Episode V: The Cubicle Farm Strikes Back

Back in business! With the regular, outside-type garden in full swing and no gnat sightings in the office in recent memory, I thought it was time to take another crack at the cubicle farm. This time, I'll try growing some fancy mesclun salad greens in containers in a retrofitted government-issue bookshelf. Your tax dollars at work. Thank you, America. I sowed the first crop today, Monday, April 26, 2010.

I'm going to attach the LED lights to the inside of the bookshelf with some stick-on hooks.

I'm also taking the farm up a notch. Last time, I grew lettuce in an Earthbox. Pretty straightforward, except that I did it wrong. I didn't use the shower cap thingy -- the elastic-lined black plastic that goes over the top of the box. It worked fine -- i.e., the lettuce grew and was very tasty -- but the Earthbox authorities say I wasn't using the box to its fullest potential. 

This time, I'm going to use the technology appropriately -- with the shower cap. Maybe that'll help keep the gnats away. And I'm going to try to grow cherry tomatoes. If the gnats come back, hopefully I can bribe my cube neighbors into silence with fresh, delicious cherry tomatoes. 

Tomatoes are going to be a bit trickier than lettuce, I think, largely because as fruiting plants they'll need much more light. I'm attempting to deal with that while still keeping the electricity usage down (thanks again, America) by using a more powerful LED light. The type I got is called a UFO. I got it from a guy on EBay. It's 90 watts of blinding LED power. Seriously, these things are bright. I wouldn't recommend looking directly at it.

We'll see if it's bright enough to grow tomatoes in a cubicle.