This year I decided to focus less on vegetables and more on beauty. With limited space, high winds, super sunny spots and super shady spots, all in a 10×4 foot space, I decided I would limit my vegetables and focus on flowers. I planned out the garden and ordered from a somewhat local seed store in Richmond, BC ( about an hour from me ). This was in early February 2020. Within a month everything was different. I couldn’t go to the US to pick up some items, including a large trough style self watering raised bed for my vegetables. I was trying to stay home when I wasn’t at work to minimize contact with people.
I work at an optometry clinic. We started having trouble getting access to the alcohol we used to clean equipment between patients. I started ordering things to protect our doctors a bit more. Well I should say attempting to order these things. Then I got a cough and a fever. I spoke with my doctor and we decided that I should stay home for 14 days just in case. He didn’t want me to go for Covid-19 testing because it would potentially expose me if I wasn’t actually infected. I let my employers know on Sunday and found out another employee also needed to go into self-quarantine. Patients were canceling appointments and bookings were really down. On Wednesday they had a staff meeting that they called me for on speaker phone. Everyone was getting laid off. The office was moving to emergency only appointments effective immediately.
There was so much uncertainty about what was happening and what we needed to do. Well there was quite a bit of certainty on my part, I was to stay home and let me doctor know if I started having shortness of breath while at rest. I had pains in my chest and going from our living room to the bathroom caused me to have to pause to catch my breath. My fever continued. I watched Bonnie Henry, the BC Health Officer everyday live on YouTube. I also watched Canada’s Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, live everyday. I was so thankful I was in my new country, Canada, as opposed to my birth country, the United States, as the social programs and support for individuals is so much better here during the response. Thankfully there were some financial supports here.
My next thoughts were what is going to change. Toilet paper is already in short supply as is hand soap and cleaning products. What else might change? People aren’t working and international travel is paused. Migrant workers and backpacking students (common farm workers in BC) aren’t traveling this year. They are by and large allowed to come but who wants to leave their family in these times? I’m in Canada, I don’t expect to experience hunger here but I do think that produce prices could see an increase as crops aren’t able to be harvested at the rate they should be. With the gap in income between social supports and my usual salary I am a bit concerned about an increase in food cost. I also needed some project to help preserve my sanity while in quarantine.
With this in mind I decided to shift me little balcony garden more towards food production. With being in quarantine and dealing with everyone else having the same idea it’s been pretty challenging sourcing seeds and things I need to make this work.
In the past I have also gardened in a very traditional way. Usually in containers but always with dirt. I started spending hours a day on YouTube and online looking for ideas to maximize a small space. I learned more about hydroponics. I watched an untold hours videos, I’ve googled until my hands cramped, I’ve researched cost and most successful methods until I couldn’t think straight.
I live in a one bedroom apartment on the third floor with my husband, whose home office is also in our living room, with a small balcony. We don’t have a lot of space to work with and leveraging hydroponics would help with space.
After much study and research a settled on a vertical NFT (Nutrient Film Technique) and Aeroponics system hybrid. This was almost solely from one video series that you can find here: NFT YouTube playlist
We have aquariums so I already had a pump that was sufficient to power the system. I researched and planned and measured and then researched and planned some more. a month after I had to start sled quarantining a ventured out of the house for the first time. I gathered the materials and after 3 trips over 2 weeks to the hardware store I had a functioning NFT system!
The intention for this system is greens, lettuces, kale, and maybe some herbs. As we don’t have any sort of electric on our balcony the system is indoor only.
But I also want to grow tomatoes, peppers, and maybe a few other vegetables. I looked into a few options for those. Flood and drain systems, self-watering in dirt (as I had originally planned), Dutch buckets, etc. There are so many options!
I did make a trip to a local hydroponic store and while I was there I got several “top hats”, some clay pellets, and some perlite. On the trips to the hardware store I also got a bag of gravel. These will potentially be my growing media for t he top hats on 5 gallon buckets.
buckets or specialty 3 gallon buckets.
I would love to do a Dutch bucket system but as I mentioned I don’t have any electricity on my balcony, not even a light socket I could adapt to power. There is also a method called the kratky method that is for off the grid hydroponics.
My sweet husband accidentally ordered me an automated house plant system that isn’t very powerful but can be run with AAA batteries or from a USB battery pack. I may try to use the top hats with a reservoir and the houseplant watering system.
This is a bit long winded and also quite a bit rambling but it was mostly to get my current state of mind and what got me to this point down so I can start moving forward.