Author: Pam Tallon

Interior Design with Salad Gardens – Yes, they CAN be pretty

Often, thoughts of indoor gardens include the (incorrect) visions of dirt and mess, or something aesthetically unapealling or unmanageable.

Although it’s readily agreed that fresh salad and herbs in your home or kitchen is a great idea, so many people pass up on having these even when they learn how easy they are, because of these sad misconceptions.

In my previous post “Growing a Winter Indoor Salad Garden – The Basics“, I went over what the essentials are for growing your own delicious greens indoors. Yes, plants do require soil to a certain degree, but shallow rooted plants do not require anything deeper than a few inches, and if you move to hydroponics most of the soil requirement disappears.

Do you have to plan your indoor garden into renovations?  No.  Only if you want to, or have grand ideas (which I’m a huge fan of, but you should probably start small).

So let’s look at a few of the “pretty” and simple ways of having an attractive indoor garden.  I’ll focus on ones using a fluorescent light system versus sunlight, but skylights are pretty too, right? Continue reading Interior Design with Salad Gardens – Yes, they CAN be pretty

Growing a Winter Indoor Salad Garden – The Basics

Nothing quite like a fresh salad or greens, crispy and bursting with flavor, straight from your own garden.  But it’s really hard to get those when it’s -20C outside and the garden is under a few feet of snow. Right?

Wrong.

You don’t need a lot to grow through the winter.  You don’t need a lot of space, and you can still grow without a specialized greenhouse.  Without any fuss, special skills, or mess.  Let’s look at the basics:

Most of what you need to know you probably learned in elementary school.  Plants haven’t really changed, so you’re already a bit of an expert. Pat on the back!

So let’s put all that knowledge to work, and get you some awesome winter lettuce. Continue reading Growing a Winter Indoor Salad Garden – The Basics

Greenhouse Building – Part 3 – Installing Triple-wall Polycarbonate (plus tips)

As tempting as it would be to insulate every portion of the winter greenhouse to make sure the plants stay as warm as possible, they also need light to reach them.  And that means choosing a proper glazing material.

Unlike a summer greenhouse that has glazing on all areas, northern winter sun only comes from a limited south-facing zone.  Which means – “glazing goes here, but not everywhere”.  I see this as a WIN.  More insulation for the rest of the walls where glazing would not only be useless, but also a heat-losing thorn.

But I digress – this is a post about how to install the polycarbonate, NOT about insulation.

Continue reading Greenhouse Building – Part 3 – Installing Triple-wall Polycarbonate (plus tips)

Greenhouse Building – Part 2 – Foundation and Heatsink

Like all buildings, the first portion of the project once I knew what I was going to be building was to get the foundation going.

Without getting into details, getting the building permit for the greenhouse from the city, and pouring the foundation took…….considerably longer than I imagined.

Demolition of the old garage (yes, THAT poor garage-facsimile) was late April 2013, with snow still on the ground.  I was excited, and optimistic, ready to spend the entire summer slowly putting it all together.  It wasn’t until the end of August by the time I had a permit, and October 16 by the time the slab was poured.  Which meant – “Rush-like-crazy-cross your-fingers-and-hope-the-snow-waits”.  Continue reading Greenhouse Building – Part 2 – Foundation and Heatsink

Greenhouse Building – Part 1 – Planning

I’d be lying if I said that planning the greenhouse was a snap.  It took a good bit of sitting, reading, thinking, coffee, chocolate, wine, scribble paper, scribble paper tossed for the cats, patience, and plain logic consideration for how it all needed to go together.

Being in an urban space, I’m limited.  Limited in how large I can make things, the codes I need to follow, and how easily machinery can get into the space to name a few.  The same issue I’m sure many urban dwellers face.  Having limited space also meant I had to plan carefully how to maximize every bit of space I had.  I did not want to have an “ugly” but functional end product.  I wanted to have something functional in summer, winter, spring, fall, and something that made the most of the sun, and the shade, and also gave me a pleasant space to socialize or just relax. Continue reading Greenhouse Building – Part 1 – Planning

Winter Greenhouse – The Inspiration

I have always had an interest in sustainability.  But if I’m honest with myself I suppose the root of my inspiration was very, very simple.

– Lettuce I was buying at the store tasted like water, and it got even worse in winter.
(We’re going to completely ignore the idea of pesticides and chemical residue at this point, it’s not really relevant to the post)

From this simple bit the inspiration grew until I HAD to have better.

Let’s go back a little further: Continue reading Winter Greenhouse – The Inspiration