I wish I had something to smoke, but I don't. That's why I am trying to grow something... I had to make a choice. Spend the money on trying to grow and hopefully be able to have a sufficient supply in a couple of months, or go and spend what little $$ I have to buy some from a compassion centre and run out before I can afford more. This is an investment in the long term.

Anyway, I have a log going for what I am doing. Everything is being done as cheap as I possibly can do it, and it has STILL cost well over $100 to get started with seeds and all. And if I had not already had some equipment on hand because I grow other plants, it would be heading for $200+.

Nothing is so disheartening than to have people insist that you have to have a $200-400 light or some fertilizer that costs $50 per drop or not to use "cheap" potting soil (if it is cheap or none, well, cheap it is...). But then it just gets worse: even if you have everything you need (or that you think you need) and you get all set up, you hit google for some further info and find 10 different sites with 10 different "right ways" to do it, and half of them are the complete OPPOSITE of the other half. And I swear if I see one more person say that BOILING water is the same as DISTILLING water or that you can reduce the hardness of water by putting it on the stove for a few minutes, I am going to have a conniption.

I can only imagine some poor schlub who has lived in an apartment his/her whole life (and has never had so much as a houseplant) getting sick, getting a medical card, and discovering that $150+ a month is beyond their means and deciding to start trying to grow their own. I'd guess that half of them simply give up in despair after a few days of trying to decipher it all, and the other half start by pawning their television, xbox and guitar in order to have to cash to buy some monstrosity of a light that has the equivalent candlepower of the sun (and that they won't be able to afford to turn on due to the electric bill), because that's what the "experts" told them to do.

I really admire folks like BobBong (I think that's what his name was) and others who have shown that you can grow on the cheap with CFL bulbs and a pot of dirt in a small space.

The dollar store and Wal-Mart have been my friends in this project. Sure, I don't have space station grade mylar to line my walls - but what I do have cost me $2 for 2 packages and is better than nothing, and the other alternative is selling a child into slavery to have the funds to purchase it from NASA. I think I can live with the "wrinkles and folds" and that it is "too thin" since it still makes the inside of my greenhouse look like the planet Mercury on a sunny day. I'd have used aluminum foil or dollar store mirrors if they were the only alternatives and to heck with what any Mr. I-Need-A-Massive-Yield-To-Supply-All-My-Friends says.

Our neighbour apparently used to grow on a windowsill and did just fine. I'm going to try and do a little better than that. I'd just like to know that I am not killing my seedlings by transplanting them "wrong" or having the temperature "wrong". Is that so much to ask?