Cubicle farming

OK, I'm returning to this blog to document an experiment: I'm going to attempt to grow vegetables in the confines of my cubicle. Every blog should have a purpose (shouldn't it?), so let's say the goal here is to be self-sufficient in salad greens in...oh, I dunno, let's say 6 months.

Why am I doing this? Well, for one thing, I'm food and agriculture reporter for Voice of America, so it seems appropriate. But that aside, I've been wanting to get back to growing vegetables for a while. I live in a small apartment outside Washington, DC, with no balcony. Not a lot of space for growing stuff.

Like most of modern man, I spend most of my day, and most of my week, and, sadly, most of my life, in a cubicle, pictured here. I eat lunch at my desk just about every day. Lunch almost invariably consists of some kind of bread, some form of chicken or tofu, and lettuce. Growing wheat in my cube (or raising chickens) seems impractical. Growing lettuce seems do-able.

Except for the obvious shortcoming that I'm indoors. I have no arable land. I'll need containers.

And I get about 10 minutes of direct sunlight. I'll need grow lights.

So, as Tobias Fünke said, "Let the great experiment begin!"