Sub-irrigated farm fare...?

When we last went to the farm I took along some extra polystyrene boxes, which RSon had got for me to use as sub-irrigated planters.


Why, I hear you ask.  I mean, on a farm surely one grows vegetables in the ground, not in raised sub-irrigated planters?


Well, I'm not really cuckoo - there is reason for my madness.


Firstly, we have timed irrigation for our trees only - which is basically a thinner black pipe connected to the timer unit with solenoids.  This black pipe runs next to each tree and waters the trees via a pin-prick hole.  We were, very thankfully, advised to use this method as there are mongeese abounding the area which gnaw thinner flexible pipe in half - so we can't use that.


But, in future, to specifically water vegetables, I would prefer some sort of spraying sprinkler heads (e.g Rainbird type), I think.  And I can't attach sprinkler heads to the pipe attached to the existing two solenoids, as the water would seriously gush out of those sprinklers, to the detriment of the trees.  What is needed is another solenoid or two - and which are devoted solely to watering my vegetable patch :)  I'm working on it.


But, in addition, I also need to work a serious amount of compost into our rock hard clay soil.  And until I can order and organize that, the only way I reckon I will be able to grow vegetables / salads at the start of this season is via a sub-irrigated container.  So that is exactly what I've done...


But, before I could do that I had to construct a protected vegetable patch - well, I wont be there to shoo away anything that feels like a quick (or probably long) healthy munch.  Hares, locusts, slugs and mongeese spring to mind.


RMan was busy installing some recycled balustrades on the front porch, so I had to use my noggin and whatever muscles were left in my arms to sort it out...

I laid down a layer of weedguard as the base layer to prevent a forest of weeds facing me next time we're there, and halved some shade cloth (well, I don't need it 3 mtrs wide - 1 1/2 mtrs will do very nicely, thank you) and sewed it together on the opposite side - to make it longer not wider.  This I attached to some wooden posts.  This easily covered the sides and top.  It's not the ideal height to access the veggies, but I guess I can handle bending double for a few months - rather that than no salads / veggies.


The irrigation pipe was already there, so I inserted the watering funnel into a bottle half (oxygen / water reservoir) and placed that in the corner of the box, poked holes in all the other bottle halves and, after leveling the boxes, I filled them with a potting soil / compost mixture.  After planting up the boxes with some seedlings and scattering some seeds I then pricked a hole in the pipe hovering over the watering funnel.  I secured the irrigation pipe with an external stake, and with a rock on top of the funnel.


All that was needed was to switch the irrigation to manual and let the water flow.  It worked a treat.  In no time at all the overflow pipe was spewing out the excess (we subsequently worked out how long the timer should be on for, in order to preserve the water and not waste it / allow it to overflow as much as it did.)

Whilst I was bending over the veggie patch (from the outside) I dropped my cell phone right into the middle of a large enough puddle which had formed on the ground from the overflow pipe.


Thus - all my photo's are blurry.  I quickly snapped pics of what I had done, before stripping the phone and, after giving it a quick wipe down, shoved it into a packet with some dessicants which I always save.  They arrive in vitamin / tablet containers - and instead of throwing these chemicals into the bin / landfill, I keep them in a plastic bag for just such an incident.

Recycled dessicants obtained from vitamin / tablet bottles

The next morning - the phone switched on, and worked perfectly.  No water damage at all :)

Whilst I was at it, I filled a couple of deep 20 lt (4 1/2 gallon) buckets with compost and after planting a pumpkin and squash plant in each I covered them with light coloured rocks - hopefully they will reflect the light and not allow the containers / soil to get too hot in summer - time will tell.  Finally, I shoved a sweet potato root or two, into a soil filled plastic bag (from the potting soil) and poked some holes in the base.  All three of these containers were also linked to the timed irrigation.


Will they produce?  Time will tell.  But there is no harm in trying, is there?


You can tell I got huge encouragement from the broad beans, can't you :) And, you can also tell that I'm getting terribly frustrated at not being able to devote all my time to farm food production...

Egg shell update

On the 22nd August I wrote about using egg shells to propagate seedlings.

Just thought I'd give you an update.

A couple of weeks ago I sowed beetroot seeds into egg shells and this is the result.

All I need to do now, is crack open the base of the shell in order to allow the roots to take a walk, place it in the soil, and then wait to harvest the beetroot in a couple of months.


i'll let you know if the cutworm can work their way through this obstacle...


But I reckon this works thus far :)

Aha, a little bit of assistance never went amiss...

When we first purchased the plot of land, and were waiting on municipal approval of the architects plans, we decided to preempt the outcome, and thus we proceeded with the digging of the foundations, hiring a digger loader to do the heavy / dirty work.


We also intended to have a cellar below our kitchen floor.  Cellars are not common in South Africa - and for the life of me I cannot figure out why not - they are such useful and secure storage areas.


