If you’re a person interested in historical perspectives, or just a regular gardener you might want to give herbs gardens a try. These small but lavish plants can often make the contrast in your garden. They’re uses are varied, and their history is remarkable in scope, and ingrained into our culture.  Historically it can be shown that if it wasn’t for herbs our society would have developed very differently.

Herbs gardens can be used to foster herbs for use as spices, food additives, and cooking aids. Other methods of use include medical treatment, and recreational activities. Medical herbs in particular have been extremely effective, and in some cases life saving over the centuries. Some herbs serve to treat burns, aid in poison treatment, and can reduce fever.

Medicinal herbs were the only form of treatment for many tribal and olden cultures. Some tribal societies today still use them as their preferred method of curative treatment. Many do it yourselfers trust curative herbs to modern medicine for relief of less serious illnesses due to the lack of negative side effects on the human body. Obviously herbs can’t deal with broken extremities and other severe conditions but for most less than life threatening problems they are satisfactory.

Culinary herbs raised from herbs gardens are mainly used for seasoning, or added to food for consumption. You can grow these from home, grind them up, and apply the powder on your favorite eating treats. They can also be used in the cooking method itself to bring out the flavor in cooked meats, and vegetables. You can also add them in soups to accentuate the flavor of the concoction and any other makings that you want to incorporate.

Regardless of what you use them for, herbs gardens can be a great addition to your garden. They can be a creative way to show your children how to care for plants, and cultivate their own gardens when they get older. Many gardeners in the city are starting to start gardens on their outdoor patios, and balconies. These gardens not only provide enjoyment but help save on the food budget, and save a good deal of money in the long term.

Herbs also have the added ability of cleaning the air, which is good for any home. Like all plants certain herbs only grow for one year and then need to be replanted. Others may rejuvenate every year and only need a minimal amount of attention and upkeep. The longevity of the plant is determined entirely on what type it is, and how it’s taken care of.

There are novice kits that you can obtain to help you get started
going. As with all starter kits they give you the ABC’s instructions on what to do, and then you go from there. Some herbs are not easy to grow so you might need to find help. Indoor gardens tend to be do better than outdoor gardens because they are protected from the elements.

Don’t forget that there is a lighting consideration with indoor herbs gardens. It is important to make sure they get sufficient of sunlight, or good artificial light. Newer grow lights for plants are much smaller, coolermore efficient, and energy effective than their previous models. This makes them  elementary to handle indoors, and makes their impact less on your electric bills.

Probably will put the farm in one of these two windows

So, I’ve got all these windows in my studio, which get tons of sunlight and I’ve been dying to put a window farm in them. I think for starters we’ll do just one window, 3.5ft x 7ft. I’ve already sourced out the bottles, cups, tubing, pipes, beads, plants, etc; my main issue is that the wall around the windows is difficult to drill into. There are possible alternative methods of hanging the system, probably from the old white pipe or the metal support brackets (not the copper heating pipes or the black pipe):

old pipe and support brackets

I guess my main concern is the weight of the whole system, and if I need to drill extra supports into the wall… I did the calculations and would need two 49″ reservoirs, and the 663 pump. How heavy do you think this whole system would be (pipes, water, pump, & 16-18 plants)? I think the pump is 2lbs, does anyone know offhand the weight of the sewer pipes (and roughly how many gallons of water goes into one?)

The other big question is plants, since I’d be starting this off the regular growing season – probably won’t get the system in place until mid-september. I was hoping to grow nasturtiums, cilantro, oregano, parsley, a few kinds of basil, lettuce or chard or mustard, hot peppers, mint and cherry or plum tomatoes. Wondering how these guys will do with the light changing (I’m not super concerned about the temperature, its supposed to be a warm fall in NYC…) and also if anyone has any experience with companion planting practices in a drip system – for example – if parsley & mint inhibit each other when in the soil near each other, I suppose they shouldn’t be in vertical succession in the drip chain… also conversely, vertically preceding the tomatoes with basil plants. Also wondering if anyone has successfully grown hydroponic rosemary and/or lavender?

Update: I’ve come across this, which has a chart down near the bottom of the page with different plants and their preferred ph levels… I wonder how important it is to group them?

For now, I’ll track the progress with this Flickr photoset, and will post updates here.

If it works out, how great would it be to have this whole wall of windows be a farm!

Windows!!!

Here are a couple of sketches of what I’m going to try to build.

I’ve picked a not-that-sunny window in my kitchen, and want to build a system for growing various herbs that my wife and I like to cook with – thyme, basil, oregano, marjoram, cilantro, parsley, etc. I think I’m going to try nasturtiums too. I want to avoid hanging things vertically, and am thinking of three angled tubes with holes cut in the top for plant cups. Inside the large tube will be two tubes – a 1/2″ feed tube with some kind of drip emitters attached at the top of each cup, cups will be in some kind of tiny funnel, at the bottom will be a second drain tube. Hopefully all that will fit in a 4×4 square or round tube. I’ll have some kind of lights on either side of the windowframe to supplement the low natural light.

Feel free to contact me if you have questions about the design. I’m researching both how to apply drip irrigation parts to a vertical system like this, and whether there are eco-friendly alternatives to PVC as a building material.

Really great class tonight. I feel very energized by the challenge you’ve put to all of us. I didn’t leave a photo because I changed my mind about what window to use after hearing about the elements involved. My thought for an initial foray is a kitchen herb garden. I had planned on using a window on the sunny side of the house, but since lights are part of the concept anyway I’m switching windows to the kitchen despite it’s northern facing. Here are the dimensions: inside width of windowframe = 35.5″, inside height of windowframe = 72″, ceiling 8″ above inside top, windowsill = 6.5″ deep, windowsill 21″ above floor.

I like the idea of using thick PVC (or some more eco alternative?) with cutouts for the plant containers. I have some experience with drip systems so I’m going to investigate that kind of tubing and connectors for my system (inside the PVC). I’m thinking of using multiple chinning bars for maximum strength so nothing has to be suspended. I’d rather sacrifice some light and have something massively strong if it can be done at reasonable cost. If possible I’d like the whole system to fit inside the windowframe, including the lower reservoir and pump if possible. And the window needs to be able to open.

I’ll get a sketch into the computer soon and send it. I look forward to the discussion online. Thanks again for doing this.