Matt Armstrong wrote:What about thin 3/8 to 1/2 in bamboos? Is it worth the time to split 'em? Also, how would be the best way to split such thin bamboo stalk?
burn a few and test it out, they might be small enough to just pop minimally and not really explode dangerously. if so i'd just hit the joints with a hammer.
i have bamboo splitters that split it 3 and 4 ways, but for burning it only needs to be cracked to not build pressure , technically.
again.not as natural as I'd like.but what about plastic corugated drain tubing. easier than my idea to reform pvc for sure.it's flexible enoungh for that radius and stiff enough to hold its form to maybe affix with brackets.strapping and or gutter nails ?. cut in half or just a kerf big enough for water to enter and not leaves...half is probably less problematic.
make a bent lamination inner and outter ridge of wood.like a railing.to fit over the cutline and attatch to the eave.that would class it up a lot.
or rather than just a rail.make it 6" wide to completely shroudthe front view.think thatd look pretty slick!
C. Letellier wrote:I went looking for pictures of a gutter/gutter guard system that would work and didn't find it. But I did trip over this while I was hunting. If there is one commercial site on the web for this then there are probably hundreds.
not sure how good a solution this is.only off top of my head. not particularly eco-friendly either but probably easier to fabricate.
a friend makes didjeridoos out of PVC pipe and molds them to look like wood by filling with sand,heating spots with heat-gun and squeezing with an oven mit...
you could maybe get a 6-8"dia.pvc pipe, fill with sand, heat sections at a time and bend this along a fixture (plywood form or sheet with screws along a radius)
then cut it in half lengthways ? maybe on the bandsaw with a metal cutting blade in. and a splitter behind blade so it doesnt melt back together.
just a thought! wish i could think of a more natural material to do this in.
Nick Kitchener wrote:6 of those?? So what happens to them? It looks like you have about 1/4 acre and these leaves are stored in a big heap. Do the worms just deal to them rapidly?
I'm worried because it won't go above freezing here until late march. Typical daytime temps will be between -10 and -18 C for the next 3 months straight. Everyone local is telling me that the ground will freeze solid regardless of the 3 ft of leaves and plastic cover.
I'm hoping that the insulation will be enough to keep the soil biology active. We got a couple of -20 C days the other week after some rain, and the ground froze hard as a rock. But even in the edge of the garden where there is only a thin covering of leaves, the ground was soft with no sign of frost so I have hope
Oh, I forgot to ask about your Amaranth Pilsner? How'd that go? Can you elaborate? Did you malt the seed?
I acquired some old barley varieties from the gene bank last spring with a view to eventually brewing with it. One of them is Morovian Hana.
well i try to mow them down a bit more but dont go crazy with it. for the beds i only go maybe a foot thick or so and i think the black plastic weed cloth helps to heat it and keep the soil life eating it longer.eventually it will freeze a bit but not much, i'm terrible with Celsius/Metrics sorry. i'm 7b,5F/-15C,rarely gets down to that but sometimes .the beds should thaw sooner too being raised and covered. for me it doesnt all turn to soil by early spring, whatever isnt broken down i rake to the side/paths to let the bed heat up faster(mulch will insulate the cold in) i need to if i'm using my jang row-seeder. then put it back once i've transplanted or the seedlings are big enough.
the amaranth pilsner is delicious! i'm more of a stout/porter drinker but i had all this amaranth seed i harvested and wanted to try it out. we used a pound of grain and the rest was barley. wasnt roast-malted but got it up to temp in the water to convert the starches to sugar and all that. we made it on a dry-stacked slapped together rocket stove just to try it
i asked my guy and he says they only spray a litle hrbicide in sidewalk cracks, nothing broadcast.a little fertilizer in early spring. with leaves i worry even less.maybe im being naive but i feel the massive amount i take in anyything someone may have sprayed like a weed here or there will be very diluted and hopefully biodegrade or wash out.
