Indoor Gardening

Just wanted to reach out to any permies who are indoor gardeners and live in small spaces.  We started growing from tiny townhouse with a shade backyard.  If you need any encouragement at all, here's a blog I wrote on everything I learned about Indoor Gardening.  Hope it helps you.  Yes!  There are permies like us who can live permaculture in small spaces

https://www.permaculturegardens.org/indoor-gardening-for-beginners

My husband divided the huge goat barn we have (1800 square feet) because I only have 3 goats now and don’t need that many stalls.  He put a dividing wall halfway and put a floor in one side.  Then he knocked out the south facing wall on that side and put recycled  glass doors and windows on half of that, from floor to ceiling.  
He had formerly been using that side of the barn as a workshop, but built a new workshop so was moving stuff out of it.  I put in screens to dry the hand cut tree fodder and hay we hand cut.  Worked great.  The barn is on a hill, has great ventilation and air flow,  and that south facing window heated it just right, and also there is a small wood heater in there.  

Then I started putting a few potted vegetables in, but you know how that works.  It always gets out of hand and I never know when to stop.  So now it is full of plants;  sugar snap peas, the pots of ginger that can’t grow outside in winter, pots and grow bags of Irish potatoes, cuttings from the sweet potatoes I’d already harvested, and a tray of cucumbers.  I dug up, pruned back and potted out a tomato and a pepper plant,  both of which are blooming now in 18 degree weather in December.   The collards, spinach,  broccoli and lettuce can take the cold, but I don’t know if we can keep it warm enough for the summer stuff as it gets colder.  Sometimes it gets 7 below zero Fahrenheit here, but not every winter and if so not more than a day or two.  He did a dropped ceiling and since he mills lumber from trees on our property, had plenty of nice boards to better insulate the walls, but due to the way it is built there are still some air leaks we can’t do anything to stop.   One problem is the big sliding door which has two inches space between it and the inside wall.  I hung a big quilt over that on a rod which swings in to open it, or I can just lift a corner when I come in.  We did have to put in a few grow lights as the winter days are too short for the heat and light loving plants.  I need a RMH!  

Another downside is that the humidity is too high now with all the plants and I won’t be able to use it as a drying room.  However, I will have a few fresh veggies over winter I would not have had otherwise.   The key element here is having good soil to grow in, with plenty of organic matter and minerals.  

Ths is amazing @Faye! You are inspiring me to do more!

Would you mind it if I shared your photos (and credited you of course) on that blog and in my newsletter?  Please let me know which website you would like me to link back to.  

Nicky,
 We don’t have a website to link back to.  You are welcome to post that with my name.   I need to do current photos, plants are much larger now and show up better.  The tub with small green plants is duckweed, grown for chickens.  We also do a once a month newsletter.  Our personal email is melc8399@gmail.com.  

 Years ago my daughter lived in a three story apartment but had a deck out back overlooking the enclosed courtyard.  It was like a virtual jungle with green beans on trellises, tomatoes, peppers and basil.  She told me if nothing else she had basil and lots of it, enough to supply all her friends.   She had a tiny breakfast table in the midst so she could enjoy her plants and eat out there.  

  I also have a friend living in town in an apartment.  Rules won’t allow her to have plants out front, but out her back door, where there is a small patio, she has containers with everything.  Greens, tomatoes, peppers, Green beans, with just enough room to leave a pathway out to the back yard.   She has the advantage  of no deer, raccoons, rabbits or other hungry varmints eating her plants.   With plenty of minerals and good, composted soil, it was amazing how much produce she harvested.