New Post for my Handtool "Shed"

by Sadge, at Firesign Farm
I've written about using a huge rural-type mailbox as a handtool "shed" out in my garden, a few years ago, here. It's a great way to keep my tools close-at-hand, easy to keep track of, and protected from my harsh climate.

While it still sits right inside the garden gate nearest the house, over time I've made some improvements to that area. When we reconfigured the garden fence, I replaced the wire gate with an old arbor, salvaged from when they were tearing down an old house down the street, rebuilt, and given a new coat of paint.

Last fall, I made a new cushion for my garden chair. This spring, the old spool I used as a garden table was leaning precariously. So I sketched out what I wanted and had Aries put together a new support post for my "shed." The smaller footprint of a post instead of the spool makes the whole area look cleaner, plus gives me a spot underneath to store the rocks I use for holding down protective covers and netting. The post puts the box up higher, so I don't have to bend over to rummage around at the very back. And the two shelves give me plenty of room for my clipboard, solar radio, seeds and plants awaiting their turn in the dirt. Plus, we adjusted the bigger, lower shelf to be just the right height to hold a cold drink when I sit down for a rest, or just to admire my work in progress.

You Say Potato...

By Gavin from The Greening of Gavin

The humble potato.  It is one of the most versatile vegetables on the planet and the 3rd largest crop grown around the world.

This is my second year of growing potatoes, with the first year being successful enough, so I thought that I would expand my spud growing operation this year.  This is my patch from about the same time last year.

Anyway, this year I thought a bit bigger.  After watching Gardening Australia last Saturday, and getting a better understanding on how to plant potatoes, I made my bed much bigger and higher.

It is 2.4 x 1.2 metres and should be large enough to get a good crop.  I used a garden fork and dug down about 25 cm into the soil, and then built it up with the compost that I had laying all over the area in two smaller beds.  I sprinkled liberally with pelletised chicken manure, added a few handfuls of blood and bone and some sheep manure, turned it over again and gave it a good soaking with the hose.  Then I dug three trenches and mounded up the sides.

Then I collected the potatoes that I have been chitting for the last week.

Dutch Cream

Toolangi Delight

I kept them out of direct sunlight and the eyes grew so that I could tell which way was up when I planted them out.

The trenches in the spud bed were about 75 cm apart and about the same in depth.  Then I placed the potatoes in each trench with the eyes facing upwards.

Then I covered each row (5cm) with compost from the Aerobin, which was more like worm castings, then some more compost from the other bin that had been sitting for 6 months.  The next layer was about 5cm of soil which I then watered in well.

As the growing tips poke their heads through the soil, I will cover them up again until the trench becomes a mound.  The soil is very friable, which is just how potatoes love their environment.  All things being well, we will have a bumper harvest this year.  More on this beds progress as the season moves along.

We just love our roast, mash, salad, and jacket potatoes!  A.A. Milne said it best with, "What I say is that, if a fellow really likes potatoes, he must be a pretty decent sort of fellow."

So in closing I would just like to share this tribute to the potato.  May everyones spud harvest meet their expectations!






I love spuds!

Making Compost Tea

by Throwback at Trapper Creek


Gardening season is just getting underway here in the form of starting transplants in the hoop house. Once the seedlings get their true leaves I like to water them with a weak solution of compost tea, at least once a week or more often if they need a boost. I also like to have compost tea on hand for transplanting to help the plants get over the shock of handling. Compost tea a great make-at-home fertilizer.

Covered compost pile.

We compost our livestock manure, so that is what we use, but any compost will work fine.
Supplies you will need:

Container - anything from a 5 gallon bucket to a 55 gallon drum.
Tea bag - recycled mesh onion bag works great.
Shovel
Stick or dowel for dunking.
Compost

I'm making about 30 gallons of tea, so I am filling my onion bag about three fourths of the way with aged compost. The more compost you add the stronger your tea will be. It can be diluted or applied directly as long as you use aged manure or compost.




Using the tie on the onion bag slip the stick through.

Place tea bag in container of water. I used spring water - rain water would be great and if you have municipal water, fill your container and wait a day or so to let the chlorine dissipate before making your tea.

I leave my tea bag on the stick so I can dunk it if needed, or take it out when I need to use the tea. It's no fun fishing around in a murky barrel for the top of the bag.


