Gomistyle's Urban Window Garden

gomistyle_lvy_garden.jpg

San Francisco resident Marque Cornblatt of Gomistyle recently started documenting his indoor urban gardening efforts and he presents some really neat ideas and suggestions. Despite the fact that he does have a little yard, he got tired of sharing his harvests with the neighborhood raccoons and decided to take his garden indoors. He replaced traditional pots with big black plastic storage bins from Office Depot because of efficiency and cost-effectiveness. Marque experimented with growing vines, including tomatoes, pole beans, cucumbers, and peppers, by creating hanging planters from plastic one-gallon jugs.

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These soon got replaced by more black plastic bins with holes drilled in them (as seen in the top picture). This is such a great way to maximize his window space and conserve water too. Here's a closeup of his lovely thriving cukes:

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My favorite part is that Marque is admittedly no master gardening. He just experimented to see what works best. He even begins his blog post by saying: "Let me begin with a simple admission. I don't know much about gardening. Until a few weeks ago, I had never planted a seed, or maintained houseplants. My thumbs weren't green, they were red and swollen from playing Xbox. " That put a smile on my face. He plans to post updates and details as his garden grows.


Comments

Newest comments listed first.

Posted by: KentKB on November 7, 2009 at 8:46 AM

Woot,
I love living here in SF but have never even had a Tomato grow to ripeness.
Yes everyone tells me to try "FogBuster" or "EarlyGirl" seeds but no luck.... Outside.
But I have not tried inside as you show, Duh!
Good Luck, I will be watching the crop.
Cheers


Posted by: theperfumer on November 6, 2009 at 10:11 PM

I'm looking at setting up my indoor garden and this is really inspiring. I don't have window access - it's plant lights for me - but some of the other ideas could really work for me!


Posted by: Sophie A. on November 6, 2009 at 5:40 PM

This is great!!! What a fantastic set-up! I love that the gardening movement seems to be spreading, even into places where one might not think it possible. However, I'd be worried about gardening in plastic bins that aren't food safe. Harmful chemicals can leach into the soil, and then into your plants and food. Might want to look into it.


Posted by: SKR on November 7, 2009 at 8:43 AM

People have been doing this kind of system for ages without having chemicals show up in the food. There is nothing to worry about.


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