How I Plan to Grow Food 365 Days a Year

I am planning to do an indoor garden this year. So I need two things, well, three things to be able to have my indoor garden, to grow things all year long. The first thing, which just arrived, is a green stock planter. This is going to allow me to grow a lot of things in a small space because it's vertical. The second thing I need is soil for my green stock planter. And the third thing that I need is a very strong grow light. And that is because it's a vertical planter. So I need a light that's intense enough to almost mimic the sun to different levels of the planter. First things first, I gotta get this green stock unpacked. So we have seven of these layers. A few weeks ago, I started a bunch of different grains and cucumbers and cucamalans and even some flowers. And I'm planning to plant a number of those in the green stock. I'm gonna jump back a few weeks and share the process of starting those things in soil blocks. I'm also gonna tell you a little bit about the grow light that we're using and how it's different than the ones that we've used in the past and why that matters for actually having a productive indoor growing space as opposed to just starting seeds. I'm Jen and we have my husband Chris here and Malachi. And it's a little family affair and we're going to be making some quick soil blocks to start some seeds. I know it's June now, which seems like a funny time to be starting seeds, but we have a new grow light to test out. So I want to start some soil blocks so I can test out this new grow light and share the process with you. And this is Malachi's first soil blocking experience. We have water, our soil blocker, my favorite potting soil for the trays. We've got two trays and we've got a bin for the soil. And then Malachi's gonna do his own soil block cause he's very strong. I love this potting soil. Seriously, it's the best. Coastal Maine organic potting soil. I use it for all my seed starting and I always have beautiful starts. So not to brag, but I really think it's mostly due to this soil and some good, some good lights. Give your good soil and then you got to get your good moisture. You good to start soil blocks? Yeah. This is real life as a parent on a farm. Using that sheer force. Looks good. This is the life Malachi. This is the first year we're using soil blocks. I bought the soil blocker over the winter and decided I wanted to give it a try. I like that it decreases the amount of waste because we don't need to use pots. I like that it disturbs the roots less. It's better for the roots of the plants. Oh, they're easy to transplant. So you just like grab a little block and put it in the soil. So you don't have to worry about trying to get it out of pot. So I like them a lot. I'm really happy with them. There's a bit of a learning curve. So I would suggest when you're starting out, start out early so you can give yourself time to try it. And don't only plant soil blocks while you're learning because you could mess them up. Oh, you want to feel the table? So Chris has to do some mowing in the pasture tonight. So I asked him to help me with the soil blocks real quick so that I can wear Malachi and start seeds with the soil blocks already ready. Do you have any tips for people trying to do soil blocks? Nothing major or that's not already intuitive, but just making sure that you keep loosening the soil in their container as you're going, because as you're pushing it down, trying to get it into the block, you're compacting the soil into the bottom. And the more compact it gets, the harder time it's going to have actually filling up the soil blocker. We just got this patio umbrella and we're loving having this space have some more shade. So Malachi and I are going to sit out in this area and we're going to start the sheets. We're going to start the seeds. Hi Sage. Yes, that Malachi. As I mentioned a minute ago, we are going to be using a new grow light. This one was sent to us and I'm excited to give it a try because it's way more high powered than the ones we've used in the past. It's LED lights and I'm telling you guys, this is like as bright as the sun. When you look at this thing, it hurts, it's so bright. I'm really looking forward to trying out this grow light with our green stock planter, which just came in the mail. I haven't even set it up yet. Oh my gosh, please don't fail. That would be so sad. They're like brownies, don't they? I know, I wish they were brownies. I mean, the brownies wouldn't grow nearly as much food as these guys are going to grow. Okay, Mal and I, Mal, it's kind of cute. Mal and I, Malachi and I took cover under the umbrella because we felt some raindrops coming. And so now we are sitting here. I am doing the balancing, multitasking as all good moms do. We're also going to go in this bin and look for some more seeds to start because we have a whole nother tray open and I'm not sure what I'm going to put in it. So I ended up picking some squash, some flowers and melons and herbs. So let me go ahead and make all the markers and then we'll start the seeds. And after I finish starting the seeds, I will tell you all the things I planted in these soil blocks. I just use popsicle sticks because they're inexpensive. They are sustainable and they're easy to find. ♪ Life is a winding road ♪ Okay, I finally finished these trays. Now Malachi is losing it a little bit understandably. I need to go inside, wash my hands and then take care of this little boo. And then I'll show you guys putting these up on the, under the grow lights. I'm going to go wash my hands. So I'm getting ready to install this grow light in our grow room. And what I'm thinking is that we're going to hang it from the ceiling and we're going to install two hooks and I'm going to hang it over top of this section of our potting bench here. And so if we have this wing, this table edge of the potting bench extended, we can put trays or pots or