Garden 2021

[Neb]

Why can't you grow things to eat, Ben?

The Princess



OK more details.

She is convinced we can grow enough to eat and can dehydrate etc. but it takes time that we agree would be better spent woking on;

1)
The remodeling house. We are paying taxes and utilities on it and making zero from it. I need to turn it from a liability into an asset. What ever we could save by growing our own could not pay for a contractor to do the remodeling work. Technically I work for free.

2)
The Hobbit Hole. That project was/is a gift to her for indulging me and my steam engine and machine shop investments. She deserves it and has been patient. The recent duct work sub-task was done to enable the Hobbit Hole project. I still have to move the water heater to the other side of the basement and combine the hot water lines for both sides of the duplex. That will clear more secret storage for her in the Hobbit Hole plus give me a hot spare water heater I can swap out when one fails. Again I work for free.

3)
I forget what #3 is. the Princess will remind me.

But when the remodel is an asset and the Hobbit Hole has drywall up....

Then I can tend to the gardens in season and machine shop in the off season.

I have to pull the cart before I get the carrot.

Ben

 

[UrbanHunter]

Tonight I tried out the watering system using a hose, worked fine used 3" of water (I have 40 available). Did make a few discoveries,
1) The new system has better water pressure than the city.
2) I should have installed one of the filters before the hose (I have 1 for each valve), cause all the crap that was in the system from the fabrication process clogged up my sprayer.
3) If I am going to keep using a hose I need to get a good 25' hose, the one I am using kinks all the time.

 

[Neb]

We call (Allium canadense ) wild onion here. As a child on the farm we called Allium vineale wild onions, but it is wild garlic form Europe & very invasive.
I have been pulling Allium vineale for 20 years, but some people in N.C. eat it & I sold it to one retailer.
But that was years ago.
Allium canadense is in a forging book I have & it does grow here, but I can only find it when it blooms, it hides in the grass when not in bloom.
What tame garlic do you grow?

I found the wild garlic growing in a cluster in my lawn last year and thought it was a wild onion ir a chive. I dug it up and planted it the corner of one of my raised beds to see what it would do.

It went to flower last week.

I am curious how it will do if I plant the cloves spaced apart. Note: I had found it growing in the garden area of The Ridge year before last and gathered the bulbiles then scattered them everywhere. This year they are growing everywhere and surviving the battle with the weeds. Anything that can survive on their own and provide food is something this prepper want to know about.

What kind of tame am I growing?

Not sure.

On The Ridge I think it is a elephant garlic that has survived being neglected and fending for itself.

In the back yard raised bed it is a hard neck variety. It is whatever variety survived.

Confession time

I am a sloppy/cruel gardener for a reason. I have only watered my gardens one time in the last 3 years or more. We get a lot of rain here. What ever varieties survive in my climate without being babied is what I want. If it requires extra attention I will pass on it.

My motivation is TEOTWAWKI useful genetics. I want to eat my gardens not serve them.



Ben

 

[Neb]

Tonight I tried out the watering system using a hose, worked fine used 3" of water (I have 40 available). Did make a few discoveries,
1) The new system has better water pressure than the city.
2) I should have installed one of the filters before the hose (I have 1 for each valve), cause all the crap that was in the system from the fabrication process clogged up my sprayer.
3) If I am going to keep using a hose I need to get a good 25' hose, the one I am using kinks all the time.
View attachment 69398

View attachment 69399

OK

I give.

What is with the 2 upright 1" lines t the left ot your first image?

The secone image makes it look like one is capped of but the one closest to the house has a...
Solenoid valve
Sensor

What is up with them?

Ben

 

[joel]

It is your garden & your right to do as you see fit, but I believe you have Allium vineale in the picture.
https://www.google.com/search?sxsrf...=2ahUKEwiH2aum6d7xAhUFLs0KHRUrA6cQ7Al6BAgFED4It is worse than mint, do not leave the head to fall & reseed. Collect them as if they were gold & treat them as if they are wild fire. this as most of my post is Just MHO.
I find it to strong raw, I eat tame garlic cloves raw, it is the main reason I grow it.

 

[UrbanHunter]

OK

I give.

What is with the 2 upright 1" lines t the left ot your first image?

The secone image makes it look like one is capped of but the one closest to the house has a...
Solenoid valve
Sensor

What is up with them?

