I wish I had easy access to fresh food like this… actually I’m a lot closer to having that now, since we actually have a real grocery store again where the one from 10 years ago closed down… for the past 10 years it was 30 min by highway to the closest, now it’s 20 min by bike (assuming being in shape for it) or 10 by car, which still isn’t super close but it’s a lot better. (The closest farmers market that isn’t just people selling junk they made is still half an hour in either direction)
My friend lives like 10 min walk from a grocery store and goes daily as a result. Gets good discounted foods and fresh produce regularly.
But I’m working on some indoor gardening systems that… might… assuming they work nearly as well as I hope… might make a difference to my tastes. (Tho I do strongly prefer veg already, and don’t eat a lot of meat. It doesn’t agree with my stomach. Tummy likes fiber.) I just got a batch of oyster mushrooms started on cardboard (because why the fuck not compost my trash into food???), and 50 radishes are sprouted for a weird attempt that probably won’t work. worth a try.
Sounds like you’ve got a good handle on it. I would like to grow more stuff, but I can barely raise an anemic looking bushel of oregano. All brown thumbs, I’m afraid.
Nope, I’m also a brown thumb due to having the attention span of a newt :) but I’m trying to figure out a way to make that tendency work anyway. Lazy indoor gardening. $10mil idea, which I’ll never profit from :)
If I can, literally everyone can (with freely available plans I’m developing! Because I like creating but the follow through… oof, nope…)
If you want to grow herbs, specifically, tho, I highly recommend water beads. You can get them on amazon for water bead blaster things, some 4x120,000 for under $10, which makes like a couple gallons of beads? They are also available at various retailers if you don’t want to support Amazon, expensive when bought for plants, cheap when bought as a toy. Go figure. You can mix your powder nutrient solution (10/10/10, with whatever additional nutrients you may need) with water, soak the beads in that water, plant the stuff in the beads, and then just sort of let it do its own thing, top it off with plain water as needed to retain the volume. If the herbs die, meh, just extract the nutrients from the beads with distilled/ro water for a day or so, let them dry, remix the nutrient and plant new ones!
You’ll get a good feel for what plants need and how lazy you can be with them. The water beads dry out as they are used up, but don’t really evaporate, so it’s a super clear sign to replenish them, with none of the disadvantage of organic soils (poor drainage, poor moisture retention, nutrient overload, etc.)
I’m planning to try the beads as a medium for strawberry rhizomes in the spring… I think they will do a decent job for some of the everbearing varieties. Or they won’t _.
I really need a friend who can keep a schedule so I can try my ideas… 😅
I wish I had easy access to fresh food like this… actually I’m a lot closer to having that now, since we actually have a real grocery store again where the one from 10 years ago closed down… for the past 10 years it was 30 min by highway to the closest, now it’s 20 min by bike (assuming being in shape for it) or 10 by car, which still isn’t super close but it’s a lot better. (The closest farmers market that isn’t just people selling junk they made is still half an hour in either direction)
My friend lives like 10 min walk from a grocery store and goes daily as a result. Gets good discounted foods and fresh produce regularly.
But I’m working on some indoor gardening systems that… might… assuming they work nearly as well as I hope… might make a difference to my tastes. (Tho I do strongly prefer veg already, and don’t eat a lot of meat. It doesn’t agree with my stomach. Tummy likes fiber.) I just got a batch of oyster mushrooms started on cardboard (because why the fuck not compost my trash into food???), and 50 radishes are sprouted for a weird attempt that probably won’t work. worth a try.
Sounds like you’ve got a good handle on it. I would like to grow more stuff, but I can barely raise an anemic looking bushel of oregano. All brown thumbs, I’m afraid.
Nope, I’m also a brown thumb due to having the attention span of a newt :) but I’m trying to figure out a way to make that tendency work anyway. Lazy indoor gardening. $10mil idea, which I’ll never profit from :)
If I can, literally everyone can (with freely available plans I’m developing! Because I like creating but the follow through… oof, nope…)
If you want to grow herbs, specifically, tho, I highly recommend water beads. You can get them on amazon for water bead blaster things, some 4x120,000 for under $10, which makes like a couple gallons of beads? They are also available at various retailers if you don’t want to support Amazon, expensive when bought for plants, cheap when bought as a toy. Go figure. You can mix your powder nutrient solution (10/10/10, with whatever additional nutrients you may need) with water, soak the beads in that water, plant the stuff in the beads, and then just sort of let it do its own thing, top it off with plain water as needed to retain the volume. If the herbs die, meh, just extract the nutrients from the beads with distilled/ro water for a day or so, let them dry, remix the nutrient and plant new ones!
You’ll get a good feel for what plants need and how lazy you can be with them. The water beads dry out as they are used up, but don’t really evaporate, so it’s a super clear sign to replenish them, with none of the disadvantage of organic soils (poor drainage, poor moisture retention, nutrient overload, etc.)
I’m planning to try the beads as a medium for strawberry rhizomes in the spring… I think they will do a decent job for some of the everbearing varieties. Or they won’t _.
I really need a friend who can keep a schedule so I can try my ideas… 😅