Over the past three years, while Dwight has been happily tending to plants in our apartment garden, I’ve been regularly upgrading the technology. This is mainly my side of the story.
Category: City Gardening
Another Misting Zone
Added a 4th misting zone (M4) to our apartment garden. All the tech in the photo sits in a large, slide-out disaster pan. Normally it’s out-of-sight. Misting keeps plants happy and greatly reduces the population of spider mites. You can see how the garden has evolved in a new post: As the Apartment Garden Evolves.
Drip Irrigation
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.
Beneficial Insects
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.
Growing Food
It was another warm, sunny day for microgreens in our apartment garden. Outside, it was a different story.
Plants Going Walkabout
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.
Pressure
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.
Remote Plant-Watering
Watered our plants back in Minneapolis without getting out of bed in Kona.
Natural Light
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.
Electrifying A Pallet
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.