"PERPETUAL HARVEST" - YEAR ROUND GARDENING FOUND IN JACKSON, TN

HELLO & welcome to Garden Daddy here at the urban farm! I usually do not try to offer my referrals to business ventures but I have found one I think you would thoroughly enjoy and that I believe fits into today's busy world and limited outdoor space.

I would like to introduce you to a business that has been here in Jackson, TN since January 02, 2007. It called "PERPETUAL HARVEST", located at 75 Riverport Dr, Jackson, TN 38301. Perpetual Harvest is a family owned business that features the advantages of year round gardening indoors as well as out. From hydroponics to portable grow rooms, from lighting to air pumps, from liquid natural & synthetic fertilizers to soil & soil-less mixes you will find a wealth of new and exciting information that can open a new world of gardening for us all.

I went there today and had a long, enchanted visit with the owner, Emily Atkeison, who came to Jackson to open this marvelous company from Memphis, TN. Emily showed me around the store and shared a lot of her knowledge and her commitment to not only growing her own food for immediate consumption but I enjoyed the fact that she can teach one how make it work for year round use. But with the idea of her 365-days a year gardening techniques one can eat fresh vegetables and herbs all year round without the need for canning or freezing or other preserving. Her hands on type of business allows close contact with her customer base and she is quite knowledgable and helpful and I found her to be a consumer-minded person, making sure she tells you what you actually NEED rather than just selling you something.

As an "outside gardener" at heart here at the urban farm, I was jolted by the sight of the large, outside "SMART POTS". These are soft sided pots, made from fibrous recycled materials that naturally aerates and "air prunes" the plant roots to create a better root system and allow more cooling than plastic or even clay pots. I was very impressed with these and see a good use for them not only if one would be dealing with nursery stock but in the home garden as well. I can see these being used to not only stop the need for weeding all together but as a way to make your vegetable garden into a series of raised-type of specialty beds that can be used to keep certain elements from causing problems such as pets (or even pest I think) and other issues from flooding rains and the need to till or dig an "in ground" garden and create a more specific area for gardening. I was very impressed with this item seen below from the side of the entrance to "Perpetual Harvest".

I was also impressed with the truly space age item called the "Grow Lab". I did not take a photo of that on the inside of the store but you can find it "in store" or see it online at http://www.aghydroponics.com/. I tried to copy and paste an online photo to this posting but it is a copyright infringement to do so. But those of you close to Jackson MUST go see this indoor growing "tent" actually. I holds heat and uses LED lighting as well as fan driven fresh air to keep all elements needed for a specific growing status. Quite impressive. I spoke with Emily about the evident use in space exploration and she told me that indeed it had been used and tested on some space flights over the years. I could truly see it on the space station to grow food and create some oxygen as well, used on a larger basis of course.

I think anyone within driving distance of Jackson would greatly benefit from a visit and RETURN visits to "PERPETUAL HARVEST" and this Garden Daddy gives "PH" 2-thumbs up for a job well done! Again, I usually do not promote businesses on my postings but felt compelled to do so in this case. A truly awesome, must-see place to shop and visit! Thanks, Emily, for a tour and all the information! You can find "PERPETUAL HARVEST" on a link at the top of this site for your convenience.

Things remain constant with the addition of tomato plants going in over at my site at the Jackson Community Gardens. Almost daily tilling continues of new plots and I planted 26-tomato plants yesterday as well as some okra and several kinds of flower seeds. It seems there are problems with keeping the gardeners interested and due to the nature and area of this site it will be difficult to NOT have it become the GARDEN DADDY garden site in the long run I fear! But I made a commitment to see it through and will do just that until at least the end of October. Here is the result of this weeks work there.

This Garden Daddy will leave you then with our ongoing gardening affirmation in mind: "URBAN FARMING: ONE EGG AT A TIME!"