Apartment Gardening

Hey guys! Our group has some unique circumstances since we are all gardening in our individual apartments. Each one of us operates on a different schedule, and we all face separate challenges and obstacles with varying levels of success. For this update, let's start with our most successful grower at the moment: Travis.

Travis's Apartment Jungle
Travis's approach has been more or less to plant whatever seeds he can get his hands on into whatever containers he can get his hands on. He has had abundant success with these methods. Of course, it's a bit more complicated than that. He actually started several of his seeds, such as the lemon balm, before transplanting them into their containers.
The containers themselves range from milk cartons that have been cut in half to old Halloween decorations, an excellent example of recycling for container gardening. Besides lemon balm, Travis has also seeded snapdragons, lupine, and morning glories for flowery things, sage, parsley, dill, oregano, lavender, basil, and rosemary for the herbs, as well as watermelon, nasturtium, corn, tomatoes, and lettuce which are in the process of hardening and sprouting. Travis's only setback has been composting, but his economical solution has been to buy his own. At UA, compost is available at very reasonable prices at the Arboretum.

Carli's Apartment Garden
Carli has faced major limitations in growing from the beginning due to lack of sunlight at her apartment. However, she has found that micro-greens (greens that are seeded and harvested at the first sign of leaves, high in nutritional value, and tasty when sprinkled over salads) require very little sunlight. The growing of micro-greens in an apartment allows for a great growing circle: compost is used as soil, greens grow from the compost, and when they are harvested the entire plant is thrown back into the compost. The compost bin, by the way, is kept under Carli's sink. She decided (reluctantly) to use worms for vermicomposting. It seems to be going surprisingly well. One bin has holes drilled in the side to let air in and sits in the other bin, which contains bleachwater to keep out other bugs. The only big problem encountered with the compost has been excess of moisture, which will be remedied by drilling a hole in the bottom as soon as possible.
For planting, Carli has spread about an inch of compost into to-go salad containers, which have holes in the bottom and top, and spread the seeds across the soil before watering and covering them. The seeds include bull's blood beets, early mizuna, arugula, Persian cress, and red Russian micro mix. Once the seeds sprout, she will uncover them and move them onto the patio, where they will grow for 2-3 weeks before harvest.
Lara Kate's Apartment Garden
Lara planted rosemary, parsley, oregano, two tomatoes, two lettuce, cilantro, lemons, and dill, they did not all come up. With rosemary being the only seeds that looked alive after nearly a month of watering with a fertilizer and daily sunlight, she started poking seeds in different places and moved the tray to her cousins’ porch for when she would be gone for spring break for a week. When she got back, the new seeds had already sprouted everywhere, and Lara Kate was thrilled. Except for the fact that she has no clue what most of them are. One thing that did surprise her was the fact that the lemon seeds that she dried out from a larger-than-life lemon she brought back from Florida during Christmas break was one of the first things to sprout, and is still looking really good. Everything else that she spreads around is in the herb family, and she tried to put them in the right place but accidentally read the list backwards. Therefore, it may be a little while before she realizes what is actually growing but she will still be able to transfer them into a pot by next week if they continue to grow at this rate. The rosemary that was doing really good is now dead, but the new rosemary that is planted on the other side of the crate is coming up.
Lara has had great success with composting. She is using a 5-gallon bucket, worms bought from Hillcrest Feed and Gardens, and the usual kitchen scraps, leaves and twigs. Her pile has become very warm, and she has had no problem with odors.