The initial dunking produced a fairly dark concoction. I will let this sit about a week before using to make sure it is full strength.

It's best to keep the container covered, to keep out rain.

Warmer gardening weather can't come soon enough for me. Our weather is vacillating between snow, sun, rain and hail these days. How is your gardening season starting out?

Chickens Weed My Garden

by Kate
Living the Frugal Life

Over the summer we built a highly mobile pen to house poultry with the help of our first WWOOF volunteer.  It was intended for the turkey poult we ended up with, without much planning.  When I designed what we now call the poultry schooner, it was with multiple uses in mind.  It wasn't to be just a place to keep our poult, but also a means of allowing our laying hens to do a great deal of our fall garden cleanup.  This year we reorganized the garden so that all our beds are three feet wide.  The poultry schooner is also exactly three feet wide.

This means that it fits neatly over the beds where we've been ripping out our tomato plants as the first frost approaches.  The growing turkey was moved to the pen normally occupied by the hens, and the hens were set to work under the schooner in the garden.  Scratching through soil, tearing small seedlings from the ground, and eating insects in every stage of development is what chickens want to do.  The poultry schooner facilitates them doing it to our benefit.

Not only do the hens perform the service of weeding the beds, but they also add their manure to each bed at the same time.  I wouldn't be keen to add manure to a bed in the spring, when I was about to plant my crops.  But now, in October, planting is at least five months away, and longer for most crops, and we also have months of sub-freezing temperatures to look forward to.  I can't refer you to any science on pathogens in chicken manure, nor their breakdown.  I know I have healthy living soils in the garden, and I trust the hugely diverse microbial populations there to process a light topping of raw manure by the time I'm ready to plant.  The hens only occupy any part of the garden for two days, so we're not talking about an excessive build up of manure.

On the first day the chickens decimate any seedlings, and work the top few inches of soil.  This light and superficial working of the soil would pass muster with living soil enthusiasts as no harm is done to the structure of the soil, mycelium, or (many) earthworms.  The chickens also are eager and happy to help me with the work of breaking down half finished compost.  I don't turn my compost pile but once per year. This year about ten gallons of the stuff from the bottom of the pile was tossed in to the hens on their second day of occupation on each garden bed.  Their excitement with this material was abundantly clear. They showed more interest in the half-finished compost than in their morning grain ration.

The plan was to lasagna mulch over each bed as the chickens were moved on to the next newly cleared area.  But through procrastination I discovered yet another benefit of using my hens in the schooner.  Just days after the hens were removed from a bed, a whole new crop of seedlings sprang up in the lovely, loose soil.  Of course most of them were weeds.  When I was finally ready to do the lasagna mulching, it occurred to me that I could make the hens happy, save myself some work, and deplete the store of weed seeds in my garden by placing the hens back on the beds they'd already worked for just an hour or two.  I was able to rotate the hens over four beds in the course of a day's work, and they cleared all of them of weed seedlings with chilling efficiency.

It seems to me that this technique could be used to great effect to combat the worst weeds.  Even if chickens have no interest in eating a particular plant in the seedling stage, their scratching will decimate the seedlings anyway.  The fact that four hens can clear a 30 square foot area of such seedlings in a matter of hours suggests that the process could be repeated several times in the weeks of waning sunlight in autumn.  Come springtime there would be far fewer seeds left near the surface capable of germination.  Add in a good lasagna mulching job, and the weed pressure is bound to be minimal.

I'm looking forward to spring 2011.

Garden Journaling

 By Abby of  Love Made The Radish Grow

 

One of the most overlooked but most important aspects to growing your own food (and flowers!) is keeping track of what happens from year to year and planning for the next. I have to be honest, it is something I have been kind of slack on in the past, but count my blog as a huge aid now in doing so. I try to keep records of what I plant, when I start it (if it needs started inside), plus pictures of the sprouts for identification (very important for someone who -it never fails-ends up with mixed up seedlings right before their big move outside), when they sprouted, when they leaved, when I moved them out, when I did my direct sowing, where I planted everything, when it blossomed, when it fruited, how well it fruited, pictures of EVERYTHING, any issues with pests and if anything worked to rid them, whether we liked a variety or not, soil amendments, plus our preservation planning is now added in.

