This time, however, I told them they would have to support themselves if they were going to come live with me again in such large numbers and my “business” was born. I put the word “business” in quotes because looking back I should have been more specific. I should have told the orchids that they could come back if they supported ME. But just like before it has turned out to work the other way. Through sales, they do support their own upkeep with regard to space and resources, but I am their slave. Again! Hold on… I’ll be back… I have to go tweeze a sliver of bark out of my typing finger.
Aliens In The Basement: Between 1996 and 2000 I grew plants in my basement under lights and summered them outside in a hoop house covered with shade cloth. Eventually I had filled two 45 x 15 foot rooms. The lamps in the picture below contain 1000 watt High Pressure Sodium bulbs. They gave off lots of heat and used to warm the floorboards in the house above during the winter. Also, they stayed on about 16 hours a day so at times when lights were turned off upstairs and people were trying to sleep, great bright shafts of lights would pour up through cracks in the floorboards which gave the impression that perhaps aliens were living in my basement.
During these early years I sold orchids by mail order on the Internet under the name “Al’s Orchid Basement” and was open to customers by appointment only.
The picture below of one of the orchid rooms downstairs was taken around the winter of 1998. It shows about 1/4 of the growing space down there.
