Category: City Gardening

Dwight and I have become the “Drip Irrigation Mavens” for our building’s gardening club. We built dripper harnesses (6 drippers per planter, tubing, manifold) for two planters as a demonstration, and plan to roll out to six more planters this week.

Sunday morning: While listening to BBC’s Gardeners’ Question Time, Dwight misted plants to highlight cobwebs. He found none thanks to two types of beneficial insects he’d ordered online. Thursdays: He volunteers at a teaching/research greenhouse at the University of Minnesota.

It was another warm, sunny day for microgreens in our apartment garden. Outside, it was a different story.

Our houseplants went walkabout while I napped. This cluster now diffuses the setting sun. With the switch to daylight saving time and seasonal changes, the sun was shining straight at Dwight during dinner. Most of our plants are on wheeled racks or this wheeled industrial pallet.

Replaced the plant irrigation system pump with a much more powerful model. We’ve been adding plants to the top of racks, and the water pressure had been inadequate. Now we have to reduce the pressure on the drip irrigation emitters to prevent overspray.

Worked on unobtrusive plant up-lighting, using honeycomb filters to eliminate glare. Then, the sun reminded me there’s nothing like natural backlighting. No artificial light in this photo.

Turned our indoor garden pallet on wheels upside-down and started installing electrics and electronics. I’ll install 14 feet of lighting track inside the pallet. It’s highly adjustable and maintainable: lights and electronics snap in place.

There were frequent “rain showers” inside our home as I finished up expanding our homegrown automated plant misting system into three separate zones. An ultraviolet water purifier minimizes the possibility of Legionnaires’ Disease from inhaled, contaminated droplets.

Just noticed that, in my absence yesterday, my water bottle had been repurposed for plant propagation. Occasionally, with permission, Dwight comes home from his volunteer job at a greenhouse with cuttings that would otherwise be composted.