Back to Eden Gardening and Hugelkulture and other non-conventional garden methods

[CapricornFarm]

Almost done my solar water heater with poo powered back up for the chicken waterer!

 

[lazy gardener]

I want one. Why wouldn't it work to make one patterned off the design of a solar oven? Of course, if a chook got stuck in it, you'd have roast chicken.

 

[pennyJo1960]

I want one. Why wouldn't it work to make one patterned off the design of a solar oven? Of course, if a chook got stuck in it, you'd have roast chicken.

maybe she could market it as a new way to cook chickens

 

[CapricornFarm]

I was considering putting some mirrors in there but didn't want to start a fire in the woods...I have all my components now, so i will be busy tomorrow.

 

[itsasmallfarm]

does aquaponics count for this topic? i would love to share about my experiments with it.

 

[lazy gardener]

Absolutely. If it's not a common garden practice, I'd love to see it added here. Please pull up a spade to lean on, and tell us all about your projects.

Suggestions for this thread:

Aquaponics, hydroponics, Green house gardening, lasagna gardening, hay and straw bale gardening, sheet composting, trench composting, hugelkulture. Changing your micro climate by adding rock walls, reflective surfaces, wind breaks. Hot and cold frames.

On the home front here, I've continued to add to the HK bed. About 8 WB loads of bark mulch from splitting and stacking fire wood. I have 45 bags of leaves which are 1 year old which can be added to HK and sheet compost area. 45 new bags of leaves stored in green house to be used for DL in coop and run, any left overs will go to garden, HK, sheet compost or orchard.

Unfortunately, rats have found me. I've been seeing signs of them in HK, garden, wood pile, and most recently at edge of run and in green house. I hate to resort to poison, but at this time, I feel that I have no recourse. They will not touch a trap, and so far are not touching the bait stations either.

 

[igorsMistress]

This is a pumpkin I think, growing in my kind of hugelmound. I didn't have any big logs but I had a TON of tree limbs so I piled them up and added green stuff and dirt whenever I had it. Put in chicken litter a couple of times and regularly add whatever I sweep from the patio or rake up. We have cool nights and mild days right now and it just popped up one day. Gives me encouragement

 

[ShrekDawg]

Probably a stupid question but I was never really sure what aquaponics and hydroponics was?

 

[itsasmallfarm]

Probably a stupid question but I was never really sure what aquaponics and hydroponics was?

not stupid at all. i will try my best at explaining the two.

hydroponics is pretty much grow veggies in water (i think hydroponics means water working) the idea here is using rich water the plants sit there roots in(which is full of chemicals by the way) to produce plants, its almost 100% man made/artificial, my cousin did hydroponics a few years ago and this is pretty much what he said, it worked very well but the chemicals are super expensive it costed him around 50 bucks a month to run the system. but the veggies where some of the best he ever had.

aquaponics is what am into, so here is my view at it.

pretty much take hydroponics but subtract the nasty chemicals, then take aquaculture fish waste and combine the two, so pretty much your feeding fish which produce waste, which then is pumped to the plants which clean the water that is then filtered back to the fish. (its 100% organic most of the time) and its a man made ecosystem giving you both a fish and plant crop.

 

[lazy gardener]

Aquaponics is a system of using water to grow fish and plants in a symbiotic relationship. The fish fertilize the water. The water is pumped repeatedly into plant beds which do not contain soil. the plants extract the nutrients from the fish poo. The cleaned water is recirculated back into the fish tanks. If the system is well balanced, the fish feed the plants, and the plants keep the fish water clean. The only input is fish food. However, it's a delicate balancing act which also includes the correct bacterial load in the filtration substrate, correct water temperature, good filtration, and good oxygenation of the water. Break down of any of these elements can mean disaster to the whole system.

Hydroponics is growing plants without soil. Nutrients are added to the water. The plants grow (often) in floating platforms with their roots suspended in the water, or they can grow in a soil-less medium such as volcano or clay "rock".