The Garage

[maskedsonnet]

Finally back on day shift and getting some things done!! The wind has been unusually bad this year, even for the start of spring, which pushed me to go BIG on the garage garden, instead of just the box I originally was going to do! Been keeping me busy for the past few days. Going into days off now, so hopefully I can get it finished off and planted!! I have to say, it's been nice just hearing the wind howl against the door while I work in there instead of being out in it, fighting to get anything done!! Later in the summer, as it gets hotter, I may add a portable AC out there, haven't decided yet. For now just have a box fan giving some air circulation so it's not so stuffy. Even though they're all LEDs, the lights actually make it a little hotter in the garage than it normally gets. I've noticed this in the plant room with all my AGs too, it's much warmer in there than the rest of the house.

My progress so far:

Left for this weekend is setting up the rest of the reservoirs and water pumps, and getting my plants in the dirt!!

[Sher]

Wow, maskedsonnet! I am blown away by your incredible, ambitious project! It is amazing!

[airscapes]

just very envious of all that space with no stuff in it!!

[maskedsonnet]

May 7, 2022 21:46:28 GMT -5 airscapes said:

just very envious of all that space with no stuff in it!!

Lol it's because every single closet inside my house is STUFFED full of junk!! Those problems are going to be my next project! Or so I've been telling myself for several years, just before starting other projects that interest me more

[lynnee]

May 7, 2022 21:46:28 GMT -5 airscapes said:

just very envious of all that space with no stuff in it!!

Me too! I'd love to have your garage, with the space for a car and your marvelous indoor garden.

[areyoukittenme]

Wow, what a cool setup you have in there! What are you going to be planting?

[Shawn]

You did a wonderful job!!!!

[lynnee]

May 7, 2022 21:46:28 GMT -5 airscapes said:

... every single closet inside my house is STUFFED full of junk!! Those problems are going to be my next project! Or so I've been telling myself for several years, just before starting other projects that interest me more

My condo is the same, and I've been working to get rid of stuff ever since I retired--several years now. I wish that I'd started getting rid of the clutter a lot sooner! At least I'm now down to parting with things that are still good, and donate-able, but no longer being used. Those are the hardest!

[maskedsonnet]

May 7, 2022 22:56:26 GMT -5 areyoukittenme said:

Wow, what a cool setup you have in there! What are you going to be planting?

Peppers and tomatoes in all the big floor pots. Herbs in the small pots on the table. And I'll be moving my strawberry plants from my Farm 24 to the big Box. Turns out the strawberry plants are far too tall for a Farm Basic, which I didn't expect at all!! Tomorrow I'm supposed to get my last delivery of supplies from Amazon, so I should be finishing the setup part of all this soon, and moving onto the planting part. That's the part I'm most excited about!

[maskedsonnet]

May 8, 2022 11:56:01 GMT -5 lynnee said:

May 7, 2022 21:46:28 GMT -5 airscapes said:

... every single closet inside my house is STUFFED full of junk!! Those problems are going to be my next project! Or so I've been telling myself for several years, just before starting other projects that interest me more

My condo is the same, and I've been working to get rid of stuff ever since I retired--several years now. I wish that I'd started getting rid of the clutter a lot sooner! At least I'm now down to parting with things that are still good, and donate-able, but no longer being used. Those are the hardest!

I just wish that when I'd moved into this house, I had taken the opportunity to throw more of it out, moving is the perfect opportunity for that! I got rid of some of the excess, but I definitely take after my parents in the "What if I need it later?!" mindset. Now it's been 5 years and most of it is still shoved in the closets they landed in lol

[lynnee]

maskedsonnet, I'm especially excited by the prospect of more strawberries-from-seed news!

I'm supposed to get some more bare-root strawberries tomorrow. Right now I'm kind of intrigued by growing strawberries, so I ordered more crowns when they went on sale.

I'm going to try some in a Bounty. The lights for my Farm Plus strawberry crowns are at 10" right now, with one leaf set about 2" from the lights. I wonder whether strawberries tend to grow taller in their first year?