Ben

Okay, I wanted to have a column of air above the pump and I wanted to be able to use pressure to turn the pump on and off (Solenoid valve), there is also a pressure gauge there so I can read what my line pressure is going to the distribution center. I intended to put a check valve just before the pump so once pressurized the air column could maintain pressure for a short while. Back when I originally planned in 2017, I was planning to control all my watering using timed valves on the line so having a pump that comes on when the pressure drops was something I was planning to use and I didn't want a lot of water hammering. Right now I am just taking readings off the gauge, that's how I know with 1 faucet open, I still have 65 PSI line pressure. I also installed a clear water column so I can measure my water levels and track how much I have used. Tonight, I watered everything lightly and used 2" (I marked before and after).

But with the pressure I am getting, I can water everything in just a few minutes and I can water more than 1 loop at a time and still deliver the needed 20 PSI to my emitters, so it may never get used (I have had it sitting over 3 years and just got everything back together).

I have 4 primary circuits for my drip system and each will have it's own filter and pressure regulator, each primary line will have between 2 and 4 sub loops, this way I can water each bed and array of containers independently (sometimes I don't want to water empty beds). Half of the garden has 1/2" line and 1/4" emitters already and I have enough supplies to run the rest waiting in tubs.

I did add 1 additional faucet down low so I can use it to fill a watering can (that apparently works fine off gravity) or connect a hose to, allowing me to manually water everything using a 25' hose and watering wand (the distribution center is in the center of the garden space).

The whole system is designed so I can open 1 valve and remove two pipe plugs and everything will be completely drained and the collection system will be bypassed (easy winterize and re hookup in the spring)

 

[Neb]

Okay, I wanted to have a column of air above the pump and I wanted to be able to use pressure to turn the pump on and off (Solenoid valve), there is also a pressure gauge there so I can read what my line pressure is going to the distribution center. I intended to put a check valve just before the pump so once pressurized the air column could maintain pressure for a short while. Back when I originally planned in 2017, I was planning to control all my watering using timed valves on the line so having a pump that comes on when the pressure drops was something I was planning to use and I didn't want a lot of water hammering. Right now I am just taking readings off the gauge, that's how I know with 1 faucet open, I still have 65 PSI line pressure. I also installed a clear water column so I can measure my water levels and track how much I have used. Tonight, I watered everything lightly and used 2" (I marked before and after).

But with the pressure I am getting, I can water everything in just a few minutes and I can water more than 1 loop at a time and still deliver the needed 20 PSI to my emitters, so it may never get used (I have had it sitting over 3 years and just got everything back together).

I have 4 primary circuits for my drip system and each will have it's own filter and pressure regulator, each primary line will have between 2 and 4 sub loops, this way I can water each bed and array of containers independently (sometimes I don't want to water empty beds). Half of the garden has 1/2" line and 1/4" emitters already and I have enough supplies to run the rest waiting in tubs.

I did add 1 additional faucet down low so I can use it to fill a watering can (that apparently works fine off gravity) or connect a hose to, allowing me to manually water everything using a 25' hose and watering wand (the distribution center is in the center of the garden space).

The whole system is designed so I can open 1 valve and remove two pipe plugs and everything will be completely drained and the collection system will be bypassed (easy winterize and re hookup in the spring)

Nice

Thank you.

So your multiple regulators is doing the trick?

Ben

 

[UrbanHunter]

So this morning I got up (normal time) and using my handy dandy lighted baseball cap (cause it was dark) applied pipe tape to every joint that was leaking on my watering system yesterday. Then fired her up and promptly blew the side out of the old watering hose..... I expected something like that could happen but I didn't expect that sudden shower... I had a new short hose in the front so I swapped them out and watered the whole garden, at full pressure my watering wand is now launching water out about 15', good thing I got 20 PSI regulators for my drip system or I would be blowing out emitters all over the place. FYI, I did install a filter before the hose that I am using to water with right now, no more clogged spray wand.

After today's watering my levels dropped less than 2", which is good. I have 40" of tank to draw from, so I figure at this rate I have about 20 day's of water on hand when the barrels are full. My target was 10 days of water supply. But, I did not use it to water my 5 trees and the okra patch today, I figure once they are connected I will be using about 3"s a day which is right on the mark.

The nice thing is, with a 12V RV water pump I can pull water from the rain barrels, push it through a reverse osmosis water filter, add a bit of chlorine, and I have an extra 100 days of emergency water supply (April till November only, can't pump ice). And I might just have all that stuff sitting in a tub someplace...