It seems like a lot, but just a couple minutes a day should do well. Just pay attention and write it down! You will be so glad you did. I know that I planted a certain variety of lettuce last year we just didn't eat. We didn't like it. So it gets scratched from our list and new varieties come in. I know that four years ago I was planting brassicas on this date outside, but the last three I haven't gotten them out until May, and that the April planted ones did a lot better than my May ones did. This gives me information so that I make a point to really shoot for April plantings (though obviously the weather is my biggest issue with whether this happens or not) and change something I do (fall tilling, which I couldn't last year, or separate raised bed that needs little cultivation and cares not whether it has rained or not for planting) to make sure they see April sun. I could easily forget how things went without my notes.

Another aspect to the journals, though, is also the beauty. This year I made a point of illustrating my plans for the garden. I tried to make them pretty, but with the little time I have, not as pretty as some are able to do. It helps me see quickly what I am doing, make changes as necessary and will be a pleasant addition to my journal. Right now they grace my wall, making my office a reminder of the sunny days to come. Pictures of my produce are handy for when I want to market on the net what we've been doing, but also just in the beauty of food. In the rat race that is the standard American food system, the beauty of homegrown, whole foods is outstanding, especially in heirloom varieties. It gets lost in mass marketed supermarket foods and drive throughs. There is nothing so beautiful as July's bounty caught on (digital) film.

 

One last thought is the heritage that is recorded in such journals. My children can see what we were doing for the growing months by looking at my records. I can put down when they started helping, and also teach them to start their own gardens and journals. My oldest loved drawing pictures of the pea sprouts in her tiny patch last year, and seeing them go from seed to peas. It creates something else we can share in our relationship, also something that they can use as they grow. I get a lot of my motivation for what I do from my time spent with my dad and grandparents as a young girl. Both were big on the homesteading movement in the eighties, and I took all of that with me to use as an adult. One of my favorite pictures is part of my dad's gardening journal-a shot of a huge bounty in the back of his pickup truck, full of color. It is my inspiration every year, and a reminder of how important keeping track of my interactions with our farm is.

Low Pressure Drip Irrigation

by Gavin from The Greening of Gavin

Just before Summer here in Australia, I decided to install a cheap and efficient drip irrigation system.  I originally published this in three parts, so to improve the flow of the post, I have compressed it into one long story. 

Due to the limited space I had available, I figured that small was the way to go, so I rushed down to Bunnings (our local hardware store) and bought two 100 litre water butts to start the irrigation system that would be fed from the overflow of my existing 2300L tank.  As soon as I got home it poured down with rain, and I quick gave the butts a quick rinse to get rid of the plastic bits from when the manufacturer drilled the hole for the tap.  I put one on at ground level and I put one on an old pot for better pressure.  I then filled them with the garden hose connected to the main tank and filled them up.  So far so good, I though, but then it started to pour down with rain and I got drenched.  This is what they look like later on in the afternoon, fully hooked up to my new system.

The tank quickly filled up again, and I was back to square one, with no way to get the water to the garden because I hadn't gotten around to connecting anything up.  So, after a quick lunch (still raining), and about an hour of planning how it was all going to go together, I made a comprehensive list of parts required and I headed off to Bunnings again, then purchased about $150 worth of plastic fittings and a 200L rainwater butt to add to the system.  I also bought 4 hebal eco-blocks to make a stand for the larger butt so that it was above the hight of my garden beds to ensure that gravity did its work.

When I got home the rain was just easing off and now a steady drizzle set in.  Wonderful stuff to work in and I had to wear a ball cap to stop my glasses from misting up!  I fully dismantled the old irrigation system that had gone unused for so long.  It consisted of a 24v solenoid, about 8 metres of 19mm poly pipe and lots of clips and elbow joints.  It took about an hour to dismantle and remove the wire run which fortunately was only cable tied to one of the electrical conduits running along the top of the car port.  I had kept heaps of other long 19mm lengths and lots of 13mm pipes saved when I ripped out the system in the front lawn.  So, I found a suitable length on 19mm pipe and pushed it behind the water tank.

