countrypickle
Well-Known Member
Hi to everyone...Been a crazy and hectic summer here for myself and family..and been a long time since my last post. I was a rookie at this wonderful hobby just a few years ago, and with the help of RUI members( to whom I thank for answering what I now learned were actually pretty straightforward and paranoid things),I was able to have an amazing rookie season.Due to a family death and my working away from home all summer... I wasnt able to do anything last year.( and my pocketbook felt the difference....suks when u have to pay for something thats natural,,luckily a better paying job offset the difference..but wow...never realized how expensive that shit can be ,,lol),
when I went to a friends in August of last year, he had a scraggily looking little plant in his l/r window from a seed he got from a 5 bag he bought. it was just begining to show signs of been a girl...
I trimmed it for him to salvage something outta it( lst'd trimmed most bottom plant.Antoher thing i learned on this wonderful site).I salvage 3 braches and took them home.I decided I was going to see what these will get me outside the next season.All I gotta do is keep them in the house over winter..pop them outside in spring,all will be well..or so I thought.. in what was to be the beginning of a long relationship with gertie and I .
With 4 kids at home... its a big time challenge to try to "mask" what your doing. I converted a small area in our basement into " our underground veggie garden" ,or at least as the kids came to know it as " the tomato cave".
In that same area,(just "coincidentally"
) there was an old cold room that hasnt been used in years,I sealed that all up from the outside cold,place in 3-15 watt cfls (one on top,and 1 on each side),,painted the whole room white.In the basement, the kids and I all helped and built a 10 x 20 foot veggie garden..we used 2x10's laid a membrane inside adding soild from our compost piles.(Oh since my last post we had gotten goats and chickens..so our compost has increased ten fold..I DONT BUY FERTS ..all naturals) We planted every veggie we could think of...and installed two florescent shop lights 1 above each planterbox.Kids had a blast.
Both boxes were raised off the floor,1 I installed a set of caster wheels on when the kids werent looking. this grew tomato and cilantro..(tall and similar foliage ) .This was placed in front of the cold room door,and forgotten about...to the kids..
Now 3 weeks later...all the veggie boxes are loaded with fresh sprouts of everything,.carrots were great..so good when satueed with a little garlic salt and ...oh wait!! off track back to story.. .. and the three branches in the room took off as well...they were already a foot tall..uh oh!! guess they really like goat and chicken manure for soil mixture,thus began the first of many "haircuts" they got over the winter,
As the cold days of winter set by, the gardens taught the kids and I lot about composting,2nd 3rd generation Heirloom seeds,making a tea, and even setting up a rain barrel system.We laid out veggie plots and garden ideas for the summer and got everything ready..( as was I )
I learned from some online reading and friends that had sativia strain...My rookie season was indica.I didnt know at first that these strains grow like the freaking wind!! it was nuts some days I opened that room door.I was still working away so they were left to be on thier Monday to fri...the lights never went off.and were always 6 inches away from tops...I was donating clones and feeding goats some many leaves he dont like it anymore...which was my plan...force him to eat so much he sick of it.. wont touch later..lol
Finally!!! Spring... can give the Girls one last haircut,and get em outside.The kids and I planted our veggie gardens ..I even built a Hukelkulture bed( for those that dont know google it!! PERFECT for guerilla growers that cant get back to water often ).I had the kids plant soooo many different plants and flowers on every open place in the yard we could... so no one would be wary of the "contents" of all plants involved.
Plan worked!! kids were all for it for the the first few months of summer..and are now bored of it.I am left to tend to the gardens while they wont give any of it a second glance,in fear of having to do some labour work there..So yes, I gotta do the work... but they are also oblivious..win win !
I apologize for such a long read with only a few pics... but I honestly didnt know how this was going to turn out. and never thought to take any..I do have some pics I will post of various stages,and will definetly share the rest of the chronicles of Gertie and da girls as soon as I can find the pics.We are coming to the end of the season for the veggies..but the girls are green as could be..which isnt really a good thing.Its getting close to frost season,and apprtly this strain has a longer growing season the the other,so I've got to soon think about building a greenhouse of sorts over them till they finish off.
The few pics I found were after we had all the diggin done ,yard reshaped and all veggies in basement ready to go outside( Quite a bit of work just to mask 3 plants lol ). My three girls got placed out into thier new forever homes as well.Gertie is absolutely loving the sun, I'll go get more pics shortly. Thanks for reading and sorry so long.
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