Words I never thought I’d write…
Remember how adventure is part of what keeps us young? This adventure is definitely going to keep my mind nimble and shake up my routine!
Let me back up and start at the beginning…
George has been talking about growing our produce (at least some of it) for a while…even before the pandemic started. Enter this crazy new topsy turvy world where you just never know what might be available at the local grocery store and fresh produce is hit or miss – his interest in food growing intensified.
I don’t want to sound like I’m being dragged along kicking and screaming. That’s not the case at all. My singular talent is efficiently killing anything green and living. Mostly through my “more is more” philosophy that thinks more water and more sun is always good.
“More is more” is the “root” of my problem!
George, on the other hand, is gifted with a green thumb. Plants love him. So I am cautiously watching, supporting, and participating from what I deem a safe distance to avoid contaminating his growth experiments. I hope one day they are all hardy enough to withstand my attention. Lol.
Probably the most notable part of this current adventure is that we are urban dwellers living in an attached townhome with a postage stamp sized front yard.
Location, Location, Location
No seriously. Where are we putting this produce? In a spare bathroom. Really. No joke.
We emptied out a first floor full bathroom, removed towel rods, removed shower curtains, basically anything that wasn’t tied down got taken out. It’s tight, but cool and relatively temperature-controlled. Then we went Amazon shopping. I’ve put links to what we purchased and some other sources on the Good Stuff page but I’ll keep them there to avoid muddying this story with more detail than you may want. In came shelving, grow lights, growing trays, growing medium and seeds…everyday, more seeds.
We started focused on micro greens because they grow quickly, have relatively dense nutritional value and – hello! – they are delicious! Talk about an easy way to keep fresh veggies in your diet. And though not certified organic by the FDA standards, we certainly know everything that has gone into producing them.
images @mobtowngeorge
After the micro greens, we decided that maybe starting some vegetable plants from seed (since we had the racks, had the grow lights and had the planting trays) made sense. So now we have starter plants emerging from their seeds to eventually be a roof top vegetable garden.
images @mobtowngeorge
My roof top deck is a flat walk out roof that is bathed in sunshine most of the day. What better place to put some large containers of tomato plants, cucumbers, pea vines, and swiss chard? Again, thanks to George’s expertise, he is in charge of figuring out the container size. Herbs in moderate sized containers but other vegetables in sizable containers to allow them to root and grow big. The idea is, we’ll harvest off the roof (and out of the microgreens) for our meals.
image @mobtowngeorge
What I’m recognizing is a huge bonus of the micro greens harvesting cycle is that the short growing time means you have the option to simply NOT grow a batch if you’re say – going away on vacation. You can just use up what you grew and NOT start a new batch. Then when you get home, it’s only a week or two to another full set of delicious micro greens.
Obviously the vegetables will require a little more care, particularly in an urban roofdeck setting, but we aren’t going anywhere right now, so I think we’ll probably be okay – as long as I stay away from the hose.
Side note: Have you noticed the uptick in Victory Garden posts on the internet? We are definitely not alone in the idea that being able to produce some of your own food is a good thing. It’s good for mind, body and spirit! It also means that finding and getting supplies can be challenging. Many of the good organic microgreen seed sellers are finding their stock in high demand. Other places have just run out of seed stock altogether.
I’ll update y’all on our adventures in urban farming as we make headway but in case you want to join us in the journey of producing at least some of your own food, here’s the link the stuff we used. And I’ll offer up George as a resource if you have any questions. Drop them down below and I’ll make sure we get you some response.