ive been collecting leaves for years at first i just grabbed peoples leaf bags.but quicky upgraded to deliveries fron my neighbors landcapers. i just had about 9 cubic yards of mostly chopped leaves dumped lat week. i posted a video of the dumptruck filling the entire driveway. it is on my garden facebook page below. i cant link with my kindle.
over the past three years I've received at least 50 yards of leaves and grass from them. i also take tons of woodchips from a local tree guy too. full lofs for milling also. i iust wish i had more space and direct access for them to dump where i ned to store it..i have to wheelbarrow it 200' through gates and around beds into back compost corner and wherever im spreading it. the leaves also blanket all my beds and I'll water in and cover with black tarp. im going to buy cheap recycled billboard vinyl black on backside and custom cut to my beds to break it down faster. ive used black landscape fabric too but it gets tattered from sun and wind. the billboard stuff has UV inhibitors and is very thick.
so i just got an apple,
came to see what it's about. ok cute.
i still have questions though,
Do i get to sit at the cool-kids table at lunch during permie convergences?
Do i get a key to the executive humanure outhouse?
Most importantly, if i kill all the other apple-havers by decapitation, do i get their apples in a quickening ?
so agree, this is much more useful info than whether you have a 'real sounding name' or what your post count is.
or whatever these little apples represent (which is what brought me to this category now to find out ,gold stars?!)
when i read a thread that may have bioregionally specific answers, i often look at the repliers location before reading,if theyre not in my zone or bioregion's conditions i might just pass over it.
if you're only concern is frost protection and you dont get much snow, simple row covers or quick hoops over your beds is enough to extend the season.
next step up would be simple pvc hoop house facing east/west. next might be passive solar greenhouse of wood and greenhouse plastic or twin-wall polycarbonate panels.
geodesic domes are getting into more $,time,planning, and other considerations. i'm not sure how well they match up against hoops or passive-solar lean-to types designs.
i cant link to it from my kindle reader, but there is a youtube vid where the guy uses a solids handling sump pump to make a waterfall type setup in his 55gal brewer. he also added a venturi vacuum in line to suck air into the flow. the reasoning was that waterfalls create the most difused oxygen in nature. seemed like a great application of biomimicry and i was going to follow suit until i priced the pump.most were over $150 . for now I've settled for a 5gal bucket and $30 60gal aquarium air pump with four air stones. two long bars and two standard cylinder type. i want to get a microscope so i can see what im actually producing... any recommendations, or other ways to gauge?.
i was also going to suggest trenching or bokashi..
my experience and opinion of various tumblers has not been too great. not that they dont work at all ,but they've always taken far longer than other methods for me . their relatively small size doesnt seem sufficient to easily get the thermogenic process going.i ended up selling mine off.
best i could suggest to replace wood chips (which i agree is a silly and poor solution if not gotten freely/easily ) would be rolled up newspapers , or crumpling up paper balls and adding full sheets and bit of cardboard.
i also agree that the small stacking worm bins such as the "worm factory 360" that sell for upwards of $100 are highly inefficient and not worth the $ or time for the miniscule amount of castings they produce...
if its the only option i'd rather people make their own by recycling some free 5-gallon buckets . i keep a few such systems in the basement and they do work fairly well but as you point out,only limited amounts can be added. not nearly enough to keep up with what the 3 of us produce in our home.
since you do have a backyard though , i wouldnt count worms out so fast, you just need a larger wormery .
at present i do quite large-scale compost piles, which entails receiving dump-truck loads of grass-clippings,leaves,woodchips and horse manure. i "turn" it with a rototiller (it's only function for me) and heap it up with a pitch fork,its a lot of work! but i'm trying to build up lots of material for raised planting beds to do away with most of our lawn.