So we excitedly proceeded with our foundations, only to be informed by our architect, who came to do a site visit, that we had incorrectly placed them on the land. Our building had to be 30 mtrs from the neighbouring fence - why???  In the towns you have to have permission to be within a metre of your neighbours fence - on a plot of land you need 30 mtrs?  Makes absolutely no sense to me.


But, we had dug our foundations within that 30 mtr restriction...

So we had to start all over again, hiring the digger / loader, and digging a second set of foundations.  This was done in such appallingly cold and wet weather that all thoughts of a cellar flew out the window.


But, our original cellar opening remains...

This hole will, hopefully, one day be a stand alone cellar with an earth / living roof.  I reckon, given the slope of the land, that we should be able to site the doorway on the lower (eastern) side and we will only have to increase the height of the higher side by about 1/2 mtr.

But, that is in the future, when finances are hopefully, more stable (i.e. when this damn recession is finally over).

Until then, the future cellar is a ruddy inconvenient hole in the ground.  And one which fills up with water every time it rains.

In the past certain members of the family has been known to climb into the muddy hole on a hot day and splash about with a resident frog, but I have a feeling that that will not happen again.  One frog is possibly (shudder) bearable, but the number of tadpoles residing in that hole after the past winter rains... I counted 40 - with many more that escaped the tally.

Guess that mozzies won't be a problem this summer :)  And I wonder if frogs eat (yellow) slugs?

Misty Spring

We woke early on the farm last Sunday morning to a completely misty morning.


This is a photo of the sunrise which just begged me to take a photograph, albeit with my cell phone camera, as RSon had to take my camera to site with him.

It felt weird looking at the rising sun, which was only obscured by the mist, as opposed to an eclipse, or a veil of smoke from a veld fire.  Rather the mist than the fire though, any day.  I was amazed that the sun was able to shine so brightly through the mist - a seemingly perfect orb just suspended above the skyline.


Even the insects didn't escape the effects of the mist.


A spiders web, which I know had formed overnight, glistened with drops of water - yesterday I had been working in exactly that area - but that's for another posting... :)

And the locust climbing up the walls with it's young on its back...

We had seen a locust the day
before with two young on it's
back - in order of size as well :)

...and the (yellow!) slugs seemed to relish the experience.

Hmmm, I wonder what
these two slugs are up to...?

I have never seen yellow slugs before - they are a tad creepy :)  Or should that be creepier than normal slugs - not mad about either of them.


Don't you find that when mist drapes itself over everything, and surrounds you as you venture out into it, that your entire perception of your day ahead, yourself and even your awareness of life seems to change?  It's somehow mystical, cold and damp, and yet familiar, all enclosing and safe.  A quiet peacefulness seems to envelope everything.

RMan spent the previous day recycling
a clients old steel balustrade - which was in
perfectly good condition,
and perfect for our application :)

Slowly, slowly the mist cleared.  But not lifting from the bottom, rather compressing down and allowing the sky above to peep through.

The mist remained until noon, gathered tightly into the valleys, refreshing and replenishing all the plants there with its life giving liquid.

I felt so privileged - to witness such natural simple beauty and to experience such serenity.

When is a lemon tree not a lemon tree ...?

Seedlings in March this year

I don't know if you recall back in March this year I mentioned that I found three tiny trees growing from seeds that I had planted on the farm at the end of last year.  After I had eaten the fruit, the seeds were just been shoved into the soil, with no attention at all and no water (save the rainfall of the past winter).


This is what they look like now...

Seedlings in September this year

Well, this time, they are much bigger, and I was thus able to pinch of a couple of leaves, in order to smell, and correctly identify them.

They are not lemon tree sapling, they are... baby naartjie (mandarin) trees :)  Happy Days!  We now have both lemons and naartjies growing on the farm.


And, as for the lemon trees I planted in January, this is the progress they have made...

Lemon tree saplings in January 2011

Lemon tree saplings in March 2011

Lemon tree saplings in September 2011 -
they're peeping above the shade cloth.
Even the 2nd row has flourished beautifully :)

They are coming along beautifully.  With their timed irrigation and eco-friendly pest control recipes (1 & 2) they have nearly everything they need.  The only assistance my lemon trees most urgently require from me is... weeding!

Devil thorns invading the weed guard
around my lemon trees

Each plant grows hundred of these nasty thorns

A close up of these nasty b*ggers

These thorns are hectic enough that they will go straight through Crocs - and, whatever you do, don't walk anywhere without your shoes, nor kneel / sit anywhere without scouting around for this plant first - you WILL regret it!  But, even worse than that is the fact that when they get stuck in the sole of your shoe, the chances are that they will drop off as you walk indoors, which can create a nasty surprise if you walk barefoot in the house.  So checking underneath your shoes prior to entering the house is a definite.

And that, MKid, is the reason we always tell you to put your shoes on as soon as you wake up in the morning, and to leave them on all day :)

Leave it to Mother Nature

Last Friday, we decided, on the spur of the moment, to nip up to the farm for the weekend.

When we went to the farm in the middle of May, I had shoved four broad bean (fava bean) seeds into the ground next to each of the three trees which we had just transplanted out of pots, and which hadn't been doing well at all. These trees are now on the irrigation system, so planting the beans beneath them, meant that the beans would get water also :)

I wondered if they would produce, without my tender loving care / staking against the wind / pest control, etc. :)

So, arriving at the farm on Friday, I got the surprise of my life.  I had a broad bean harvest that completely blew me away!  The plants, heavy with pods, and not having been staked, were sprawling all over the ground - with beans even hiding under the fallen plants.  Not one of the bean pods, either on the plants, nor lying on the ground, was damaged / eaten by insects - be they slugs / locusts or giant grasshoppers.

In fact, I harvested approximately 12 kgs (26lbs) of broad beans...

... which translated into just over 3kgs (6 1/2 lbs) of beans out of their pods.

Glorious, luscious, plump morsels of...

...heaven in each mouthful :)

I now have a supply of food which is very low in saturated fat, cholesterol and sodium, whilst being high in dietary fiber, protein, phosphorus, copper, manganese and an excellent source of folate.

We ate a portion last night - simply boiled until the outer sheath split and then slathered in butter.  Delicious :)

I have placed the rest of the beans in the freezer, but, would like advice on how else to preserve the beans?  And what is your favourite broad bean recipe?

It just goes to show you, Mother Nature, when left to her own devices, is perhaps the best gardener of us all :)

Confused lemon pip

As is my wont or OCD habit, every time I cut open a lemon, I have to shove the pips into some soil in a pot on my kitchen windowsill - my plant nursery :) (especially in winter as it's one of only two windowsills which gets any kind of sunlight - in the entire house!)

And, I invariably get little lemon trees popping their heads above ground some time later.

But, recently, I noticed that one of them appears to be different from the others for it seems to be very confused...

It has stopped growth on the original stem... 

...and it appears to be forgoing it's original plan and it's growing another lemon stem from the same pip, which it has shoved above ground.

It looks like it is a plant with ambition - b-i-g ambition...

I wonder if plants have split personalities.  Or if they grow twins?

Sub-irrigated planters

This past winter I have been busy researching quite a few different growing options.  One of which is a sub-irrigated planter.


Given the heat that we normally experience here in summer, together with the fact that we hope to be on the farm for a couple of weeks in December, I thought I'd give them a try - that way hopefully my vegetables wont die when I'm not at our (town) house to give them regular water - we don't have timed irrigation there like we do on the farm.


So, this is my tutorial on how I made a sub irrigated planter.


Firstly, what I gathered together:


A container (I've used a styrofoam box which RSon got from the restaurant where his girlfriend works).  A bucket would work as well.
Enough bases from (in my case) recycled milk bottles, to "line" the base of the container.
A recycled bottle for the water inlet / fill tube 
Piping

Cut your milk bottle (future) oxygen reservoir bottles at the required height.

Make a hole in the top of one of the oxygen / water reservoirs and insert your fill tube container - in this instance it was a clean oil bottle, with it's base removed and the neck of the bottle inserted in the hole.

The, drill holes into the individual oxygen reservoirs and place them cut side down in your planter container.  It is not necessary to link the individual oxygen containers as water will flow along the base of your planter and rise up in all those openings.

Cut a hole into one of the oxygen reservoirs and insert a pipe

Make a corresponding hole in your SIP container for the the overflow pipe and thread it through

Carefully add your soil, tamping down between the reservoirs in order that it can act as a wicking system until the roots of your plants / seedlings have grown down towards the water in the reservoirs

Plant up your sub-irrigated container

And finally, add water through the fill tube until you see water coming out of the overflow pipe.

The water won't evaporate as it would when one waters from the surface, as it is not exposed to the heat of the day, but is, instead, at the base of the plants where they need it most.  That should be sufficient water for at least 7 - 10 days.  When the fill tube is visibly empty at it's base, and thus more water is required, simply add it through the fill tube again, until it overflows through the outlet pipe.   


What has this cost me?  Just half an hour of my time, and ZAR1.00 (US 0.14 / 10p) for some piping for the overflow pipe.


I have recycled a fair amount, which should stand me in good stead for quite a few years to come, because, as the plastic is not exposed to sunlight, it shouldn't perish.  Environmentally, I am very chuffed.


And, finally, I have a self-watering, raised veggie patch which has utilized what would have been waste packaging / thrown out with the garbage if you don't / aren't able to recycle.


This would also work for all those northern hemisphere residents as this container could easily be utilized for all those hot days you've just experienced this past summer, or it could be planted up with early spring seedlings and placed under a covered verandah where it would be sheltered from the last frost of winter?  Invariably, restaurants have food grade containers which they have to, hopefully, recycle.  Make their job easier by taking some of that recycling off their hands and putting it to good use growing your veggies / salads :)