Early Retirement Extreme Forums

ellarose24 wrote: ↑

Sun May 09, 2021 9:31 am

But when I received it, it stated two things: number one is what not to be sold in California (uh-oh), number two--it was not to be used for drinking water because it has lead?!

It's good ole' Prop65. It's basically a sticker that is slapped onto everything that contains a chemical or mineral that has been associated with increasing the risk of cancer by more than 0.001% over the background rate. That's a rather low bar indeed and so the list is enormous and so the sticker goes on almost everything. In this case, it's likely because the spigots are made out of brass and brass contains lead although it could also be the O-rings in the seals. It's possible for a company to go through an approval process, but that is expensive, so smaller companies often opt out as the cost of approval > the profit from selling it in CA. This is why you might see product X being sold everywhere except the state of CA.

ellarose24 wrote: ↑

Sun May 09, 2021 9:31 am

I have already set it up and it is holding water nicely. But when I received it, it stated two things: number one is what not to be sold in California (uh-oh), number two--it was not to be used for drinking water because it has lead?!

drinking water hoses (eg, for rvs) are manufactured to food grade standards and specifications https://www.nationalsupplyonline.com/Fo ... _Hose.html
https://www.acehose.com/food-grade-hoses.htm

for superfancy garden hoses (they get into the differences a bit) see: https://www.waterrightinc.com/pages/what-sets-us-apart

My early spring container garden experiment has come to an end. Behold my glorious potato bucket harvest:




I think self wicking buckets aren't ideal for potatoes, especially in my region (Zone 7 in SE USA). There is so much humidity and rainfall that soil drying out is much less of an issue than soil being too damp. I believe my harvest would have been much more successful if I had just used a traditional 5 gallon bucket with holes drilled in the bottom for drainage. I also had to harvest these a few weeks before I would've liked to because of my move. I also theorize that my potatoes would have grown more quickly if the chits had been larger on my seed potatoes, but I didn't have time to let them grow out more before planting.

This summer I plan on trying a similar potato bucket design with sweet potatoes instead and just conventionally draining buckets. I think that will be more successful.

Now onto the hugelkulture container. I'll start with the pros: the logs and worms did the job of establishing a rich ecosystem. There was fungus growing on some of the logs and some of the largest worms I've ever seen. The soil seemed moist but not too damp with minimal watering:




Now onto the cons: for one, I didn't get any radishes roots that were actually edible (they were all skinny and small). I think that maybe because the soil was too tightly packed? I few of my radishes bolted for some unknown reason. Another issue is the logs started sprouting new growth! I occasionally had to pick out weeds from my bed which I assumed came from some surrounding plants, however it seems they were actually growing out from the logs themselves:





I thought trees grow from seed but I guess not always. Maybe the issue is that these branches were relatively recently trimmed off because I grabbed them off the curb after a neighbor had pruned a tree in his yard? I'm not sure but it's an interesting data point. That tree growth was probably robbing some nutrients from my radishes, so maybe that was also a contributing factor to my issues.

I've now learned hands-on why people do this 2 bucket system...

1.) One does not need to water every single day. Single Buckets / Pots, dry up quick!
2.) Airspace is created from the bottom bucket / wick and this is good for the roots.

Side note - I filled all my buckets with compost. While all my tomatoes and peppers are growing, I am now realizing that I should've used potting soil. Seems to be specifically designed to not compact. My compost may compact overtime and choke my plants.

I also used no fertilizer or anything like that.

Umm...damage control is needed but looks like so far I am lucky.

@lemur If the compost was still "hot" that could also cause problems.

@white belt I know nothing about hugelkulture. Some books say not to use wood chips as mulch in a garden because as it decomposes it will compete with the plants for nutrients. Why then is it beneficial to bury wood in hugelkulture? It seems contradictory.

Gilberto de Piento wrote: ↑

Thu May 20, 2021 9:51 am

@white belt I know nothing about hugelkulture. Some books say not to use wood chips as mulch in a garden because as it decomposes it will compete with the plants for nutrients. Why then is it beneficial to bury wood in hugelkulture? It seems contradictory.

The idea is that the decomposing wood will retain a lot of water to reduce the frequency of watering, along with providing a better environment for beneficial micro organisms. It’s also just useful as something free to fill the bottom 6-12 inches of my container so I don’t need to use as much potting soil. It’s a common permaculture practice although the hard scientific evidence on its effectiveness is lacking: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/H%C3%BCgelkultur

I’ve never heard of logs sprouting new growth but it appears that’s what was happening here.

May harvest update (lbs):
2021: 14.59
2020: 8.13
2019: 0.24

Still mostly green leafed vegetables, some radishes now.

@whitebelt- Many trees grow as you've witnessed, growing off the base of a tree, often times if the tree is dead or decomposing. Just as the logs are great decomposers for cultivating mushrooms or hugelkultr beds, they are great for other new growth. If you walk around the forest, you may find fallen trees, completely horizontal, that are in some state of decomposition and are the base for new group of trees.

How much soil did you have over your wood debris? Perhaps there wasn't enough soil for the radishes to branch out?

My gf and I just finished establishing and planting (for the most part) 9 4' x 20' hugelkultr beds. I anticipate some of the willows and alders growing through. I'll post an update here if I remember.

DW found an old picture and took a new one. This compares year 2 and year 7 of gardening. Production has been at least 10x'ed since the early raised bed system with handcut dovetailed framing---what was I thinking?! Hopefully this configuration will serve as the end of succession, at least as far as the digging goes anyway.

jacob wrote: ↑

Mon Jun 07, 2021 11:11 am

wow that is shaping up like a proper farm. now you just need a chicken coop for eggs in a corner...

great to see most of the pointless grass gone.

...

my miserable log is that we're swamped with other projects, classes, etc, and in spite of previous grand plans barely managed to plant some herbs this past weekend. pathetic, but better than nothing!

Some Wine Caps from the patch inoculated last year in the garden. The patch keeps on giving, we must have harvested about 20 mushrooms now.





Thank you @sky for recommending the free Cornell Small Farms courses last year in the peak of pandemic.

June harvest update (lbs):
2021: 48.42
2020: 14.73
2019: 5.75

This season started a little earlier. Thanks CC.

jacob wrote: ↑

Thu Jul 01, 2021 6:36 am

June harvest update (lbs):
2021: 48.42
2020: 14.73
2019: 5.75

This season started a little earlier. Thanks CC.

Solid growth there! Pardon the pun. Not an expert but that seems pretty productive for an urban back yard.

But my heart sank when I read your sign off remark. My dad's a guy who's tracked the seasons closely for more than 4 decades, and from about 90 miles NW of you had been bemoaning a late spring this year. More signs he's losing his grasp on the real world, although he insists his vineyard logs back him up. I suspect now that he never actually looked in them.

@Jacob this is very cool.

July harvest update (lbs):
2021: 127.11
2020: 73.59
2019: 7.88

It looks like a jungle out there now. The center path is partially overgrown. Most stuff is between knee and waist high, but the corn is up to the roof of the garage.

Very cool. I am currently garden and pet sitting for my daughter. I tried to help her jump right to controlled chaos sandwich bed style gardening, but she ended up having to go through neat geometric 4x4 raised beds phase first (like me and most everybody else.) I think that maybe only humans who grew up foraging could start from “chaos.”

7Wannabe5 wrote: ↑

Tue Aug 03, 2021 10:54 am

I tried to help her jump right to controlled chaos sandwich bed style gardening, but she ended up having to go through neat geometric 4x4 raised beds phase first (like me and most everybody else.)

I think "squarefoot gardening" is responsible for setting that starting point. It definitely looks good and it also works well, the first year. However, the hassle of maintenance/water/grass incursions/... eventually demands evolving into a more classical format. At this point, we're no longer "gardening" ... we're farming.

Where I'm at there are lots of raised garden beds many of which are very elaborate. One layer of 4x4s high, multiple layers, 6x6s, block walls, and even containers up on legs. The soil is good for growing purposes unless you are really worried about whatever might be splashed from the street by cars. I wonder how many people are interested in gardening but never start because they think they have to do a construction project first?

This year I am down to just a couple of plants in pots. Next year I'm not going to have any because they need to be watered frequently even though the same plants in the ground nearby never need water. Similarly, I wonder how many people have started gardening in pots, gotten tired of having to water, and given it up?

Our garden used to produce enough for us to eat during the season and I'd often have enough food to cook a double batch of whatever I was making and freeze one. Occasionally I'd have a day of baking zucchini bread or whatever to use up what was left. Gardening was the hard part and eating was the fun part. After the garden ramped up, however, harvesting tons of vegetables at once and putting them up is -- for me -- the hardest part. I find this aspect, where you spend several days straight cleaning/prepping/blanching/freezing/dehydrating/etc, exhausting. Right now we have two *cartons* of peaches I have to deal with tonight and I'm running out of ideas (and the pears are starting to come in *sigh*). Does anyone else feel this way?


@jacob -- I've been told that if you're only growing enough for you (and your friends and family), you aren't farming -- you're still just gardening. 'Farming' is when you produce enough to sell. (horticulture vs. agriculture) Can you produce enough yet to go beyond gardening? I don't think we could manage it here, except for maybe seedlings in the spring and herbs.

That said, I've also been told that you can't call yourself a 'homesteader' unless you incorporate animals into your set up, even if it's just for milk, cheese and eggs. If you don't have animals, you're 'just a gardener'. I say $%&# that. If you can mostly feed yourself and your family and your back hurts from May - Sept, you've earned the right to call yourself whatever you want.

I agree that processing is ultimately the most difficult portion of the gardening cycle. I’ve found that if you do it enough you can even find a new appreciation for the “magic” of commercially processed foods. My “problem” is that I know too many gardeners who are better at growing than harvesting and processing and cooking, so I could conceivably just spend my life-energy on processing produce from gardens not my own. Kind of two steps up from getting food from dumpster diving. However, this concept irks me for reasons having to do with feminism and also hating to be in hot kitchen during hot time of year. Also makes me wonder where are all the grandkids I could assign boring tasks if I really was a pioneer era woman.