 

[Amish Heart]

I'd just throw it in the Berkey and forget the RV pump.

 

[WVDragonlady]

This mornings harvest. 2 salad tomatoes, 5 cucumbers and 3 green peppers.
Also another 2 quarts of blackberries with plenty more on the bushes yet to ripen

also killed 6 caterpillars that was on one of my parsley plants. darn creatures

 

[UrbanHunter]

I'd just throw it in the Berkey and forget the RV pump.

But then I couldn't take a shower, I can hook my pump line to the house using inline filters (with the city water disconnected) and keep using all my regular stuff in the house working.

I currently have indoor water storage with a pump that works really well at delivering city-like pressure to everything, washer, dishwasher, showers and stuff. I would not feel comfortable filling my indoor storage from rain barrels unless it's a real SHTF situation.

 

[Amish Heart]

You can, but you'd have to dump the 5 gallons of water over your head into a shower bag or something. Guess it's not such a good idea. Ha.

 

[UrbanHunter]

You can, but you'd have to dump the 5 gallons of water over your head into a shower bag or something. Guess it's not such a good idea. Ha.

I like being able to use the water heater (it's gas) and my Grandpa Water to take a warm shower...

 

[UrbanHunter]

Today I timed and measured my watering using the rain barrels, 45 gallons in 15 minutes, 3 gpm at pressure, not bad. With that flow rate and pressure I can go from having 12 watering zones down to 4, simplifies my life a lot.... I just realized it matches my distribution system exactly.... Sometimes you just get lucky when estimating....

 

[Newbri]

I got some bamboo and a citronella plant. The citronella is to make some herbal tea. I've found it helps me sleep better.

As for the bamboo, the man who sold it to me told me to keep it potted if I want to keep it relatively small. We'll see.

 

[Neb]

I got some bamboo and a citronella plant. The citronella is to make some herbal tea. I've found it helps me sleep better.

As for the bamboo, the man who sold it to me told me to keep it potted if I want to keep it relatively small. We'll see.

And maybe keep the pot on plastic or concrete...

Unless you want your own Audrey 2.



Ben

 

[Newbri]

And maybe keep the pot on plastic or concrete...

Unless you want your own Audrey 2.



Ben

The pot is made of plastic and it is resting on concrete

 

[Newbri]

That song is catchy.

 

[LadyLocust]

My cuke got fried even though I parked a wheelbarrow on the sunny side of it to try to provide a little bit of shade in the hottest part of the day. We need a shade cloth over our whole place! I've been watering like crazy. Tomatoes are looking good.

 

[UrbanHunter]

Today after work I ran 1/2" drip supply line over the top of my cucumber support and installed an 8 l/hr (2 gal/hr) emitter going to each cucumber pot. I also connected my distribution manifold to 2 of my raised beds that had 12 spray emitters: They have 3 spray in from each side, 1 spraying in at each end, and 4 spraying down from above, it gives the whole bed coverage and I can still work the soil. Those emitters had been sitting on the beds being un-used for over 3 years, but they all appear to be working, time will tell. Anyway, I did go ahead and run the pump to see how things are work and to see if the Cucumbers are getting enough water. Everything is working fine, with both raised beds and the cucumbers hooked up the supply line pressure was still 65 Psi.

I am trying to re-use as much of my old lines and fittings as possible, but as I said the old system set dormant for over 3 years and I have been walking on some of the tubing and I know some of it had an affair with the lawn mower, but I will save what I can. At the rate I am going I will be able to have about 80% of the beds on the system by Sunday.

This is my first year for growing egg plant and I have some fruit showing, 1 is about the size of a tennis ball (but it is just round) and other two which came on a bit later are tear drop shaped about the size of a roma tomato. Do the egg plant fruit elongate as they mature or are some of them just round?

On a fun side note I found a set of drawings from one of my earlier renovations to the garden, the drawings were from 2008, so the garden has been going since about 2002 and I am just getting it to working the way I want....... The drawings were in power point so I used them to make my 2021 updated drawings and to map out my watering system...... The raised beds that I connected to the rain barrel system tonight were installed during the 2008 modifications, so plastic lined pressure treated wood can last a long time....

 

[Neb]

That song is catchy.

Have you not seen "Little Shop of Horrors"?