But all of our nutrient-dense kitchen scraps still go to my wormery..it needs to be a substantial size to deal with ALL of our weekly scraps, about 20lbs perhaps ,this includes some grass i mow here and most of our paper waste (junk mail, cereal boxes and such) the bin is a flow-through system, it is 2' wide 6' long and 4' tall with a false-bottom made of trimmer/weed-whacker line.... i used old cedar fencing to build it. it easily processes all i put in there,i could very likely feed it more. i started with 10lbs of worms maybe 2 years ago. the population in there now may be 50lbs+ i'd guess. i keep our scraps in large-size plastic coffee cans, with a snap on lid to seal in oder.when i have 4-6 i dum them in and add 2-3 paper shopping bag fulls of our paper waste,then cover that with garbage bags to keep in moister...within a week the top is covered in a thin layer of castings..it's the easiest no-fuss system i have ever used personally..no digging or turning or any real work to speak of once the system is established. and because it's 3' deep (1' space below for harvesting) there are almost zero worms in the harvested castings below,,what few there are just go into the beds.
it's certainly nothing pretty,but cost me $10 (for the trimmer line) and works great
many vermicomposters are now also turning to BSFL (black solier fly larvae) and say they can compost 10x faster..they kind of gross me out though so personally i'll just stick with the worms!
i too have ivy at the top of my least favorite plants. in the past ive used a rototiller to wind up the roots after pulling what i could by hand... i used cardboard and woodchips last time and was pretty successful . i am going to be collecting tons of cardboard for sheet mulching the remainder of our front lawn and will get extra to knock out more ivy. it MUST be put on heavy. paper didnt work.
i dont think id use carpet as rain could leach toxins from it. and being porous it could have plants grow thru it..better to block and bury the ivy for good once.
happy to hear this too! always great to be able to search things out on here.
a friend in georgia wishes to swap some for my goji berry bushes... looks like i can do it
Linda Sefcik wrote:I'd think you'd be getting on craigslist in the "free" section
and offer to split the recycling profit of all that hard cast aluminum
for anyone who wants to help dismantle it.
yes some friends of my friend who helped out took all the aluminum to scrap, they brought a concrete saw with metal cutting blades and cut out all the a-frame trusses for him.
i hope they made a mint on it.i think it's arround 70 cents a pound by us.
we had about a dozen people helping on the project sunday. i returned with 1 friend yesterday for more.
for me i managed to salvage about 60 4x8ish greenhouse panels, 300' or so of 3/4" black water pipe with hardware, nearly all the cross and horizontal beams of the pergola, a dozen 8' light fixtures. plenty extra bulbs.
and a few other items. everyone who pitched in was greatly rewarded. it was a really good community effort and all had fun,despite it being grueling work. my 'everything' is a wreck now and i just picked up some side work with a contractor friend down the block,so no resting till the weekend
i'd posted this question the other day to 'websites' but dont think many folks frequent there or have read it.hard to tell now that thread views are hidden
permaculture media blog seems to be gone ?
the url says the blog has been removed (still cached as of Feb 18)
website is dead, facebook page is removed (cached as of Feb 10) actually now its been auctioned.
and sophia novack's facebook account has been deactivated (as of ?)
twitter page and most other social media sites were also scrubbed
obviously something has happened.
http://permaculture-media-download.blogspot.com/
dont know if that would work so well . besides getting air, you also want the outer material to get mixed in good.
my compost corner is about 15x15'ish . when i make a big heap it can take up about the entire area with just enough room to walk around it easily.
that doesnt leave room to flip the pile back and forth, so i've employed my rotor tiller for that task (the only job it has anymore). till it down flat
then heap it back up with a pitch fork. works great! and cuts the job in half.
not the most permaculturally-aligned of solutions, but it works .
i can also speak to some of those barrel tumblers.
i had 2 small ones that were given to us, they worked better as an outdoor vermicomposter than for hot composting.
they were just way too small to generate good heat quickly. maybe 20gallon size or so.
even the 55gallon ones are pretty small in my opinion to get good heat...i've talked to owners of them who report the same experience.
may be fine in the city with zero room for a pile(thats where mine live now) but take forever.
now what they WOULD be good for is as a compost trommel .. or simply build one from wood and hardware cloth like this.
