Lettuce is consuming me, not the other way around.

For Christmas this year Jayne got me this book, The Urban Homestead by Kelly Coyne and Erik Knutzen. This apparent couple lives in LA and live a very self-sufficient lifestyle that they outline in the book. Things like stealing fruit from your neighbors' trees and planting potatoes in old tires are some of the "projects" that they guide you on in this book. They also provide "10 essential projects" that, in order to claim self-sufficiency, you must attempt. This book got me thinking about all the natural things that I could do right here in my row-house in the middle of DC.

I started looking at local gardening blogs and found a bunch of good ones, here, here, and here. This University of Maryland site has just about everything you would ever need. It's on this UMD site that I saw the Grow Table idea, and I thought, that is awesome! So I took a trip to Home Depot and this is what I came up with.

Its a 2 ft. by 4ft. space that sits roughly 3 ft. off the ground. I constructed it here in my basement bedroom. It was nice having the carpet to kneel on, and not too much of a hassle to clean up, I used a old shower curtain for a drop-cloth.

Now, I will finish the bottom of the grow area with some super-fine mesh, so the dirt can't escape but the whole thing is super aerated. I have a 4 ft. florescent shop light that has one cool white bulb and one warm white bulb. I am pretty sure that will provide the entire spectrum they need. cover the whole thing up with an emergency blanket to keep the light from reflecting away and jahzah! we've got lettuce year round. Also, some kale and herbs. Here they are...my little seedlings, sprouting after only three days in the dirt!