It is one of my favorites and I can watch it again in a heart beat. Here are some of the songs to tempt you.








Little Shop of Horror Suddenly Seymour

I hope you enjoy those half as much as me.

Ben

 

[joel]

I got some bamboo and a citronella plant. The citronella is to make some herbal tea. I've found it helps me sleep better.
As for the bamboo, the man who sold it to me told me to keep it potted if I want to keep it relatively small. We'll see.

"Clumping or sympodial bamboo is the non-invasive type. It has Pachymorph or U-shaped rhizomes that develop upwards and grow into a fresh culm then brand-new rhizomes appear from shoots on a present rhizome and so on and so forth. Mar 20, 2019"
You can get it for ornamental use, so you can eat the spouts & so you can use the canes for support of plants in the garden. I would go back to the "man" & see if he has some clumping bamboo.
I always google before I buy to make sure it right, at the right price & to see what new varieties are being offered.
You will need to thin the canes from time to time & I would put it in as large of a METAL container as possible. Ginger will rip though a black plastic pot in months, bamboo will not slow down.
My brother had the fishing cane bamboo on his land after the family moved from the home place, now my sister has it on her land too. It can be controlled in the ground, but it it slips out you will have a fight.
Some of this is MHO, but most is facts I learned the hard way, I hope you do not have the problems, we have with bamboo.

 

[Neb]

Today after work I ran 1/2" drip supply line over the top of my cucumber support and installed an 8 l/hr (2 gal/hr) emitter going to each cucumber pot. I also connected my distribution manifold to 2 of my raised beds that had 12 spray emitters: They have 3 spray in from each side, 1 spraying in at each end, and 4 spraying down from above, it gives the whole bed coverage and I can still work the soil. Those emitters had been sitting on the beds being un-used for over 3 years, but they all appear to be working, time will tell. Anyway, I did go ahead and run the pump to see how things are work and to see if the Cucumbers are getting enough water. Everything is working fine, with both raised beds and the cucumbers hooked up the supply line pressure was still 65 Psi.

I am trying to re-use as much of my old lines and fittings as possible, but as I said the old system set dormant for over 3 years and I have been walking on some of the tubing and I know some of it had an affair with the lawn mower, but I will save what I can. At the rate I am going I will be able to have about 80% of the beds on the system by Sunday.

This is my first year for growing egg plant and I have some fruit showing, 1 is about the size of a tennis ball (but it is just round) and other two which came on a bit later are tear drop shaped about the size of a roma tomato. Do the egg plant fruit elongate as they mature or are some of them just round?

On a fun side note I found a set of drawings from one of my earlier renovations to the garden, the drawings were from 2008, so the garden has been going since about 2002 and I am just getting it to working the way I want....... The drawings were in power point so I used them to make my 2021 updated drawings and to map out my watering system...... The raised beds that I connected to the rain barrel system tonight were installed during the 2008 modifications, so plastic lined pressure treated wood can last a long time....

I want to seethe video!

I will settle for pictures please.

Ben

 

[Tank-Girl]

Well I finally shifted the tomato garden, laid down new black weed matting, got it planted and installed homemade drip irrigation. I left planting too late and so the tomato seedlings I brought look as rough as heck and then 2 days after I planted them we got a freak frost and it killed 4 and made the other tomato plants look worse. I planted long red chillies in those spots but all and all my tomato garden looks really bad. If I could find a way to disown it I would.
I got the old tomato garden refurbished with new weed mat except the row where I planted french dwarf beans and turnips and a few herbs.
I have 18 zucchini plants on drip irrigation, a whole 9 mtr row planted with Green Magic broccoli. I don't care that it's a F1 variety it's awesome and is heat and humidity and drought resistant and under my trying conditions it has never ions it has never failed to produce a crop. The greens are tender and taste a thousand times better than kale which is only fit to feed to chickens.

The backyard.......*face palm* atm is a war zone and if I want plant cabbages and onions and ginger I'm going to have to buy an electric fence and fence it off from the landshark. It's not fair to keep her on a chain and the only reason why I can hang clothes on the line is she's put in her crate with a kong filled with frozen meat.

The baby pullets are doing well and I'm over owning quail. Their specialist game bird feed that the quail need jumped up by $20 when and if the feed store and get it in for me.
I have about 80 of them atm so that is going to be a lot of meals for me and the landshark.