Yep i knew the paneling was pricey, lowest i've seen is around $30 or so.
we went to get started yesterday , got the roof and wall panels off of one greenhouse, were getting ready to remove soem of the 8' fluorescent lighting fixtures when it began to rain.
Here are a few pictures from Tuesday
we'll be going back this sunday to get the other side done,
then to start on the lighting,fans,shed/utility doors, framework and heater/blowers etc.
there are a hundred or two cement blocks, standard size and some double-wide variety.... i am considering using these for the northern wall of the passive-solar greenhouse once i get going on that. maybe packing with dirt to act as thermal mass battery .rather than a whole wall of blue plastic drums full of water taking up space inside. i also think they could be used for a waist-high wall inside to form a hot-composting bin ,with the above area serving as grow-beds for lettuce etc and a starting bed for transplants.
the central path could be used for vermicomposting , blocks in-ground with plywood cover/floor every few feet. ie : " the Boxwood vermicomposting system "
http://www.themodernhomestead.us/article/Boxwood+Vermicomposting.html
did i miss something?, what's happened to Permaculture Media Blog ?
the url says blog has been removed (still cached as of Feb 18)
website is dead, facebook page is removed (cached as of Feb 10)
and sophia novack's facebook account has been deactivated (as of ?)
the way i do it is with nesting 5-gallon buckets in the basement, and outside i have a large 6'x2'x3'(4'tall,3' actual compost area height)
it can take quite a while for all the worms to hatch and migrate to the upper buckets. i go 3 buckets tall,plus the bottom basin for catching leachate. by the time i add the highest level they've had enough time to mostly all move up at least out of the lowest bucket. the very few stragglers left below i don't fret over, that bucket either sits a while to dry out and use indoor for soil-blocks, or it gets mixed into compost for the garden(or compost tea)
the outoor bin is far less hassle..i strung the false-bottom with the thickest weed trimmer line i could find. spaced 2" apart. the floor is the dirt ground so i just use my metal rake to scrape it down..the sag in the middle makes it easy,
you could make a smaller version inside. i initially had a BIG one own there, 2x4' . it was unmanageable with the fruit flies at that size... many peope have made smaller ones by using a 55gallon plastic drum, or even garbage cans etc...that would be easier to handle.
i also designed a fancy-ish thing and made a 3d model of it. never did build it but think it could work well and be equally aesthetic in a kitchen or back porch/mud room etc.
shoulda reread my post, i didnt mean it to come off as a bragging rights post!
actually hoping to get some ideas and such from folks on how to best utilize this all and proceeed witht he undertaking !
some friends of mine recently struck gold .
backstory:
we'd built a pvc hoophouse for them almost 2 years ago.pretty sturdy with two 4x center posts etc. well last week though we got dumped on with about 30" of snow. the lil hoophouse held in there for a good while but finally collapsed..
they posted pics of it on their facebook page. another mutual acquaintance saw and contacted them, she works for the town and knew of a landlord who had a property with a defunct nursery business on it and was ordered to demolish the abandoned structures.
here are the pics he took yesterday. (couldnt figure out how to embed without making this thread huge)
the biggest score for us will be the twin-wall polycarbonate panels,of which there appear to be hundreds of 4x8 sheets.
also the 6' fuorescent lighting fixtres, soem misc hand trucks and other equipment laying around. there are 100's of tubs alongside one building,those may belong to the bath-fitter that occupies the front office
so may not be in the deal,not much use for them anyways. my best thought on those were maybe as small ponds for aquatic plants.
he has a very small 1/8th acre yard if that. but still wants to salvage at least one of these 20 or 30'x100' high tunnels for use on some future property.
if anyone has suggestions on going about the dismantling of this behemoth please chime in!
i hope to use a bunch of panels for building a passive-solar greenhouse . lean-to style with the glazing on south and east side. similar to this http://aes.missouri.edu/bradford/education/solar-greenhouse/solar-greenhouse.php maybe save a few for cold frames and a solar dehydrator, window box heater; hm , what else?
hah,
for a second i thought it might've been the same Mark Shepard whose book i read when first learning the craft of flute-making .
good stuff thanks for sharing
Ken Miller wrote:Nice looking piles of chips and leaves. Are you being affected with the storm?
