Regina Larsen
Crowing
I will! Trying to get stage by stage pics as we goThe chickens are going to LOVE the greenhouse as one of my projects will be cricket growing for them. Jumpy snax
What did you do in the garden today?
- Thread starter Dara77
- Start date
I will! Trying to get stage by stage pics as we goThe chickens are going to LOVE the greenhouse as one of my projects will be cricket growing for them. Jumpy snax
Can I rent your grandson?
My compost pile is seriously neglected.
Sure, he works for cash lol.Can I rent your grandson?
Ahh coffee , starting fluid for the morning impaired . A little rain this morning . Trying to get outdoor stuff done before my knee surgery 12-6 . Got a class tomorrow morning about the surgery . Said pack a lunch . I timed this in hopes of being mobile enough to run the tractor when the snows come .
Yes, coffee is a great starting fluid isn’t it? I hope your surgery goes well and you heal up quick!
My hubs needs both knees done but we’re in the beginning stages of finding a surgeon.
Birdsonghill
Crowing
I grow only(now days) open pollinated heirloom, jalapenos organically. They are always much hotter than ones in the store or restaurants these days. They also have more flavor and are heavy yielding , with smaller than many hybrid fruits produced and have more surface imperfections (cosmetic only). I like all jalapenos, but the original heirlooms taste best and have more heat than most hybrids. I fertilize with compost, fish emulsion and kelp extract mostly. Too much fertilizer of any kind on many peppers seem to
Ascholten
Free Ranging
Well, I promised pictures so lets see how it works. I get IBC totes which I use for my garden stuffs. It's an above ground gardening, done redneck style !! (ie CHEAP!!) Plenty of advantages, and if something goes wrong, ie fungus etc, it's hopefully contained to ONE tote, so I can quickly isolate, destroy and prevent spread.. anyways.
My plants DO grow very well in these, and at the end of the year, it's a quick flip and refill and you are good to go, or just churn the soil up, re vitalize it if needed, and just replant something different. It works for me.
In the garlic ones, I have wood chips on the bottom, about half, followed by super rich compost from the zoo, I put the garlic bulbs in. I then decided to cover with an inch or so of leaf mulch. There is a bit of grass in there too but it's hard to see in the pic, so it's pretty balanced for mulch. This was more to hopefully protect them from the girls digging a bit, and also water retention, and with luck I keep throwing mulch on it, so at the end of the season... the wood chips on the bottom are pretty composted-ready to go by now, so I can just give it a big churn up throw some more soil in to make up for composting/compression losses as for level and im immediately ready for my late spring / summer crops.
You will notice the white pipes on top, that is my irrigation system I basically build on the fly as I need it for new stuffs !!
As you can see, I have a bit of a setup here!. I collect the rainwater off the roof and distribute it to store it in my totes to use later as needed. If you look carefully you can see the 'collection' totes are up on pallets under the gutter collector. This puts them higher than the growing halves, so if I need to I can just open valves, and while it is slow, I can gravity water my plants, AND fill ALL of my totes if necessary.
Gravity can be slow and you may not want to spend 2 hours watering ALL your dozens of totes, SOOooo, I have a pump that I can force water through the pipes as needed too. The pump also serves as a transfer as well in case I need to move water around between totes or replenish my Tilapia tank etc etc.
The manifold looks scary as heck, I know!! But most the pipes are bi directional, water can come from or go to the totes on them. I have the yard in zones, so I open and close valves as necessary to water specific zones. Another good thing about the barrel is, I can throw my compost tea, bugagoo be gone or whatever I need in there, turn the pump on and whirrr.. everything got its fertilizer, as much as it needs w/o having to worry about animals getting into the powder, wind blowing it all over bla bla.
and finally, how do I power all this?
I have multiple arrays of solar panels. Some permanently mounted on the house, and others, as a stand alone system that I can move and literally set up in an hour. Great for hurricane emergency power too etc BUT that is an entirely new topic there !!
2200 watts of solar, kilowatts and kilowatts of battery storage, an inverter, I have plenty of power to power my water pumps, keep the pumps and filters running in the tilapia pond and in an emergency, help support the house or my neighbors.
Yes I could have used a well for watering, but the iron here is horrible, everything would stink from it and be red from it, plus, it's not as geeky so I don't get my nerd badge that way
Nothing fancy really, and NO it is NOT pretty but Im more of a practical kind of guy, I look more for function than how purty she is
Now to get my spice tote ready for the winter / spring.
Take care
Aaron
My plants DO grow very well in these, and at the end of the year, it's a quick flip and refill and you are good to go, or just churn the soil up, re vitalize it if needed, and just replant something different. It works for me.
In the garlic ones, I have wood chips on the bottom, about half, followed by super rich compost from the zoo, I put the garlic bulbs in. I then decided to cover with an inch or so of leaf mulch. There is a bit of grass in there too but it's hard to see in the pic, so it's pretty balanced for mulch. This was more to hopefully protect them from the girls digging a bit, and also water retention, and with luck I keep throwing mulch on it, so at the end of the season... the wood chips on the bottom are pretty composted-ready to go by now, so I can just give it a big churn up throw some more soil in to make up for composting/compression losses as for level and im immediately ready for my late spring / summer crops.
You will notice the white pipes on top, that is my irrigation system I basically build on the fly as I need it for new stuffs !!
As you can see, I have a bit of a setup here!. I collect the rainwater off the roof and distribute it to store it in my totes to use later as needed. If you look carefully you can see the 'collection' totes are up on pallets under the gutter collector. This puts them higher than the growing halves, so if I need to I can just open valves, and while it is slow, I can gravity water my plants, AND fill ALL of my totes if necessary.
Gravity can be slow and you may not want to spend 2 hours watering ALL your dozens of totes, SOOooo, I have a pump that I can force water through the pipes as needed too. The pump also serves as a transfer as well in case I need to move water around between totes or replenish my Tilapia tank etc etc.
The manifold looks scary as heck, I know!! But most the pipes are bi directional, water can come from or go to the totes on them. I have the yard in zones, so I open and close valves as necessary to water specific zones. Another good thing about the barrel is, I can throw my compost tea, bugagoo be gone or whatever I need in there, turn the pump on and whirrr.. everything got its fertilizer, as much as it needs w/o having to worry about animals getting into the powder, wind blowing it all over bla bla.
and finally, how do I power all this?
I have multiple arrays of solar panels. Some permanently mounted on the house, and others, as a stand alone system that I can move and literally set up in an hour. Great for hurricane emergency power too etc BUT that is an entirely new topic there !!
2200 watts of solar, kilowatts and kilowatts of battery storage, an inverter, I have plenty of power to power my water pumps, keep the pumps and filters running in the tilapia pond and in an emergency, help support the house or my neighbors.
Yes I could have used a well for watering, but the iron here is horrible, everything would stink from it and be red from it, plus, it's not as geeky so I don't get my nerd badge that way
Nothing fancy really, and NO it is NOT pretty but Im more of a practical kind of guy, I look more for function than how purty she is
Now to get my spice tote ready for the winter / spring.
Take care
Aaron
it's not as geeky so I don't get my nerd badge that way
buried deep within the text...but the REAL reason for all that you do. LOL
No gardening. 50 degrees, clothes are on the line, winds howling to 30 mph. Might have to drive to Kansas to pickup my dry laundry.
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