Then along the front of the deck, past the worm farm, behind the conifir and it just reached the front of the garden bed.  Excellent I thought, and began to start work on the tank end.  I am so glad I had the forthought to install an isolating valve before the brass tap, which made things very easy to install, with no water loss.  This is how I connected it;

I removed the old brass tap, connected a male to male 20mm plastic riser pipe, then added a standard tap fork with two little taps on it and screwed a standard quick clip nozzle to one side so I can still connect the garden hose to the tank if needs be.  To the other side I connected a female to female 20mm pipe to a 20mm male to 19mm barbed connection and with a series of 19mm elbow joints connect it to the main 19mm poly-pipe.  All nice and neat and I made sure I used Teflon plumbing tape around each of the threads to stop leaks (a valuable lesson learnt from installing the system on the other side of the house).  A quick test to see if water came out the other end of the main line 19mm, and then a pressure test to check for leaks by putting my thumb on the end.  No leaks thank goodness.  Then I started work on the solenoid so that I could use mains water twice a week via my automatic sprinkler system.  This is how I put the next part together;

I cut the main 19mm line at the bottom, inserted a 19mm T piece and then hooked up the solenoid to the wires and to the mains tap.  The wires were already there from the old system so there was plenty of length to connect to the electric valve.  The solenoid prevents rainwater from flowing into the mains town water which is not allowed by law, and I added another lever tap just to make sure I can isolate it further if I ever need to (I have since installed a non-return valve as well).  I did a quick test to check for leaks between the lever tap and the solenoid valve and all was good.  It was a bit fiddly putting the pipe together between the main lever tap which was 20mm to the steel elbow joint of 25mm but luckily I had all the bits from the old system.  Then I moved on to connecting the two 100L water butts into the system.  No use having them there full of water if you can't integrate them in, I thought.  So this is what I did;

The taps that came with the water butt had 15mm barbs and no matter how hard I pushed, I could not get 13mm poly pipe to fit.  So, I trimmed a bit of normal 15mm garden hose, forced that on, and then I could get a 13mm elbow onto each butt and connected them both together.  I used a 19mm to 13mm T in the main line just behind the lower butt.  Once again a quick test and no leaks and water flowed out the end of the main line.  I now proceeded to set up a pipe to connect to the 200L water butt on the other side of the conifer tree;

You can see that I put another 19mm to 13mm 'T' into the main line and put a length of 13mm poly pipe on in readiness to connect the 200L water butt.  Firstly I had to finish off the main line pipe to the back of the garden beds.  You can see I have begun to dig away the Tuscan pebble to expose the weed matting.  I put in a 19mm elbow and ran it so that it was level with the edge of the first garden bed.  Then I dug a trench all the way along the edge of the bed and laid the main line.

This is the finished product with a length of 19mm pipe sticking up with a bung in the end, ready for the task of laying another 19mm main line across the back of all the garden beds.

I filled in the small trench and got to work setting up the hebal eco-brick base for the 200L butt.  I levelled off the bricks then laid two on top, check the level again and made sure there was enough room so that the base of the butt fit evenly on the stand.  I had to trim a little bit of the conifer back so that it was not sticking into the plastic butt.  Then came the funny part.  The 200L butt did not have a female thread pre-cut into the water butt for the tap to screw into like the 100L type, and required you to put the tap fitting into the hole on the outside and then screw another part on the inside.  The only way I could figure out how to do this (because I couldn't reach the bottom), was to turn the butt upside down, put it on my head with one arm inside and ask Ben to put the tap in the whole and I screwed the inside part tight.  It reminded me of the Mr Bean episode of the Christmas turkey on his head!  Ben and I laughed when we finished it.  The tap barb was 15mm again, so another piece of garden hose and I connected it to the 13mm pipe I had installed into the main line earlier.  This is how the connection looked.

Easy access to the tap, and now all connected and looking very smart.  Here is the 200L butt in all its glory on the nice eco-block stand.

Nice stand, and all level too.  Now, because I had put a bung in the end of the main line, and because this smaller tank was lower than the water level in the main 2300L tank, all I had to do was turn on the little tap at the main tank, and then turn on the tap for the 200L butt and watch it fill up from the bottom.  Water will always find it own level, so as long as the main tank level is higher, then I never have to drag a hose around to fill it up.  Same goes for the smaller 100L butts.  Bloody genius I thought.  I just have to make sure that I put an inline 19mm tap at the start of the garden bed system so that I can isolate all the beds to continue to use this method of moving the water around.