 

[UrbanHunter]

Today I ran the system while I watered, the drip system soaked everything but drank a lot of water because it took me so long to water everything else. For @Neb here is the visual documentation:
An 8L/hr emitter at a hanging cucumber.

Here are an over-head and a side emitter:

And the watering wand:

With all of them running, my delivery pressure dropped to 36PSI.

And I used a lot more water because I was slow and my flow rate increased to about 6 ghm.... about 80 gallons. The wife asked me how I know how much water I have and I am using, answer is simple, I installed a sight glass/water column to measure it!

Knowledge is power and data is king....

 

[Alaskajohn]

A few days ago I posted lamenting about the cold summer that has basically caused my wife’s vegetable garden to be a failure this year. Like the trooper that my wife is, she headed out yesterday to collect dandelion, fireweed and other delicious naturally grow green stuff to fill the fridge and freezer. She came back reporting that the wild blueberries were just turning ready to pick. The good Lord provides where we fail! It will be another bumper crop!

 

[Bacpacker]

Today I ran the system while I watered, the drip system soaked everything but drank a lot of water because it took me so long to water everything else. For @Neb here is the visual documentation:
An 8L/hr emitter at a hanging cucumber.
View attachment 69533
Here are an over-head and a side emitter:
View attachment 69534
View attachment 69535
And the watering wand:
View attachment 69536
With all of them running, my delivery pressure dropped to 36PSI.
View attachment 69537
And I used a lot more water because I was slow and my flow rate increased to about 6 ghm.... about 80 gallons. The wife asked me how I know how much water I have and I am using, answer is simple, I installed a sight glass/water column to measure it!
View attachment 69538
Knowledge is power and data is king....

Nice work Urban

 

[joel]

All my wild Blueberries are low bush, as a child we called them Gooseberries.
Never saw Blueberries or Gooseberries, now I have grown both.
The wild berries are tart & not turning here.

 

[Neb]

Today I ran the system while I watered, the drip system soaked everything but drank a lot of water because it took me so long to water everything else. For @Neb here is the visual documentation:
An 8L/hr emitter at a hanging cucumber.
View attachment 69533
Here are an over-head and a side emitter:
View attachment 69534
View attachment 69535
And the watering wand:
View attachment 69536
With all of them running, my delivery pressure dropped to 36PSI.
View attachment 69537
And I used a lot more water because I was slow and my flow rate increased to about 6 ghm.... about 80 gallons. The wife asked me how I know how much water I have and I am using, answer is simple, I installed a sight glass/water column to measure it!
View attachment 69538
Knowledge is power and data is king....

Thank you for the pictures

Ben

 

[LadyLocust]

Today after work I ran 1/2" drip supply line over the top of my cucumber support and installed an 8 l/hr (2 gal/hr) emitter going to each cucumber pot. I also connected my distribution manifold to 2 of my raised beds that had 12 spray emitters: They have 3 spray in from each side, 1 spraying in at each end, and 4 spraying down from above, it gives the whole bed coverage and I can still work the soil. Those emitters had been sitting on the beds being un-used for over 3 years, but they all appear to be working, time will tell. Anyway, I did go ahead and run the pump to see how things are work and to see if the Cucumbers are getting enough water. Everything is working fine, with both raised beds and the cucumbers hooked up the supply line pressure was still 65 Psi.

I am trying to re-use as much of my old lines and fittings as possible, but as I said the old system set dormant for over 3 years and I have been walking on some of the tubing and I know some of it had an affair with the lawn mower, but I will save what I can. At the rate I am going I will be able to have about 80% of the beds on the system by Sunday.

This is my first year for growing egg plant and I have some fruit showing, 1 is about the size of a tennis ball (but it is just round) and other two which came on a bit later are tear drop shaped about the size of a roma tomato. Do the egg plant fruit elongate as they mature or are some of them just round?

On a fun side note I found a set of drawings from one of my earlier renovations to the garden, the drawings were from 2008, so the garden has been going since about 2002 and I am just getting it to working the way I want....... The drawings were in power point so I used them to make my 2021 updated drawings and to map out my watering system...... The raised beds that I connected to the rain barrel system tonight were installed during the 2008 modifications, so plastic lined pressure treated wood can last a long time....

Be forewarned, eggplant is kinda like zucchini, it only takes 1 plant Mine is about the size of a golf ball with more to follow.