Windowsill Farming, Ceinwen Wright

March 12, 2009 at 4:11 pm · Filed under Student Carbon Footprint Projects

I began my project like most of us did, by looking at what areas of my life have the highest carbon output, and how I can go about reducing it. One of the places that I do the most damage is the food I consume, so I decided to cut down my carbon output by planting a garden. The plan I came up with is to start growing most of my own vegetables, and reduce the amount meat, dairy and packaged products I consume. By doing this I would not only reduce the amount of high carbon products I was buying, but also reduce my driving, as I would need to visit the grocery store much less if most of my fresh food was grown at home. I also took into account that I would be using more water to hydrate the plants, and more electricity for lighting and heating the seedlings. According to this plan I would be able to reduce my carbon output by 4.4 tones per year!

…Only one problem, I live in the middle of the city! I do have a small backyard, however, as a student I do not know how much longer I will be living here, and I will not be here in Baltimore over the summer to tent and harvest my garden. Therefor, my garden would have to be movable and city friendly, so I decided to plant a windowsill farm!

So I picked out my sunniest window, and……at first nothing happened. I had jumped the gun on spring, and the little seeds I so carefully planted weren’t doing a thing. About a week and a half ago I added a heat lamp and the weather started getting warmer…and a few days later I started getting sprouts!