The next day, I went and inspected the work I completed the day before, only to find a small puddle at the bottom of the 100L water butt that I had sat on the ground.  In my haste yesterday, I had bent the tap and the rubber grommet was not forming a seal.  I lost about 25L during the day.

I decided to fix it up straight away, but as I was unable to lift the 100kg of water, I had to drain ¾ of the butt into the veggie patch before I could disconnect it.  I found a very large terracotta pot with a crack in it, so I turned it upside down and used it as the base for the water butt which gave me a little more pressure from this butt and it is now above the level of the garden beds.  I fixed up the tap, stopped the leak, and made sure that everything still worked.  All good for now, and no more leaks.

I then tested the solenoid.  I removed the 19mm plug that I had put in the end of the main line and started to manually start each of the stations on the automatic control panel.  It took a while, but I figured that it is station #2 and the solenoid works fine.  So far so good.

I then cut the main line level with the top of the garden bed, put in a 19mm elbow joint, and then inserted a 19mm in-line filter to ensure that no dirt from the rainwater tanks would block the drippers when I start the system.  I then put a 19mm in-line tap so that I can fill each butt from the main rainwater tank, and so I can isolate all the garden beds with just one tap.  It was just on sunset, and by this time I had an audience with Kim (my wife) and Amy (my daughter) watching me lay more 19mm pipe across the back of each bed.  Amy decided to help me out, so she became my girl friday and handed me clips and nails to hold the pipe in place so that I could fasten the pipe to the wooden garden beds.  At the end of each bed I put a 19mm to 13mm T piece so that I could start the next stage on the following night.  I finished the main line for four of the five beds before I ran out of 19mm hose clamps so I stopped for the evening.

I laid the main 19mm line all along the back of the veggie patch beds, and inserted a 19mm to 13mm T piece so that I rig up the piping for each bed.  This is what it looked like before I started work.  When using harvested rainwater, make sure you put in an in-line filter to stop your drippers from getting blocked.  Some silt may get into your tank so this is a simple precaution to avoid having to purge your system everytime you inadvertently put dirty water into the pipes.  Here is the filter setup;

Here is the mainline with the T pieces inserted;

So, I began by making a set of isolating taps for each bed which were all 13mm fittings.  It was a little bit fiddly, but once I made one, I managed to bang out the other 4 very quickly.  This is the mainline isolation tap and the secondary tap assembly for one of the beds;

Then I put in a secondary line of 13mm pipe, down at the level of the soil, and then ran a few tertiary 13mm line down the length of each bed and used Moss Inline 13mm drippers where there was a plant.  This is quite easy to do, but much simpler if you lay the pipe and drips before planting.  You can get to all the bits without damaging existing plants.  This is the first garden bed completed (tomatoes, leeks, and red onions);

 The second bed with three tertiary lines (zucchini, cucumber, and eggplants);

The third where I used 4mm Drip Eze by Pope irrigation systems (click the link for an installation video).  20metres cost me about $25 and I still have about half of it left over.  Each drip point in the hose releases 2 litres per hour (click photo to enlarge);

The fourth bed (tomatoes) where I used the inline 13mm drips;

And finally the fifth perennial bed;

After all the beds were completed, I got stuck into putting in 4mm lines with little taps for each of the fruit trees in pots.  I used the lasso method, where you use Drip Eze to make a circle around the tree all joined by a 4mm T.  This method give you about 4 drips per plant and cover the entire root zone.  This will make it easier to water the potted trees and I will still be able to isolate them if the need arises;

I gave Kim the grand tour, and tested each bed to make sure everything worked without any issues.  As I had reused old 13mm poly pipe that I had kept from old installations, I had missed one hole that I missed during installation, but quickly fixed it up with a bit of black silicone and a goof plug.  All sorted and each bed worked fine.  Then I turned it all off, because the beds were already damp from all the rain we had.