whatever on top of the potting bench and have the grow light be directed right over top of that. But if we want to drop this wing of the potting bench down as well, we can also just put our green stock right here and then be able to have a good place for the green stock to receive the full light of the grow light, while also having the south facing windows over here shining in for winter sunlight as well on the green stock. So it should be a pretty versatile spot for this. So I'll set you guys up and let you see what that looks like. So in case it wasn't clear, I've got these hooks right here. It is, there we go. So this is what the finished product looks like. I've got the brightness on the light turned down just a bit. So it's not so blinding on the video, but basically the light is hung by these ratcheting strings from the ceiling. So we have all of that length available to us to adjust the fixture if we get something super tall, which is unlikely, but it gives us some flexibility. And these straps are pretty easy to adjust. I typically use shop lights when growing my plants. And so far it's gone really well, but I will say I have noticed some legginess, but I am curious to see if this new grow light solves that issue for me and helps me to grow really strong, healthy plants. A few things that are different between the grow light that we are gonna be experimenting with and our shop lights is this grow light provides a very white, bright light that's similar to the sunshine with a really high powered LED system. The spectrum with the grow light is full white spectrum, which can be for all stages of plants. So if we wanted to grow something in the winter that produced fruit, like let's say grow tomatoes indoors, we wouldn't really be able to do that with our current setup. Whereas the grow light that we're gonna be using actually has a full white spectrum, which is able to produce fruit, which is pretty cool and flowers. Another nice thing about it is you can adjust the brightness. So this is something I'll be experimenting with to see if as the plant grows, if I can just adjust the brightness and bring it down. As you can see, this grow light is super bright and it's going to be perfect for our green stock this winter. The green stock is gonna go right underneath the grow light, right in this area right here. We can raise it up or lower it in the spring when we go ahead and start plants. And so we can start seeds right down here below it. So it's perfect setup. I'm really looking forward to using it, but it's gonna be a little while till you guys are gonna get to see that. So just hang on for a few months and then we'll be bringing our green stock back in here, back under this light. And you can watch as I attempt to have an indoor garden for the very first time. Now it's time to fill the planter. Now I am filling this green stock with my favorite potting soil. And nothing has made me as happy in growing containers as the Coast of Maine organic potting soil. So Coast of Maine has a number of products, but this is the one I use for all of my seed starting and all of my container growing. ♪ I'm feeling so sweet ♪ ♪ Watch the clock ticking off the wall ♪ ♪ Spend my night with myself or I could be someone else ♪ ♪ No one's stopping me now ♪ ♪ I'm gonna skip my breaks, I'm gonna make mistakes ♪ ♪ I just wanna feel alive ♪ ♪ It's just what I do when I'm out so ♪ ♪ Try not to hold me down, feel alive in this town ♪ ♪ Look at the stars, I wanna drive a faster car ♪ ♪ Nothing can break me, nothing can break me ♪ ♪ Try not to hold me down, feel alive when I'm in this town ♪ It's the next morning and I'm gonna go ahead and plant these green stock planters with all kinds of fun things. Let me show you what I've got. So I'm sitting down in my driveway next to a tray of starts and my green stocks. This is the leaf planter, so it's specifically made for greens, but I'm also going to plant some herbs as well as some cucamelons and cucumbers. I'm gonna give those a try and see what happens. So this is the tray of seed starts that I have right here. I've got a couple of different kinds of lettuces, some Romaine lettuce, some Encore lettuce, Paris Island lettuce, which is similar to Romaine, some kale, some cucumbers, and I have some mizuna mustard. And I also have cucamelons on either side there and some zinnias. Basil the kitty has joined me. This is not the basil that I'm planting in here. ♪ Look at the stars, I wanna take a trip to Mars ♪ ♪ Nothing can break me, nothing can break me ♪ So planting that was super easy. I'm gonna go ahead and finish planting the rest of this green stock. ♪ Lay my troubles to rest ♪ ♪ Blow smoke through my cigarette ♪ ♪ City lights looking fine ♪ ♪ And I know this is my time now ♪ ♪ I'm gonna be myself, I can be someone else ♪ ♪ No one's stopping me now ♪ ♪ I'm gonna skip my breaks, I'm gonna make mistakes ♪ ♪ I just wanna feel the breeze ♪ So we had a gnarly storm roll through earlier so I'm coming out to just check on the kitchen garden. And while I'm at it, deadheading these gorgeous roses. It was crazy, like 60 mile per hour winds, thunder, lightning, still pretty stormy out actually. You guys are still looking pretty though. Looks like all my snapdragons fell over in the wind. Don't know if they're gonna write themselves up. So I planted out the green stock and there's lots of things in here. I've got spinach, romaine, I've even got some flowers like zinnias, mustard greens, kale, lots of things. Different lettuces, even some more flowers like snapdragon here, some cucumbers, which I'm hoping will grow down. So this summer I'm keeping my green stock outside because we have nice weather, we have sun, we have rain, all the things. But this winter I'm bringing it inside and I'm gonna plan to grow things all winter long in the green stock indoors. It's looking lovely out here though. I'm really enjoying having this. And I love having it in the kitchen garden.