Check out the video below from Ted.com. It combines a few of my favorite topics: gardening, self sufficiency, and open source collaboration. Britta Riley was inspired by an article she read by Michael Pollan in which he said that growing even a small amount of our own food is one of the best things we can do for our environment. She decided to learn how to use hydroponics to grow food in her apartment window.
She created an open source website http://our.windowfarms.org/ where people can invent and test each others ideas in order to find the best methods for window farming. The website provides free instructions on how to create window farms. You can test the systems others invent and play a role in developing window farms. Those that don't want to create their own systems can buy equipment from http://www.windowfarms.com/about-the-company/. The funds are used to fund the open source process. Just another example of how anyone can become more self sufficient.
Have any of you done window or hydroponic gardening? We would love to hear about your experiences.
~Michael~
4 comments:
Your posts are always so good! We are searching for a greenhouse kit right now... but the window gardening would have been a great option for us years ago!
I've not tried this with "farming". I have grown some plants with hydroponic gardening. But I love to be outside and in the dirt. But it's a great alternative for others.
Hey babe, Thanks for posting this! It was so inspiring!
Fantastic post!
I am an experienced hydroponic gardener. When I was very little I read about a boy who started a garden on the top roof of his apartment building by bringing up buckets of soil and planting in them. The apartment manager eventually found out about the garden and threw the buckets over the side of the building plants and all. It made me angry to think that people in apartments could not have home grown food. I remembered that story later on and when I had my first apartment I started a big, ganky hydro system that leaked EVERYWHERE. It didn't stop me. I just kept working on it. I finally found that I could plant in tubes that could be attached on walls and with the addition of grow lights in the light fixtures I got an acceptable growth rate. Not only that, but the grow lights let off a more soothing light than regular light bulbs. I was literally happier with the lights and the plants in the place I lived.
Over time I have continued trying to improve systems so that they are
1. easier to use
2. cheaper on power
3. lower on water use
I have had some nice successes with the projects.
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