export_ofoct.com - 2020-04-16T192814.675

[00:00.89] Mike: So Dusty, you told me that you tend to grow your own kind of plants and things, and you're into kind of greenery and into kind of like ecology.

[00:14.64] Dusty: Yeah.

[00:15.14] Mike: You grow your own plants on your balcony, is that right?

[00:19.14] Dusty: Right, yeah. Well, you know, I live in Tokyo, and the balcony gets a lot of sunlight.

[00:22.89] It was actually a pretty good growing season, so we grow a lot of herbs on our balcony, like basil, thyme, mint, or lemongrass.

[00:31.39] They grow quite well. Even coriander, we have growing right now.

[00:34.14] Mike: Wow.

[00:35.39] Dusty: It's just going well.

[00:36.64] Mike: So you use that stuff for your own cooking and everything, right?

[00:41.14] Dusty: Yeah. You can really see the difference, especially when you're making sauces and things.

[00:46.14] It just has a lot more flavor to it.

[00:47.89] We've also started growing some vegetables, so we've got carrots going, and we've got lettuce.

[00:53.89] We're going to start doing grapes in about a month or so.

[00:56.89] Mike: Wow! You must have a huge balcony.

[00:59.14] Dusty: We are lucky. We got a pretty big balcony, but it doesn't take much room.

[01:02.89] And even some things you would never expect, like goya or grapes, grow well on the balcony.

[01:08.14] Mike: Really?

[01:08.64] Dusty: Yeah.

[01:09.14] Mike: Wow!

[01:10.39] Dusty: And it's like good-

[01:11.89] Mike: I always thought goya was like a tropical kind of vegetable.

[01:15.14] Dusty: It will do okay in Tokyo.

[01:15.64] Mike: Really?

[01:17.14] Dusty: Yeah. And then the grapes, you know, the grape quality isn't very good.

[01:19.39] Mike: Okay.

[01:20.14] Dusty: But during the summer, they have leaves, and so it kind of cools down your balcony. In then in the winter, the leaves drop away, so you still get a lot of sunlight.

[01:26.39] It's kind of a very eco-friendly way of cooling your house.

[01:30.64] Mike: So what advice would you give to somebody if they wanted to, let's say, grow their own vegetables or herbs, or whatever, on their balcony?

[01:40.39] Dusty: Well for one thing, don't be scared to stack things.

[01:43.39] Mike: Okay.

[01:44.14] Dusty: Yeah. If you don't have much room, it's okay to kind of build a little shelf above one.

[01:48.64] Herbs don't need a ton of sunlight.

[01:50.39] Mike: Oh, really? Okay. Wow, I didn't know that.

[01:53.14] Dusty: So you'll be fine with that. And then also, grow things you're actually going to use.

[01:56.14] Like last year, we grew jalapeno peppers, and we grew habaneros.

[01:59.14] Mike: Wow!

[01:59.89] Dusty: Yeah. Habaneros are great. We've got tons of them, but we just couldn't eat them. It was so spicy.

[02:05.14] Mike: Oh, really?

[02:05.89] Dusty: Yeah. In the end, we eventually deep fried some of them and had like cheese poppers.

[02:11.14] Mike: You mean, you eat them like deep-fried, all straight habanero peppers?

[02:14.14] Dusty: Deep fried with cheese inside. But yeah, that was about the only way we could do it. And even just handling them, like your eyes would hurt afterwards.

[02:20.39] The other thing is be ready for bugs.

[02:24.39] Even if you're up like eight stories or nine stories, you'll be amazed how many - you'll wake up one morning and just find your plants covered in caterpillars.

[02:31.14] Mike: Really?

[02:31.64] Dusty: Yeah.

[02:32.39] Mike: Wow! I guess so. I mean, in fact, that makes sense. Insects fly, so they would eventually get themselves up there.

[02:36.89] Dusty: Yeah.

[02:38.89] Mike: Thanks a lot, Dusty. That's really interesting - fascinating stuff.