Until this year I'd never attempted an indoor edible garden. At first thought you'd think it would be relatively challenge free. Find a sunny spot, water, nourish, and wait for the bounty. The reality of an indoor edible garden is anything but challenge free.
Last month I shared with you how Gates and I are going to tend an indoor garden this summer, starting with three Marshall Strawberry plants. Since then the plants have arrived and have been successfully transplanted.
What I had envisioned as a window sill or counter top garden was a misguided fantasy. Turns out each strawberry plant needs its own 5-gallon containers; that's roughly three feet of counter space. (We don't have enough counter space that gets more than an hour or two of direct sunlight.)
Our project moved out to the living room (a sneak peek of the almost finished space I'd just revealed) and the one corner that gets at least four hours of sunlight a day.
How far would you go to grow a garden?
With the strawberry plants in the same room where Gates spends most of her time, I've had to come up with creative protection. Gates is intrigued by the plants and gets very excited when it comes time to tend to them. So far there have been a few handfuls of dirt sampled and spit out, and one plant uprooted (luckily the soil was moist and the roots remained intact). To slow Gates down I appropriated three of my mesh food covers (*affiliate link) and placed them over the top of the 5-gallon containers.
While I'm having some luck keeping the plants safe from Gates, I'm struggling with aphids and fruit flies. Making this more of a challenge is that any measures I take need to be eco-friendly as well as organic as we want to be able to eat any fruit that may grow. Also the measures need to be non-toxic for the plants. I've seen lemon and vinegar sprays but need to determine whether the leaves would die along with the aphids if treated.
Got any tips for killing aphids?
Bon Appetit!
Eden!
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