Welcome to our new blog!

My name is Paul, I’m only telling you this because I want to start sharing with you some of my experiences working a Organic Garden Center in Skokie Illinois.While there are other people you may encounter here at 9223 Skokie Blvd, I’m the one you’ll most probably see.

 

A little background is in order; I had been working for many years at Old Orchard Aquarium when the ownership of  that, well known, tropical fish store decided to open an attached store as Organic Garden Center. How hard could that be? We knew so much about lighting indoor coral reefs, lighting fresh water, live planted fish tanks, how to pump and move water, and so much about adding supplements and minerals to keep those systems healthy and thriving. Even some of our wholesale suppliers could be the same. It should be a snap. Right? But there was, and is, a lot to learn, not as easy as we thought.

The one thing about indoor growing is that if you are a hobbyist, or a professional grower, it’s a lot of fun, and you get a reward when you harvest your crop, whether it’s peppers, cucumbers, tomatoes, or whatever. Even here in Chicago you can grow and harvest year round.

 

There are many ways to learn and grow, to learn I’ve read books, some publications (online and print published), got my hands-on experience, and learned a lot from my customers through helping them solve their problems and asking them questions (what have you tried? How did that work?) etc. To grow, just to name a few methods, there is hydroponics or soiless media, HID lighting, T-5 HO Fluorescents, or LED. As might be expected from an aquarium store, we have a nice aquaponics system, we let our fish do the work.

 

In the future, I won’t go on and on like this, I’ll try to keep it short and sweet, telling you which system I’m working on in the store, what kind of nutrients I’m using etc.

 

Well, that’s it for now, I’ll try to tell you more on a regular, on going basis.

 

– Paul