I live on an island in Puget Sound of Washington State and we have a temperate climate. My garlic is coming up very nice in the wood chips. They have a deep green color and look strong!
thanks' . my area only got about a foot, roads got cleared quickly, it's raining now and melting much of it,temps are going into 40s this week. out east and north got hit harder and are still dealing with unplowed roads .
i am curious how my garlic will fair , i have most of it heavily mulched .the tops are about 8" tall so are all buried now. guess we'll find out come harvest time!
heres the largest load i had, around 15-20 yards,
to date i think i've taken on about 50 yards just in woodchips, quite a bit for a 1/4 acre lot in the burbs!
Jen Shrock wrote:One other thing...I noticed in your pictures that you look like you are in an urban environment, as am I. How do your neighbors respond to the piles of treasures that you are receiving? I am going to be starting to really focus on improving my soil this spring and have thought about doing the same as you and contacting local companies for organic materials that they just consider as waste.
the landscaper i get from uses a little fertilizer in the beginning of the season and thats it, i tend to get the clippings later in the season anyway so thats all been washed through.
yes this is residential suburbia, my neighbors aren't a problem, 1 side is a mess, other is 89 years old and also an avid gardener.i get it cleaned up in a day or 2 tops in any case...although the hickory tree im cutting now
has taken forever, its nearly petrified !
there are more shots on the facebook page of more loads and how i've distributed it around the yard
i've been using wood chips for years too, Love them! the black soil they create is incredible, anytime i need to make a potting or seed starting mix now i have a ready supply of humus all over. in addition to getting chips delivered by the local tree service(s) they also bring me unsplit firewood and fulll length logs when i want. im still milling a giant 4' diameter hickory,its a beast.
another great resource if you're in areas with landscapers is to take their leaves in the fall for mulch and grass clippings for mulch or compost. fresh clippings are the ultimate compost activator for me.
these are my raised/buried framed hybrid hugels. dug 3' deep til hit light clay subsoil , filled with logs,woodchips, horse manure,split/rotting firewood,sawdust,shavings,truckloads of grass etc.
frames are cedar fencing reused 3x over. 1 season old (2 this spring) grew like gangbusters.
thanks.
suburban hugelkultur beds
i usually just put sawdust and shaving in my compost heap(or around it to soak up water) and sometimes in my big outdoor worm bin .
i also have put it in paths and that's been fine. i get woodchips easily here and they are nicer in the paths.
the sawdust can blow all over if not covered in something else (chips,chopped weeds etc)
teak does take a while to break down because of the oils in it. i dont know of any toxicity issues. i would use it personally and not worry.it's only 2 big bags after all.
but i rarely work with it. when i made my hugelkultur raised framed beds, i did add whaterver sawdust i had in the woodshop to it also, its fine in a hugel i think,just not as the single/major component!
this season i may experiment with groundcovers in some paths. was thinking white clover or some other low growing beneficial plant?
i'm looking to set up barrels in early spring with gravity fed drip lines (possibly also tied into the mains/tap). i'll have 15-20 of them in various areas and daisy-chain them to fill all together(in several groups). my post on this is here they fill up Very fast with a decent rain ,so i wouldnt worry too much about that. but there is only so much containers are gonna hold anyway.
a pond is great if you have space for one. all i really have room for are a few small hard-shell inserts i was given,so that's what i've got.