[maskedsonnet]

Maybe! According to the packaging, they should have topped out around 8 inches, so not sure what made these get so huge. Hopefully they survive the extremely rough treatment they just got in the process of transplanting, I had to yank pretty hard to get some of them out of the deck.

[maskedsonnet]

I thought I was patient enough to wait a day, but I wasn't!! Once I got the strawberries installed, I couldn't wait to do the rest. These have been sitting under a grow-light in my kitchen for 2 weeks now - first because it was too cold at nights when I first got them to take outside, and then because I decided I wanted to do this in my garage instead of planting outdoors this year. So for now, everything's been hand-watered!! I'll finish up the watering system tomorrow when I get the rest of my stuff.

The strawberries that I hopefully didn't damage too badly:

Tomatoes:

Peppers:

Herbs:

The whole picture:

Made rather a mess watering everything by hand. Got the dirt swept up but not swept outdoors yet, because it's windy again and I don't want it blowing back in when I'm trying to sweep it out. Will do that early tomorrow morning, when it's usually pretty still outside.

[Sher]

What an amazing garden!  Wow!!!  Great job! 

[lynnee]

You accomplished so much in a day! It's a marvelous indoor garden.

If the strawberries don't survive, you can start over. Are you hand-pollinating the flowers? I can see a few in your photo.

[maskedsonnet]

May 8, 2022 22:56:43 GMT -5 lynnee said:

You accomplished so much in a day! It's a marvelous indoor garden.

If the strawberries don't survive, you can start over. Are you hand-pollinating the flowers? I can see a few in your photo.

I am, though I’m not sure I’m doing it right? I’ve been brushing my fingers very gently into the flowers one by one. With peppers I very gently jiggle the entire plant to pollenate, which has the added bonus of shaking loose any dead leaves so I can sweep them off the deck into the trash instead of picking them off one by one. But there’s no way to do that with the strawberries.

If they do fail, I’ll probably plant something else in the box instead of strawberries. Or I’ll get crowns instead of doing it from seed again!

[lynnee]

May 8, 2022 23:22:01 GMT -5 maskedsonnet said:

May 8, 2022 22:56:43 GMT -5 lynnee said:

You accomplished so much in a day! It's a marvelous indoor garden.

If the strawberries don't survive, you can start over. Are you hand-pollinating the flowers? I can see a few in your photo.

I am, though I’m not sure I’m doing it right? I’ve been brushing my fingers very gently into the flowers one by one. With peppers I very gently jiggle the entire plant to pollenate, which has the added bonus of shaking loose any dead leaves so I can sweep them off the deck into the trash instead of picking them off one by one. But there’s no way to do that with the strawberries.

If they do fail, I’ll probably plant something else in the box instead of strawberries. Or I’ll get crowns instead of doing it from seed again!

If you have successfully pollinated the strawberry flowers, the petals will fall off in a day or so, and the center will begin developing into a strawberry. The centers may also look blackish when they are recently pollinated. I'm talking about flowers from strawberry crowns, of course, but I'd expect you to be seeing developing strawberries if the flowers are getting pollinated.

A video I checked said to run a Q-tip over the upright male flower parts that surround the center, so that pollen will drop onto the central part that becomes the strawberry. I use a child's electric toothbrush, and often see pollen releases. I just run the toothbrush across the flower--the flowers don't seem especially delicate.

With peppers and tomatoes, I shake the plants gently, just like you do. That always does the trick. Peppers and tomatoes are easy.

[Shawn]

You have done a superb and amazing job!

[maskedsonnet]

The poor, dead strawberries have been torn out!

The Rosemary bush I had growing in a Harvest never bounced back from running out of water, so using that machine as a nursery for the plants I plan to move to the garage. 2 Mini Munch cucumber, a Cavili zucchini, and a sage:

[lynnee]

Strawberries really are prima donnas! Mine have unhealthy roots, despite getting weekly R&Rs. So I won't weep for yours.

Cool that you have an AG available for nursery duty! It's fun to watch the babies grow.