Indoor gardening?

Tomatoes are perfect in containers.   

They certainly are. We grew Black Krim, Black from Tula, San Marzano, and a little Italian tomato whose name I can't remember now, one each per 5 gallon bucket. Got lots of nice 'maters off them.

JF, you NEED a cat.  Maybe one of those hairless ones would be okay....

No offense to hairless-cat owners, but I couldn't.  Ugh.  I'd rather have mice.  I'd like to do a trial placement with a "hypo-allergenic" breed to see if my husband can tolerate it.  I don't mind the burning eyes and the stuffy/itchy face.  I just hated how badly I made him suffer with my cat-contaminated clothing when I first came over.  His symptoms are much worse than mine.

No offense to hairless-cat owners, but I couldn't.  Ugh.  I'd rather have mice.  I'd like to do a trial placement with a "hypo-allergenic" breed to see if my husband can tolerate it.  I don't mind the burning eyes and the stuffy/itchy face.  I just hated how badly I made him suffer with my cat-contaminated clothing when I first came over.  His symptoms are much worse than mine.

My husband is allergic, but it goes away as he's exposed to the animal. My American short-haired tabby is much easier on him than his parents cat, I think she sheds less as an indoor only kitty. It could be worth a consult with an allergist to see if he could get some shots to desensitise him - that's one readily available (at least in the states) with pretty good results.

For the 5 gallon containers, do you just drill holes in the bottom and fill with a variety of soil/stones/sand? I've done a lot of plant killing over the years and not much successful gardening, but the weather where I was swung wildly from blazing hot to wet and constantly muggy so my sick self couldn't handle the task of keeping them alive.

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Ooh. We are going to have a garden to ourselves and I was thinking of trying a small container garden if it gets enough sun. Would these work in containers? (both sides have a protected garden... Can't wait!


Which light are you using indoors? I've always wanted a year round herb garden

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I am trying this one for the first time this year.  So far the plants are responding very well.

I am trying this one for the first time this year.  So far the plants are responding very well.

Nice! Not too expensive. I found out as they were moving into a new place that my old neighbours grew microgreens year round to sell at the market in their basement. I never knew what went on over there cuz of a high fence and being a shut in but I thought that was awesome.

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For the 5 gallon containers, do you just drill holes in the bottom and fill with a variety of soil/stones/sand? I've done a lot of plant killing over the years and not much successful gardening, but the weather where I was swung wildly from blazing hot to wet and constantly muggy so my sick self couldn't handle the task of keeping them alive.

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Well, when I was using them in SoCalif the issue was keeping the plants moist enough. I used two systems: 

The first one is that you have two five gallon buckets, one inside the other. You make a hole in the bottom of the inside one and stick an old washcloth through it so that it touches the bottom of the outside bucket. Then you make another hole and put a bit of hose or piping through it down into the bucket below. You then fill in the inside bucket with potting mix, and you fill the reservoir that the outside bucket forms with water by pouring it through the pipe/hose. That way the plant can water itself and you are in less danger of it getting heatstroke from not having enough water if you forget to check it. (You have to "prime" the bucket by moistening the soil all the way down from the top, and after that capillary action and the plants themselves will pull water up from below.)

The other way I've done is to put them on troughs, with the washcloth in the trough. I didn't bother with stones or anything, as, again, I was in a desert and the issue was getting enough water on a reliable basis.

I think here I'm going to go with a modified version of the bucket-in-a-bucket and let the plant decide how much water it wants to drink, and when.

That looks like a good grow light. I have one that I use for propagation and it works very well for that. I’ve not tried to use it for anything else.

I've never used this type of light before, and am pleasantly surprised at how it's brought some ailing houseplants back from the brink. Will see how it goes.

https://isaididdoit.shutterfly.com/pictures/9#9   

(I hope that works.)

There are three pictures here, one is of the Hamster, which I promised to share when we brought him home last September. He's a doll. With a little hamster mohawk.

One has one of the bucket-in-a-bucket setups showing in the left side of the photo. It really worked quite well for us. Not as well as the buckets-on-the-trough, as I could keep more water available in the trough, but it worked pretty well on all but the hottest days. The plant in the bucket does look a little peaky, but one has to remember it is three years old. 

The third is of one of the container-grown paste tomatoes. I wish I could remember what variety it was, as it didn't get more than a couple of feet high and was happy in the container - it gave me a fresh 'mater every few days. I just put them in a ziplock bag in the freezer until I had enough to make a batch of something, usually. But they were lovely sliced on bruschetta, too. Very meaty, very rich flavor. Not terribly sweet, but very "tomato". They were also three, possibly four years old in this photo.

https://isaididdoit.shutterfly.com/pictures/9#9   

(I hope that works.)

There are three pictures here, one is of the Hamster, which I promised to share when we brought him home last September. He's a doll. With a little hamster mohawk.

He is gorgeous nan ! Worth the wait! 

Yeah, the itty-bitty mohawk was adorable. It seems to be gone now, but we think it might be that he's got a winter coat on. Perhaps when summer rolls around the little stripe will stick back up again. He was pretty shy, but he's social enough now. Not into being held a lot, but he comes and sits on the side of the cage nearest whereever someone is sitting and gives 'em "the big eyes" and cons them out of a treat. He's good at that.

Lovely little animal, all-in-all. (Sweet nature, doesn't bite even if frightened.) And he just loves getting to toodle around in his hamster ball. Heads straight out of the living room, and down the hallway to the back of the house, every time.

Awww, he's sooo cute!  And tiny!  I can only imagine him scurrying around in his little ball.   

He's a good little guy, for sure.

Oh. I remembered the paste tomatoes - they were "Roma" and both prolific and long-lived.

And now, I am a bundle of nerves. Job interview in the morning for a job I could do really, really well (did a similar one and loved it, a few years back). Am seriously concerned my age and nationality are really going to work against me. I have to admit I was very surprised to get the call the day after the advert closed, so we shall see.   

I wish it hadn't been almost a year since I used Office. Excel is like a bicycle, once you learn it you can always go back. Word is Word.  But Outlook has changed several times in the last few years, and apparently there is a "tech" test for half the interview to see if I know what I'm doing in MS Office Suite. I'll just have to be sure they know it's been a while, I guess. It shouldn't be that important - there is a "help" tab on all software that helps you if you get stumped, after all! 

Good luck Nan! 

Thanks. It's one of those "I really want it" rather than "I could do it" situations and those are always harder.

Well, crapola. I blew the interview. (waahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!      )

I was having trouble sleeping the night before and so I turned the radio on to listen to BBC4, and darned if they didn't cover Rump's state of the state of the state speech. Now, rather than turning it off, like a moth to a flame I listened to the coverage. SO, about an hour's sleep, and was pretty much babbling when I walked into my interview.  I should have been able to "ace" it, as the tech test part was correcting grammar, spelling, and punctuation in a badly written paragraph, adding/subtracting/multiplying/dividing a series of two-digit numbers, and a mock mail-merge document. The interview part was where I blew it - seriously, stumbling for words, stammering.... darn it anyway. I ~HATE~ it when I do that in an interview.

Oh, well, the pain will be over in the next couple of days - they want to make a decision quickly.

And at least it looks like we've got another Kennedy in the pipeline. I do hope we manage to keep this one alive long enough to fix things.