((Serious Gardening))

[vanilla.exe]

Here it's warm enough to plant. Back home I could never get anything good out of my garden because the stupid management always mowed my garden over (even though I put up fences AND signs telling them not to

). But now since I have my own backyard I've got my garden going. Tomatoes, datil peppers, bell peppers, onions, lettuce (like 5 different kinds for my tortoise) and basil. My tomato plant is growing like wild fire. I'm going to start composting soon for the first time ever. Meantime, I fertilize with water from my fish tank. I swear by that stuff, plants LOVE it, and I have to do water changes every week anyway so I might as well not waste the water by putting it down the drain.

 

[treeman]

I use the water from my fish also. Once a month I siphon 1/3 of the tank, making sure that I stir the gravel. I then use this for my indoor plants and any remaining for the veggies.

 

[theghostandmrchicken]

I just recently threw llama manure over my garden and then I was already to till it in...

then the rain came

 

[galanie]

Oh, and speaking of chickens and gardens (we did at some point, right? hehe) I've decided that the girls will no longer get to clean up after harvest. They are much too good at finding the earthworms! But they did me a service initially, I must say. My yard was FULL of grubs and the garden too. No more!

 

[Smittenroade]

Quote:
Grubs and worms eh? Sounds like healthy earth...Thats hard to come by these days, unfortunately. You have a gift. Wouldn't it be cool to just make a landfill sized compost pile and spread it around places in America where the earth is barren and scorched? We would probably need like.....alot of those lol.

Sounds like an interesting idea though.

 

[vanilla.exe]

Quote:
Grubs and worms eh? Sounds like healthy earth...Thats hard to come by these days, unfortunately. You have a gift. Wouldn't it be cool to just make a landfill sized compost pile and spread it around places in America where the earth is barren and scorched? We would probably need like.....alot of those lol.

Sounds like an interesting idea though.

If all of those places started a community compost pile or just composted themselves as much as possible and shared it might work.

 

[galanie]

Quote:
Grubs and worms eh? Sounds like healthy earth...Thats hard to come by these days, unfortunately. You have a gift. Wouldn't it be cool to just make a landfill sized compost pile and spread it around places in America where the earth is barren and scorched? We would probably need like.....alot of those lol.

Sounds like an interesting idea though.

Oh that would be cool! My house was built in 1955 in an area that the last geological survey noted would be good land for vegetables. It has not had any chemical bug killers on it in at least 30 years, and no chemical fertilizers for the last 20. I'm going to be so sad if I ever move to leave this great soil. That being said, adding horse manure and compost has made it incredibly fertile and chock full of earthworms, which I still don't want my chickens to gobble up. I give them a few but they aren't allowed in there to eat ALL of them any more.

 

[1MrsMagoo]

Quote:
Yeppers, my husband and I made two of these. We are contractors and had some leftover cedar from a privacy fence we had built. So, I used the 1020 trays (no holes to bottom water) to lay out the shelves: Each shelf holds 5 trays. It only took us a couple hours to make them both, but having the right tools helped speed things up...that is miter saws and nail guns

.
Each level uses two regular shop lights from Home Depot. I am using one cool, one bright white, and two sunshine bulbs on each level and they seem to do a great job. The lights start out about two inches from the top of the trays and can be moved to almost the bottom of the next tier. I also discovered that by using ceramic tiles as shelf bottoms on the middle tier, a humidity dome on the trays, and some foil insulation over the lights plus a mylar curtain ....I could use the middle shelf as a seed starter. The temperature on that level was around 82-88 degrees when I had the insulation over it (what I used looked like silver foil bubble wrap) and it closed off with the mylar. That was a happy discovery since it meant I could start a lot more seeds at one time, which also meant I needed a bigger garden

I am with you on the greenhouse thing. I bought some Solexx (high density polyethylene panels) last year but vetoed my husband's choice of locations...so we had to make other plans. If all goes well I'll have a greenhouse before this winter and move the entire starting operation out there and get it out of my kitchen.

Happy gardening.

 

[Junkmanme]

Re: Greenhouse (hoophouse) Covering:

For a temporary cover (good for 4 months or so), you can use the CLEAR plastic sheeting from WalMart (20' X 25'). It's less that $15.00 for a sheet. The UltraViolet light will destroy this plastic film in a few months.

Re: Seed-Starting Rack:

I built 2 of these (each with 4 shelves) with 2 four-foot shop lights (4 florescent bulbs) per shelf. I did not bother to do any "insulation" on any shelves....but instead....I use heating pads and/or electric blankets under the plastic trays to provide "bottom-heat" for the plastic seed cups (nursery-type). I start seeds on all 4 levels. I works very well. I check the soil temperature with a thermometer and "mist" the seed-cups with Chamomile tea (to provide humidity and mostly to prevent/stop fungus and/or fungus gnats).

HAPPY GARDENING !!!

-Junkmanme-

 

[vanilla.exe]

Quote:
What function does the kfc bucket serve?

In all seriousness, that's an awesome set up.