Category: Blog

Watching our lettuce grow is way more fun that it sounds!

Roots mean a lot at Lansdowne Urban Farms. First and foremost, that ability to create this business with my son Zachary is such a blessing. I would have never thought it even a possibility. I still think of him as our little first born, the kid we learned how to be parents on…poor guy. Fast forward 25 years and Zachary is a man, who has his own family which includes the BEST GRANDBABY ON THE PLANET! Zachary also knows a lot about growing things luckily.

Good roots also mean your plants are healthy! They are the delivery mechanism for water and nutrients. Without those two things, you don’t have life.

Part of this process is that Zachary and I do it all! We call Bill (the best handy guy on the planet) when we are about to lose it. This is the NFT…in pieces.

The beauty of hydroponic growing is that you can do it almost anywhere inside. You need to be able to control light and temperature but the water recirculates so almost no plumbing is needed. We do have plans to add a closer, bigger sink but for now we are literally buying Distilled Water at the Giant for our two 20 gallon tanks.

We removed 3 cubicles from each side of the office and voila! Lansdowne Urban Farms had space. We still have 4 cubicles (2 on each side) for if / when Hoff communications staff wants to come back. The systems make almost no noise other than small pump gurgling and there is no smell…the room is a little warmer than I would have usually kept it. Thermostat is now on 72 degrees. Most of the mechanicals on these systems are basically fish tank sized.

Our Ebb and Flow and NFT System arrived the first part of October. This little seedling is one of the first out of our Ebb. It all seems so magical. We will use this equipment to “practice” and learn as much as we can. The NFT System is rated as their “hobby” system as it only has 32 holes. Right now 32 holes feels like a lot.

Until March 13, 2020, I was running Hoff Communications, Inc., a web and print design business from a commercial office building on Lansdowne Avenue, the main street in the heart of Lansdowne, Pennsylvania. Positioned just outside the southwestern border of of Philadelphia, the borough of Lansdowne (population approx. 11,000) is a compact, 1.1-square mile inner ring suburb that I am proud to call my home. In Lansdowne, neighbors are really neighborly, and I can walk to all four corners of our borough easily.