Normally today I’d try to make an update in my beloved group for indigenous woodwinds and music, QuenaSabor…but I wanted to bring some love to this awesome group!
Before we get into things, let me open with a picture of my plant shelf so I don’t get stuck with a book cover as my thumbnail :)
Ok cool.
I deliberated a good bit over where to post this, but in the end I had to go with my gut and let this be the sole post in “indoorGardens.” I know I’m not the only Hivean with an indoor garden, and so I believe whole-heartedly we just gotta kick this thing off…so here we go, let’s get started!
I know this is strictly opine, but I do believe that there aren’t a lot of easier ways to improve your quality of life than filling your home with plants…mindfulness and spiritual growth notwithstanding, studies quoted by Ellen J. Langer indicate that caring for plants can keep our minds sharp and functioning well beyond expectancy. Plus they add beauty to our homes while improving the air quality.
(Off-topic, but this book is worth the read. When I first cracked it open several years ago, I was bummed at first to see that she intended to cover the topic of mindfulness without any mysticism. But by the end, I really appreciated the stark psychological approach she brought to the matter. I personally still like the balance between psychology and spirituality :)
Anyway, I’ve got several plants in my home, but if I’m being honest, I do have a few favorites. The first of which would probably be my grapefruit plants:
These plants are so incredibly dense. I may sacrifice one plant to make a hardwood branch flute…although it’ll be probably ten years before it’s big enough to do so!
This summer my wife and I enjoyed making fresh squeezed grapefruit juice. These plants started when I cut open a grapefruit to find a seed already sprouted inside! After that I searched online and learned how to peel the seeds’ outer layer, and I found from there I could make most of my grapefruit seeds sprout :) if you’re looking for a quick payout, this ain’t it. But so far these plants have been extremely hearty and fun to work with. Also I think they’re really pretty.
This (above) is my mapacho. It’s a tobacco plant that produces around 3x the nicotine of the tobacco plants used for modern products (Burly, Virginia, etc). Historically I believe these leaves were used by shamans; the quick instant dose of nicotine (see kuripe applicator) is alleged to induce moments of clarity and general clear mindedness. Although this is around my 10th time growing these plants, I still have yet to imbibe the nicotine by any means…not to say that I won’t, I’m just waiting for the right plant.
Personally, I don’t really care to make the effort of growing things outdoors that can’t be eaten, smoked or otherwise used in some way. But indoors, I seem to have much lower standards…I guess I just consider the aesthetic and fresh air valuable enough on their own. So most the plants indoors here have no future use in mind, they’re just here to be pretty and loved.
I have four San Pedro cacti growing as well, but I think they’ll be featured in their own story someday…They are my real favorites :)
These ones are looking rough today, but I let them stay outside a little too long. These are my strawberry plants. Every year they put off 5-10 pups, which I plant in my outdoor garden. Someday I’m hoping to make strawberry winds from them :)
Last of the plants I wanted to highlight today is our majesty palm,
whose pot has become a sort of orphanage for cacti and succulents.
Now that the plants have gotten their moment in the limelight, I wanted to bring the focus quickly to their shelves. These were really easy to make. Half a days work (including planning and shopping for parts), although I must admit the black iron parts wound up costing more than I expected.
Above, this was probably unique to my shelving due to an oversight (I mis-calculated the difference in depth we between the outer flanges on the wall and the central flange on the vertical portion of the window frame by about 6mm, so I used a Dremel to carve out a recess in the center of each shelf. In the end this was nice as it helps ensure that the shelves can’t slide out of position.
Otherwise, the pipes come in standard lengths and are threaded on the ends, so I spec’d out pipe lengths online and planned my shelf frame according to what was locally available.
As you can see above, the last mahor consideration in buying parts was to make sure I got tee fittings for the middle shelves and elbows for the top and bottom shelves.
I designed this shelf based off of an image my wife showed my from Pinterest or something. Design took maybe 30 minutes, parts were around $200, and assembly took the longest because I figured out (since the flanges are threaded) there were orders of assembly that worked, and there were orders that didn’t.
The whole thing required some minor finagling to assemble, but it’s been up for a little over a year now and I’m still really happy with it. The supports are spaced enough to allow room for a wide range for f things, but close enough that I Haven noticed and major bowing in the shelves.
I’d love to see some more indoor gardens in this group, and not just for myself, but so we can grow together!
Have you ever built any special fixtures or shelving to support your indoor garden? Let’s see it!!!
What plants in your home are your favorites? Will they someday be harvested/used, or are they just beautiful plant-friends?
Peace and love :)
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Your indoor plants are doing very well! I have never tried to plant the seeds of a grapefruit, although I love them and I live in a climate where citric fruits are prevailing. So many orange groves, lemon, grapefruit, and the season is now!
The palm is nice and the aloe vera plants too! The shelves are super 👌 it is cool when someone can make them by their own, like you did.
My plants are outside, on the balcony, mainly succulents, as I don't have spece inside and it is not cold outside, so during the whole year they are on the fresh air ;)
That is awesome! I would love to live somewhere where succulents can grow outside year round :)
Thanks for checking it out, and for your kind words!
EDIT: Corrected typo
EDIT2: Actually I created a typo! Wasn’t paying enough attention…
Yes, they are everywhere and do even better if left alone hahaha , they know how to survive!
I forgot to ask about the book, mindfulness. Does it focus on practical things, are there some kind of guide like excercises or advice?
I loved that book! It’s strictly practical; basically I remember it being like a thesis on mindfulness as the opposite of mindlessness sort of. She talks about lots of interesting concepts in psychology and neuropathy. She describes and draws conclusions from clinical studies and experiments, and also talks about things like preconceived cognitive conditioning - which for me was pretty epic.
If you’re into that one and then decide to go deeper into mindfulness from the neuroscience perspective, there’s another really good one called Aware, by Dr. Dan Siegel.
Image Source
This one gets a little dense towards the middle, but he does a fascinating job of connecting mindfulness, neuroscience and, I shit-you-not, quantum physics. Breaks down all of existence in terms of a probability map, woo woo woo - I prefer Langer’s writing style I think, but still another really cool read :)
Wow, cool, will have to give it a go. Thank you so much for this review and the recommendation of this other book too, Aware! However, I see it too dense and deep at the moment, hahah, as you say quantum physics? :D well, let's start with the practical one :))
Lol! Good choice, I’d love to hear your thoughts when you’ve finished it!
May take time though... :D
No problem ☺️👍
That happens to me too, so many times 😁 oh, when I see a typo in a comment I wrote, it is always that question coming: edit or no 😂😂
LOL exactly!
Lol - you are funny with multiple edits :D
My typos are having different reasons: English not being my native language, so grammar and maybe sentence structure can be weird sometimes :))) and autocorrect... 😂 seems sometimes our gadgets have their own thoughts 😂
Autocorrect…yes, the blessing and the bane of all those who type :)
Your English seems very good to me!
😇 thanks... lot of time spending on hive, I guess 🤣
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Nice job, excelente!
Thank you!
Great effort on the indoor garden mate. You should look at the HiveGarden community too nice bunch of people there too.
Thanks! Yeah I’ve actually been following the group and look forward to posting there as well in the near future. Especially if I manage to work out my vertical garden this winter :)
I’m glad to hear from you, and hope you’re doing well!
Le anpetu Wastekte :)