i'm not too knowledgeable on ponds,but if you dont have adequate clay on your land for one, how about a liner of recycled billboard vinyl ? http://billboardtarps.myshopify.com/collections/pond-liners
my main source of rainwater "harvesting" now is simply a good thick mulch layer of wood-chips .
here in suburbia , tree-services are all too happy to deliver freshly chipped trees for free,as they otherwise pay dumping fees. i get loads of 7 to 15 cubic meters dumped off whenever i ask.
the amount of water these chips are holding here is really remarkable! i've also used them in the 'hybrid' Hugelkulter raised beds by digging 2' down and backfilling with the chips, rotting/fresh logs,horse manure etc...those beds have performed fantastic for me in this 1st year already,
1 pound is estimated to be 1,000+/- worms, it's estimated they can double their population ever 3 months with optimal conditions.
i'd gotten mine at $9/lb through ebay. there are people on there selling at even $50 a pound,(and now $90/lb with your seller! that is ludicrous)
another good site is http://www.redwormcomposting.com/ . bentley lives in canada somewhere. also sells worms, quite expensive in my opinion but he really knows worms!
James Barr wrote:Hey just ordered my worms from a local earth friendly store. 45 buck for half pound.
a half pound should be about $5. 10 tops.
when i started off with 5 pounds it cost me $45, about a year ago
did you check in on the guy from the worm site? was that his price? most of those folks are happy to give worms free.
i'd help you out but dont think they'd survive the trip from NY,especially not this time of year..
James Barr wrote:hey all
new to the site and a beginner composter. Very excited to begin doing my part in rebuilding abused soil in my area and my part in reducing the unnecessary waste in landfills.
I am looking for someone who might know where to look for Red Wrigglers in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Im an hour north of there and could drive. It just seems like the most likely place near me to find them.
for all things wiggly, check http://www.vermicomposters.com/ great great forums with lots of experienced users/experts , and a map with some sellers and folks who will donate worms.
for vertical stacking systems, my favorite is the bucket method. search that on youtube and the forums.
outside i made a large 2x3x6'long flow-through bin that is working great (albeit decaying a lot since i used salvaged cedar fence that was already rotting) it is much easier to use and harvest worm-free castings.
inside i have a bucket system but hardly ever tend to it. i overfeed it maybe every 8-12 weeks with mostly damp paper and a coffee can of kitchen waste.
edit: Doh! guess i shared this info already a year ago! well good luck.
i found Jon Jeavons' books (Grow-Biointensive!) on BioIntensive farming had a lot of technical information and very detailed notes on yields and how much land to dedicate for growing green-manure crops.
eliot coleman uses mostly alfalfa meal i think that he grows, he shows his test-plots of cover/green-manure crops and talks of them a lot in his old tv show, http://youtu.be/mSNu1OBKqh0
i use all my kitchen scraps in my large (36cubic feet) flow-thru worm bin (along with paper and cardboard,grass clippings,fine-woodchips,sawdust etc) because the worm castings are SO potent and the plants LOVE them.
only when it is full do i put this all in the compost heap.
i've been bringing stuff in to make large compost piles. i have a landscaper dump his grass clippings in fall (also dry leaves) ,the guy i get from uses organic fertilizers and that's only early in season anyhow. my tree guys dump 10 yards of chips when i call them, then teh horse manure i have to go pickup but its only 40 mins away and is all bagged up for easy clean loading. i have about 7 yards of grass out there now and man is it cooking! it's a big job to turn it all so i've started using a rototiller to flatten/spread it out, let it dry some it needed(like today!) then pile back up with a pitch fork.
