You live in a NYC penthouse but you can't afford new kitchen?? Oh well, this is not meant in any way as an insult but Pottery Barn and C&B has sold the world on these unreal fake wood colors. Your cabinets are a lower grade wood painted to look like a cherry or whatever wood cabinet. Everybody has grown so accustomed to these stains that are so thick and non transparent that it really doesn't even matter if the doors are actually wood. You could achieve the same look on MDF with some of the darker colors. Stain is transparent what they use is heavy gel stains or brown paint. Problem is people are so use to that look when they see high dollar say walnut or cherry cabinets they think they look bad because they see the natural defects in the wood instead of brown paint. The point is you do not have a super high quality solid cherry wood kitchen. If you want it painted there is no could here. Pay $2500-3k to have them painted and be happy every morning.

When I add something to my 'cottage garden' style yard, it gets one year of babying, and then after that, it's on its own. Saving water is not really stressed around here, The Great Black Swamp of NW Ohio. Plus, I'm the daughter of a drainage contractor, so our problem is usually too much water, not too little. We've done all we know of to take care of that problem. (We have well water and a septic system) Water saving toilets? It's all that is sold down here, and we had nothing but problems with them. So one day while going to a Canadian dog show, I took a side trip and went to a Home Depot in Windsor. The guy told me they sell a lot of toilets there to Ohioans. Whenever I or my husband is in the bathroom, we yell if we have to go too and yell "Don't flush" Not to save water but to save on the salt that has to be used, and carried down the stairs to condition it.

yes we did a whole eco system. Aquaponics - we grew the duck weed to feed the fish, the fish fed the plants and the plants fed us. it was really great, however when the intense heat of the summer came the fish were in the pond and with no shade. in florida the poor fish cooked and was sad. next time we will have a shaded pond. the water barrel is now inclosed in foam and the water stays cool enough to do hydroponics, we also bought and grew hydroponically in gutter system. way cool. next want to work with areo ponics which is what NASA uses so i've heard. I just love growing our own food. lived on property for 30 years (no pesticides) No chemicals (free range chickens), We all need to be responsible for our planet. Pesticides hurt our environment i.e., bees and other creatures like us! I was raised in the nursery business and used to hate it as a child, but learned to love it and nature and the miracle of herbs and their healing properties. I was taught by and old indian woman when i was young how to gather herb and such, only taking what i needed and to give back to the planet. Also my Uncle who owned his own pharmacy told me every medicine came back to herbs, leaves, roots, tree barks, molds, fungus's. Too many of the people rely on synthetic drugs, (which all started with two really great sales men), that have side effects or are taken wrong. example colds people automatically ask for antibiotic. Which they don't need at the time which cause supperbugs. Now I'm not saying that doctors aren't needed just that you have to have an open mind and look at the other options also! and yes I'M A TREE HUGGER! hahahahahh dj

That bulb is inefficient and not enough lumens. Use a regular CFL bulb with around 5500 Kelvin color temperature and around 1200 Lumens, 20-25 Watts. Kale is a cool weather plant. The bulb you have will be too hot. You may be able to get by with 14 hours per day of light for such an early season crop. Use a reflector such as this to direct the light. Of course, you could find a more decorative adjustable arm desk type lamp with a reflector as long as it directs the light in the right size "cone". You may be able to light three buckets in a tight group with one bulb. You can do this simply by putting a wood stake in the bucket to hold the light so that you can adjust it up and down. The light should be 12-18" above the bucket/ plant. You can use Kale for everything from sprouts, micro-greens to add to a salad when thinning the plants, sautéd at baby sized like spinach, to full sized like you are probably used to doing. If you find that you like the micro and baby sizes, you may want to stick with growing them, and you may still end up with a few full sized once in a while, but you can always get those at the local market. I grow several greens this way all year long, but I never let them get to maturity because I don't think it is worth it since I can get those at the store. Also, a tray 6" deep will work for salad greens and those small and tender enough to sauté (micro, and baby Kale). https://www.bbbseed.com/how-to-grow-baby-kale/