What did you do in the garden today?

[TJAnonymous]

My in-laws in TN have a neighbor who DIY'd their own septic with an IBC tote (big plastic cube for shipping liquids). I doubt it has multiple chambers for settling or proper volume to ensure solid settle and breakdown before flowing out into the leach field. Probably doesn't even have proper setup for the leach field so water and sewage gases (methane) is likely just dumping out an overflow pipe into the ground.

It its amazing what people do...

Yeah, you can imagine the stories I get to hear every day.... Not only is he a health inspector who gets to inspect food joints, pools, and septic systems, but he's also an Embalmer/Funeral Director. Imagine those two things together....

 

[Elyrian1]

Additionally, if that concrete tank is buried, and it probably is, look for a shallow depression in the ground along that line. If it's been dug up before, it'll settle more.

Lol, that's quite the combo @TJAnonymous

 

[BullChick]

@BullChick

DH said your tank is likely close to your house. He asked if you had any concrete slabs close to the house (other than porches)? He said it is likely a concrete tank close to the house that feeds into a D-box (Distribution box) that is far from your house. The D-box feeds your field lines. He thinks it is likely that Rotorooter found the D-box far from the house.

But of course he is speculating since he doesn't know your exact situation.

Just the cistern that was filled in ten years ago.

 

[BullChick]

Back to gardening...

One of our sunflowers is blooming finally!!! I cannot see the flower though. It is facing straight up to the sky on top of a 9-10ft stalk. I'm hoping it bends a bit to face south in the direction the sun shines from. The house is south of the garden so we would be able to see the flower from the back window and patio then.

I wish my sunflowers had made it. The voles got them too.

 

[gtaus]

Sometimes I wonder why I put so much effort into my garden when I barely get enough out of it to make it worth it.

It can be discouraging. The other day I heard on the TV that my area is in a drought. So maybe it is official. It's been months without any meaningful rainfall here. My main garden, without running water, is a disaster. I have been trying to manually water the plants, but I cannot keep up with the demand.

Having said that, I do have a few success stories that keep me going. I started building some hügelkultur raised beds a few years ago. In past years, they were OK, but I don't think I saw any great improvement over my regular raised bed. This year, however, with no rainfall to speak of, my hügelkultur raised beds are producing like crazy. I think this is because they have better water holding capability with all the wood product in the base layer that acts like a sponge. What water I have been able to manually give to my plants is getting soaked up in that wood. My regular raised beds are all dried out and nothing is growing well. The hügelkultur raised beds are thriving.

My other success story is my elevated 2X4 foot sub irrigated planters. They have the bottom 3 inches filled with water that soaks up and feeds the plants as needed. I have a water level indicator in the fill tube that lets me know when I need to refill the reservoir. For the past 2-3 years with normal rainfall, I only maybe had to refill my sub irrigated planters once a month. This year, a drought year, I am refilling the planters about twice a week. But while the grass lawn is a dead brown, and nothing wants to grow out in the main garden because it is so dry, my elevated sub irrigated plants are full of lush green bean plants and we are harvesting beans every few days.

So yeah, if I only had my "normal" garden with raised beds, I would be completely discouraged this year. I am very glad I started experimenting with other growing options because this year it has made it clear to me that some methods of growing plants can still work even in drought conditions.

 

[BullChick]

I definitely need to rethink the mammoth pumpkins next year. I underestimated the size of the vines!

 

[BReeder!]

I definitely need to rethink the mammoth pumpkins next year. I underestimated the size of the vines!

Heck, I have a winter pumpkin (medium white variety) that has vines sprawling nearly 15ft and growing still. Those, the orange pumpkins (sugar pumpkins I think is what we planted) and butternut squash are getting to be difficult to contain. I fenced in the 3 Sisters patch we have in the garden, but these vines are growing up and over the fencing as well as up the corn stalks. I'm just hoping they don't damage the corn and beans.

Speaking of corn stalks, the glass gem corn stalks are HUGE! No ears yet, but the tallest stalk is right up there at 9-10ft with the sunflower that's blooming. I've never seen corn this tall, and I drive past corn fields regularly.

 

[BullChick]

In the past, I planted my jack o lantern pumpkins in the middle of a grass area. I tilled first of course. They spread, but I didn’t care. In the garden, regardless of how big, it most certainly matters.

 

[Sueby]

My septic is so high (we have a very high water table here) that the grass dies on top of it in the summer. We had the septic co find it the first year we were here, then I put flat rocks on the 2 covers so I'd never lose them again. They poked around with a metal rod till they found them, literally took 2 minutes & they charged $100. Never again!

I have not tried soaking the cukes in salt first - I will give that a shot! Thanks all.

 

[TJAnonymous]

It can be discouraging. The other day I heard on the TV that my area is in a drought. So maybe it is official. It's been months without any meaningful rainfall here. My main garden, without running water, is a disaster. I have been trying to manually water the plants, but I cannot keep up with the demand.

Having said that, I do have a few success stories that keep me going. I started building some hügelkultur raised beds a few years ago. In past years, they were OK, but I don't think I saw any great improvement over my regular raised bed. This year, however, with no rainfall to speak of, my hügelkultur raised beds are producing like crazy. I think this is because they have better water holding capability with all the wood product in the base layer that acts like a sponge. What water I have been able to manually give to my plants is getting soaked up in that wood. My regular raised beds are all dried out and nothing is growing well. The hügelkultur raised beds are thriving.

My other success story is my elevated 2X4 foot sub irrigated planters. They have the bottom 3 inches filled with water that soaks up and feeds the plants as needed. I have a water level indicator in the fill tube that lets me know when I need to refill the reservoir. For the past 2-3 years with normal rainfall, I only maybe had to refill my sub irrigated planters once a month. This year, a drought year, I am refilling the planters about twice a week. But while the grass lawn is a dead brown, and nothing wants to grow out in the main garden because it is so dry, my elevated sub irrigated plants are full of lush green bean plants and we are harvesting beans every few days.

So yeah, if I only had my "normal" garden with raised beds, I would be completely discouraged this year. I am very glad I started experimenting with other growing options because this year it has made it clear to me that some methods of growing plants can still work even in drought conditions.

I've always wanted to try a hugelkultur bed, especially since we get a lot of rotting limbs from the trees around the house. But with lumber prices so high, we opted not to build more raised beds this year so I never got around to it.

I have mentioned before that I watch Gardening with Leon on YouTube. He does a lot of self watering containers that he makes from old mineral tubs that a lot of cattle farmers use. I have a couple of those tubs so I tried it with a Meyer Lemon and a hibiscus tree. Worked well for the hibiscus but my lemon tree died back although that may have been because it didn't like moving indoors for the winter. It resprouted this summer from the root ball. Anyway I am a big fan of self watering systems and would love to make more of them. I just need to get more mineral tubs! ☺