Category: Apartment Gardening

This week I’ve been prototyping systems for maintaining water levels while rooting plant cuttings. This morning I built a “production” system that includes a float valve connected to a water supply to top up the tank automatically.

The problem: maintaining water levels for rooting cuttings while we’re away, traveling. The solution: siphonic action. The blue container represents a reservoir that will be topped up via a float valve. Prototype 1, here, has too many points of failure. Next up: straight runs from the reservoir.

Arranged drip irrigation tubes in large planters on a roof deck of our building. Once the plants establish themselves, they hide the tubes.

Met with two members of our building’s garden club to plan improvements we’d like to the irrigation on a roof deck. Updated a document that will be part of a request for quote. We were treated to delicious home-made scones, and I left with three more for later.

On Sunday mornings houseplants receive extra care and attention. Here, they’re lining up to take a gentle shower. All the plants happily survived six weeks of drip irrigation while we were in California.

On Sundays, Dwight makes sure all the plants are properly watered. Most of these plants have automated watering and misting. Plants in other areas are watered manually and get rotated through this area.

Walked around roof decks with Dwight giving planters the finger test to verify they’re getting enough water. Plants are thriving, thanks to our building’s gardening club.

Admired a modest shrub Dwight had transplanted for our building’s gardening club. We support replacing some lawns and mulch with native grasses and other plantings, but many of our neighbors probably prefer things as they are.