Washington on my next trip down. They love the lights.
On my recent
five day trip to Kaktovik, it was good knowing that the pump and lights, both
on timers, took good care of the plants on the tower.
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The gardens
are sold through distributors, so I decided to become one…easy to do for anyone and
is helping to fund my purchase, but even more so, the cost of shipping it to
Barrow = ).
Here’s a
link where you can learn more about the Tower Garden, if interested.
I purchased
my lights here:
Wow! this is great, Susi!!
ReplyDeleteThanks M! It really is a blessing to have = )
DeleteSusi, this is so cool! I love that this provides you with a neat activity, light, fun and nourishing food. How wonderful to have all of this in (what I imagine to be) the frequent dark and cold North. :)
ReplyDeleteLaurie (from McDonald Employment)
Hi Laurie! I do feel really fortunate to have this here...definitely fun to plan, start the seeds and then watch them grow until they're ready to harvest. Am going to try some tomatoes this time around and think it would be fun to have some flowers blooming mid-winter too! How are you doing? Hope enjoying the fall colors in Seattle, although I know it gets rainy about this time too. Thanks for your comments! Susi
Delete