about your saving kitchen scraps idea...something i thought of trying but have not done so yet was to start a small worm-composting project/business where i'd get friends/neighbors who already compost or will do so regularly ,build them a Very Good Looking outdoor bin to toss their kitchen waste in and i'd supply the worms to get it started (from 5-gallon bucket systems i'd have going) charge a small amount for time/materials and split the finished castings produced as well as harvest extra worms for sale to others(or to start more buckets). i could also simply sell fully working systems that work better than the little indoor worm factory types. i probably have pics of it in a thread i started or replied to, just check under my profile here oh you can see it in this video too http://youtu.be/VfijK7GKHpI another option could be to make an even larger flow-thru vermicomposter (or buy industrial sized) and collect spoiled foods from local groceries,spent coffee grinds from the cafes, veggie pulp from the juice bars etc...that all gets very involved fast though, depends i guess on how much time/energy you can allocate towards making compost.
john muckleroy jr wrote:Garlic mustard?I've never heard of it.Where can I get some seed?
garlic mustard grows wild and is an early spring green around me, i can try collecting seeds next spring if anyone wants some...they grow all over! i end up pulling a lot out, same as with wood sorrel and purslane (though i try to use them up if i can) it tastes exactly as the name implies, definitely an addition to a salad,not the main green! it'd be like eating a whole bowl of nothing but dandelion leaves (yuck!)
i've heard several herbalists claim purslane as the 'most nutrient rich".
green dean's one of my personal faves, i totally agree with him on NOT buying purslane seeds, i had some and they were weaklings!
amaranth leaves are great too as someone else mentioned, i have red amaranth and man does it Spread! but very easy to just yank the whole plant if its crowding other things. in india it's known as 'red spinach' which is a really apt name for it. you can make lots of things fromt he seed head too, gluten free baked goods, pop it like corn, make pudding etc. its very high in iron for one thing..
i do both, separately and also together. . some 10"high raised beds have just logs and branches with manure,green grass,branches etc mixed in to 3' deep below grade. when i had chips i threw them in too.
nicole's right, i get all mine for free here,good on-giong relationship with 1 father/son company ,he also drops off good solid logs if i want em. even sharpen my chains now n then!great guys. i am working on slabbin a giant hickory log now he gave me weeks ago, it's a beast! musta saved them a few hundred in time,labor and dumping fees.i finally split it open today and it's beautiful.
the woodchips are a wonderful resource.mulch,hugel beds,fill. with most places you might have to take a full load which can be around 20 yards. i have taken this much in the past ,it's a lot of work to cart around the yard!to be sure! but well well worth the effort, the stuff i moved 3-4 years ago is excellent humus soil below now!!!i use it for potting mix all the time.
thes hugel beds are only in their 1st season but are doing amazingly well already. granted i did add copious amounts of homemade compost,worm-castings and other organic matter.
here are a few links
half-arsed vid of garden and my hybrid raised/sunken hugel beds, "etc"
thanks for the feedback all. i put the project on hold iuntil i get soem other things finished up (right now the priority is slabbing the giant hickory logs on my front lawn!)
i do have a source for free barrels,from a Pepsi bottling plant nearby,they give away the drums the cola syrup comes in. they are also more modular and scalable than one huge tank would be,i dont have space for that sort of thing,but the drums i can line up along a fence or by downspouts easily.
Leon Elt wrote:I tried to use a soaker hose with rain barrels but there was not enough pressure so no soaking action (the barrels are about 5' higher then the hose).
you must get the low/no-pressure gravity soaker hose made specifically for rainbarrels...unless that stuff is real cheap my plan will be to collect old hoses and drill holes all over em on the drill-press.
the "NPC" non-pressure compensating emitters are supposed to work with low pressure. the other ones need 10-12 psi but release water more evenly. since i'm on flat land i figure i may get away without the PC.
i'd love to tie the tap into the lines and just close off the barrels when that is running.then i could incorporate a timer on there.
at the NOFA summer conference this year i took a workshop with Lee Reich. he showed his drip system in the slides, i was kinda surprised he only uses 1 line down a 3' bed and inline emitters every 12 or 18". this was even in lettuce beds! i had though i'd need at least 2 in my 2' beds and 3 in the 4'ers. i'll try 1 in each and see how it goes. see attached pics.
