Page 24 - Sonoma County Gazette 12-2019

How to Transform Your Garage into a Winter Gardening Oasis
By Emma Croft
As the seasons change, many outdoor plants shrivel and wither away due to the cold, while only a few hang on. Gardeners everywhere are tempted to pack away the shears for a few months, while others get creative and bring their garden indoors.
© Tish Levee, 2019
“Our house is on Fire!” Greta Thunberg at the World Economic Forum. When Greta first said this in Davos, Switzerland, last January,
many took it to be metaphorical. However, the recent Kincade fire, and the fires in Southern California make it all too clear that our house is literally on fire. For the third year in a row, we’ve had massive wildfires in California; climate experts say we can expect this new pattern to not only continue but to exacerbate in the future.
The health benefits of gardening can be felt at any age, so it makes sense why more and more growers are finding ways to set up successful indoor gardens without investing in a state-of-the-art greenhouse. If you’re one
of the people searching for a way to keep up the healthy hobby, consider transforming your garage into an indoor growing space.
We’re not alone. Globally forests, grasslands, and bush are all on fire. Unprecedented heat and bush fires in Australia threaten the five million residents of Sydney, Australia’s largest city, which is covered in smoke
Claim a Corner ... or the Whole Garage: Once you commit tothe idea of creating a garden indoors, clear a space to build your setup. You’ll need
room for a humidifier, lights and more, depending on the plants you choose to grow. Before you start shopping for supplies, figure out how much room you have.
Although our Kincade fire was contained relatively quickly, it happened in the fall, with the hope of rain soon. Bushfires are a regular occurrence during the Australian summer, but it’s spring there now, and authorities warn the fires could burn out of control for months.
For those who don’t have a finished garage or spare space in the garage, there’s always the
Fires on every continent. Huge fires have been burning in the Amazon rain forest, in Indonesia, and across equatorial Africa. While some of these fires have been deliberately set to aid illegal activities such as cattle grazing, agriculture, wood extraction, and illegal mining, they’re still adding massive amounts of global heating emissions to the atmosphere while destroying trees that sequester carbon dioxide. The Amazon’s deforestation rate is the highest in 11 years. Our increasing consumption of palm oil, beef, and other products drives new fires.
option of constructing a standalone wood or steel garden shed. Steel structures last longer than wood, but they tend to be more costly
Before you start constructing the building, make sure you acquire any permits or licenses in accordance with your local and state laws. Build your space or clear your garage corner and start getting the basics for your indoor garden figured out.
Images Courtesy of Pixabay
and can rust if the framing is
made with red oxide primer. The way around this is to go with
a company that guarantees the steel structure won’t rust. The
fact that steel requires little to no maintenance can be worth the high cost.
Extreme heat, caused by climate change, drove intense fires in Europe. In June it was so hot in Barcelona, Spain, that a farmer’s chicken manure compost pile spontaneously ignited, causing Spain’s largest fire in 20 years.
Wood is an attractive building material, and it’s cheaper than steel. However, due to being susceptible to weather and termite damage, it needs to be maintained often. Be sure to weigh the pros and cons of each material before making this big purchase.
Even the Arctic was on fire! Arctic fires this summer occurred in Alaska, Canada, and Greenland, as well as Siberia where in June and July nearly 130 megatons of carbon dioxide were released into the atmosphere— equivalent to the exhaust from 36 million cars.
Does It Feel Right? Find a way to monitor and manipulate the temperature for your indoor garden. Unless you’re lucky enough to have a thermostat in a fully finished garage, the outside elements have a way of letting themselves in.
But fire isn’t the only effect we’re seeing of the climate emergency. Venice, Italy has seen more flooding in one week than’s been recorded since records were first kept in 1872; 85% of Venice flooded, as did other parts of Italy. There’s also been flooding in England, South and Central America, the Atlantic coast and Northeast and Midwest of the US. Currently, nearly 4000,000 people have been displaced by flooding in Somalia and Ethiopia
Insulate the garage and go around any windows, sealing cracks or holes with caulking or spray foam found at any nearby hardware store. This should eliminate some leakage and aid your battle against the elements. However, if you’re still having a hard time maintaining the temperature inside, invest in a thermometer, space heater and fan you can leave in the garage.
What can we do? We’re told we can’t afford to really act of the climate crisis. Really? We can’t afford NOT to do so. We’re told that the cost of various plans proposed by Democratic candidates, ranging from $1-$16.3 trillion over the next 30 years, is just too expensive. However, a Morgan Stanley report last February estimated that the costs of climate change by 2040 will be $54 trillion. Recently California fires cost an estimated $25.4 billion. It’s Not Economy or the Environment. We can have both.
Following up on the incredible Global Climate Strike in September which saw 7.6 million people take to the streets, a similar strike has been called
for Nov. 29th and Dec. 6th. In many places people will be walking on Nov. 29th; in the US the 29th is a school holiday, so most strikers there will instead walkout on Dec. 6th. However, Fridays for the Future is calling on people to undertake positive climate actions, such as planting trees on the 29th and the 30th, which is Climate Action Day (https://climateactionday.org).
Stay posted at Sonoma County Sunrise Hub’s FACEBOOK page.
Light It Up: If your garage doesn’t allow any natural light in, don’t consider it a lost cause. There are plenty of indoor lighting options available for gardeners. One of the most affordable and popular grow lights are fluorescent lights.
Another week—or more— of Global Climate Action coming up!
As far as efficiency goes, fluorescent lights are an inexpensive option, but there are other lights better suited to certain plants, budgets, and goals. If you decide to go with another option, make sure your plants or seedlings can handle any heat coming off of the light.
Dec. 6th is in the middle of COP25, the UN Climate Change Conference, in Madrid, Spain. There’ll be strikes worldwide that day. Here is Santa Rosa, youth-led Sunrise Movement will join the Global Youth Climate Strike
by walking out of schools, workplaces, and homes for a day of climate action. At noon, they’ll stage “Die-Ins For Life” at county schools and Old Courthouse Square. At 5:00 pm, all are welcome to join a candlelight march from Julliard Park to Old Courthouse Square for a vigil for all the victims — human and non-human—of the recent wildfires and victims of global climate disasters everywhere.
Move the Plants: When it comes time to bringing your plants indoors, you can choose between nutrient-rich soil and a hydroponic system. If you
go with the latter, messy soil is left outside, and setting up your own DIY hydroponic garden will end up saving you more money in the end. And since hydroponic systems require less space than soil, you can grow more plants indoors than you realize.
With these tips, you can simplify the entire indoor gardening process and focus on watching your plants grow. Take your gardening indoors to continue your personal growth all year round. Who knew a garage could be so lush?
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