Thursday, June 10, 2010

Hanging Garden of Brooklyn

I saw a great idea on the web, and decided to give it a try.  It's a simple way to grow either edible greens or flowers, when you have a wall that gets some good sunlight.
I picked up a cotton (canvas would be better, I think, for strength) 24-pocket over-door shoe bag.

I strung a piece of webbing between the bars of two windows (yes, bars, it's Brooklyn) to hang the bag from.  This particular bag came with hooks, which worked just fine even with all the weight.

I hung the bag from the webbing, like in the picture.




I filled up each pocket almost to the top with good soil that I have around.  I left about an inch or so to the top of the pockets.


Then I took a bunch of different seeds - lettuce, arugula, spinach, different lettuce, and spread them on top of the soil in each pocket.  Once all the seeds were in, I covered the seeds in each pocket with about a half-inch or so of soil.
After a good watering, I watched and waited.  After only a few days, I saw that the seeds were already starting to sprout!

I did notice that it dries out really quickly, so do keep an eye on that.  I've been watering often, even twice a day when we had some real scorchers.
Pretty soon, my shoe bag of plenty should be overflowing with salad awesomeness!

1 comment: