Fungi

The garden is continuing to grow it's been about 2 weeks since we've moved them into what we are now calling the "green room". The lime green mushroom from the previous post turned out to be yellow parasol mushrooms which I removed because I read they weren't good for our health. 


On another note... These mushrooms were coming up in the pepper plant but have since died from the day I took this photo. 
There's quite a lot of watering going on these days. It's hard to gauge. 
We have a leak in the faucet in the bathroom, so we currently are collecting that water and dispersing that out to the plants as needed. Our tomatoes have started flowering again, and we've re-adjusted the lights yet again to keep up with their growth. 

(click to enlarge photo)

Unknown

We recently repotted our christmas tree which we've used for the past 2yrs, and this morning I found what looks like sponge mushrooms growing in the soil. We have no idea what they are yet but I thought I'd share so here it is.

moving day

Over the weekend we moved our indoor garden into their very own sun room where we think the heat in that room (80º - 100º) will help with their growth through-out the summer.
The window still faces west like in the previous room, with afternoon/evening sun. The narrowness of the space and the white walls create a very reflective space to hot and way to bright for us to live in.
Lance and I both have our favorites as far as veggies we are growing the most of. He prefers the peppers, and I'm rooting for the tomatoes. Hopefully they'll like it in there. We've turned our one bedroom loft into a studio with a green house. Crazy right!

Here are some quick photos I took with my crappy phone. My camera was already packed and ready for a big shoot the next day so I cheated us all out of some cooler imagery. Arrrrgh!

Lance has re-adjusted the lights

Before & 2 . 5 months in on our project

In regards to our post earlier I thought a visual could come in handy. Look how much we've grown in 2.5 months. 

issues and challenges

indoor growing issues and challenges

getting enough light - we get about 4 1/2 to maybe 5 hrs of good sun through window - a lighting system is necessary to supply the extra hours needed for "full sun" - the tomato plants definitely need "full" to flower and fruit - the green pepper plants that have only received the window sun are doing ok. they are budding so that is a good sign - the jalapeno pepper plants have not grown as quickly, but the one that is under the lighting system is beginning to bud. the ones in the window sun have not responded as well - the herbs seem to be ok, the oregano especially and of course basil. none of the herbs have lighting and are growing - cilantro has been the hardest to grow so far, but given a larger pot and "full sun" it would grow better - haven't gotten the strawberries to do much. read an article today saying we should have used a hanging basket like the cactus is in. have recently moved the potted strawberries under lamp but they have yet to bud or fruit - 

space - as things grow we need more space - bigger pots = bigger space - space with proper lighting is limited - out of space at the moment - it's all an experiment - gauging the distance of the lights from the plants - the tomato likes to be close - tried to keep the rest of the plants no lower than 4 inches - not sure the lemon tree is getting enough light. the top reaching branch is near the lamp but all of the fruit is over a foot away. not sure if the fruiting branches are getting enough light. may shape it with anchors to bring the reaching branch down and "bonsai" the tree in wire.

money - is a challenge - the dirt, the pots, the seeds, the lights, the racks - but it is an investment. an investment into our health

First Harvest

Our first harvest was a big day!!! On May 29th, 2011 our mixed lettuce, some spinach were ready for picking/trimming.
Not all of our lettuce started under the grow lights so it took a bit longer, and we are inside so that also presented challenges.
Still I think it came out great, and felt really excited thinking about how easy it all was and how much more lettuce I can grow, until... I found out that JUNE was the last month in the summer for growers and didn't start back up until SEPT. Lettuce will be out of season for two months.
That is... if you are growing outside ;)
We will continue our attempt to grow throughout the end of the year and document progress along the way. Until then enjoy these photos of our first GROWIN WITHIN harvest.

Life

"She said she usually cried at least once each day not because she was sad, but because the world was so beautiful & life was so short." 
— Brian Andreas