With all that finished, Ben helped me to planted up the empty bed with some mixed lettuce, spring onions, and celery seedlings which should all grow like crazy (which they did!), now that I can irrigate straight to the root zone.  I then showed Ben how it all worked by turning on one of the 100L water butts and turning off all beds except for the newly planted one.  He was absolutely fascinated and wanted me to check every single dripper to make sure that our plants were getting watered.  It was all working as designed, with both of us being quite thrilled to see it all working.  I then poured about 2 litres of worm wee into the 100L water butt we were using so that the plants would not suffer from transplant shock.  The beauty of using these small water butts is that you can add organic liquid fertiliser or soil conditioner and you will not contaminate all of the other water tanks/butts.  Also, by using the 100L water butt, you can water 2 beds at once and just let it all drain overnight until empty.  That way, you will not forget to turn off the tap if using your main tank. 

Over the course of an hour and a half, the Drip Eze bed only used 50L, which I thought was good, as each of the seedlings were well watered in.  I then turned that bed off, and let the remaining 50L water all the fruit trees and the rhubarb and loganberry bush.


All in all, the entire system of Drip Eze line, Moss Inline drips, T's, elbows, ratchet clamps, taps, filter and end stops cost me about A$160 in parts (I still have about $40 worth of bits that I didn't use), the 2 x 100L water butts were $59 each, with the 200L water butt and stand costing $110.  All 19mm and 13mm pipe was free because as I mentioned before, I used poly pipe from an old system.  I still have about 5 metres spare just in case I need to connect up the new tank that we are saving up for. 

It was great fun, and I have an overwhelming sense of accomplishment by doing it all myself.  Once I put my mind to it, there is I can achieve anything (well almost)!

How to Build a Salad Box

Posted by Thomas from A Growing Tradition Blog

I first came across the concept of salad boxes and tables while watching the PBS show, Cultivating Life. The idea behind them is pretty start forward - many salad crops have shallow root systems and therefore only require 3 to 4 inches of soil medium in order to grow. Building a salad box or table made out of 2 x 4's enables you to harvest fresh greens right at your doorstep or even on small balcony. As a result, they are ideal for urban areas and for gardeners with limited amounts of growing space. Since they are movable, salad boxes and tables also allow you to extend your growing season. Finally, I think they would look quite attractive in any kitchen garden.

Here are the materials I used to construct a large salad box:

6 - 2 x 4 x 30 inch pieces of pine
16 - 3 inch galvanized screws
1 - 30 x 36 inch piece of aluminum screen
1 - 30 x 36 inch piece of hardware cloth (with 1/2 inch mesh)
2 - galvanized door pull/handle
4 - 1 inch galvanized screws
staple gun and staples

(Note: Since I wanted to build two of these boxes, I purchased three 2" x 4" x 12' lumber and asked the sales attendant to cut them down to twelve 30" lengths.)


1. Start by constructing the frame. Screw together four of the 2 x 4's (using two 3-inch screws at each corner) to build frame measuring 30 x 34 inches.


2. Attach the aluminum screen to the frame using a staple gun. The side of the screen measuring 36 inches should be placed on top of the side of the frame measuring 34 inches, leaving about an inch of overhang on each side. Start by stapling the corners and then at the center of each side, lightly stretching the screen taut as you do so. Then place a staple every 4 inches or so along the frame.


3. Place the hardware cloth on top of the screen and repeat step 2. The hardware cloth adds stretch and rigidity to the bottom of the salad box.


4. Fold and staple the excess screen and hardware cloth onto the sides of the frame.


5. Place the two remaining 2 x 4's on top of the hardware cloth (positioning them about 8 inches from each side) and attach them using the remaining 3-inch screws. These will serve as the legs of the salad box and add greater stability to the frame.


6. Attach the handles to opposite sides of the box. I placed mine about 14 inches from one end and at a slight angle simply because this felt most comfortable for me. Imagine that you are carrying a rather large laundry basket with your arms stretched out and one side of the basket resting against your lower abdomen as you walk. Ideally, you want to attach the handles to where you imagine your hands would grasp the frame in this position.


And there you have it. Pretty simple, right? The box offers about 30 x 26 inches of growing space. I can probably manage moving this box (soil and all) by myself but some of you may want build a box half this size. This year, I intend to grow all of my baby leaf salad greens in these boxes as well as some mini-heads of lettuce and certain varieties of Asian greens (like Bonsai pak choi, tatsoi and mizuna).

If you'd like more information on salad boxes and tables, including other building designs, what soil mix to use and what greens to grow, visit the following links:

Martha Stewart's Website

College of Agriculture & Natural Resources

University of Maryland