Green house food production.

[Carefulnow]

This is my yard set up. Its taking a lot of work but I've got my Brothers to help me out.

[Arzosah]

CarefulNow, those diagrams are **brilliant**! I've never seen anything like them - and I confess, I'm going to copy them into an OpenOffice document and make a pdf of them, right now

To answer your question from yesterday, my garden is bog-standard suburban, 35' long by about 20' wide: well capable of producing in the terms you describe. I get a lot of viruses, thats the problem, and I have very little physical energy. Still, we do what we can, if we're prepping.

Thanks again!


ETA - making a pdf didn't work, the images are too big, so I've just downloaded them as images, and saved the text separately.

[tigs]

oh forget to mention land

522 acres arable including fallow

60 acres licensed farming

75 acres of woodland

16 acres kitchen garden including animals

673 acres total

[Carefulnow]

CarefulNow, those diagrams are **brilliant**! I've never seen anything like them - and I confess, I'm going to copy them into an OpenOffice document and make a pdf of them, right now

To answer your question from yesterday, my garden is bog-standard suburban, 35' long by about 20' wide: well capable of producing in the terms you describe. I get a lot of viruses, thats the problem, and I have very little physical energy. Still, we do what we can, if we're prepping.

Thanks again!


ETA - making a pdf didn't work, the images are too big, so I've just downloaded them as images, and saved the text separately.

I am aware of people with struggling immune systems. Both of my Brothers went though a stage in their life where they literally had very few white blood cells in their body. One had cancer and the other had a series of medication which lowered his immune system. I pray that you will be okay during all this cold weather.

Just a personal question. Are you over 55 or disabled? If so you can get £140 from the Warm Home Discount which you can get from any participating energy company in the UK. Will allow you to heat at least one room in your home for 2-3 months.

I will also have to share some of my frugal living ideas on another thread where you can get household bills down to minimal levels while still eating like and king/queen and keep your home nice and warm.

As for the garden take a picture of it on google maps and upload it onto here. I will then see what we can do to it.

[Carefulnow]

CarefulNow, those diagrams are **brilliant**! I've never seen anything like them - and I confess, I'm going to copy them into an OpenOffice document and make a pdf of them, right now

To answer your question from yesterday, my garden is bog-standard suburban, 35' long by about 20' wide: well capable of producing in the terms you describe. I get a lot of viruses, thats the problem, and I have very little physical energy. Still, we do what we can, if we're prepping.

Thanks again!


ETA - making a pdf didn't work, the images are too big, so I've just downloaded them as images, and saved the text separately.

I'd recommend this method for you:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1OShZZ ... 1635629759

You can put it in a wide raised bed. Its really a simple way which gives huge yields. You could also do a perma-culture layer system which is this:

[Arzosah]

Hi CarefulNow, what a shame, I'm not eligible for the Warm Home thing, pah! Google maps has gone weird today, so nothing's happening there.

I've got a lot of the setup you show in section, actually - wide beds, cardboard and mulch over the soil, some soil has been replaced as I've planted perennials.

In addition, I'm in the middle of finishing writing something that I hope to publish soon, so I can't start a new project, so for now I'll pass on the uploading and planning, but its very kind of you to offer, thank you. I might still pick your brains for stuff! Sending you a pm too.

[featherstick]

Carefulnow, have you actually built any of these things or are they still at planning stage?

I'm asking because there are a few problems with the plans you have put up here which suggest they are theoretical.

- The potato barrels above the raised beds has two signficant problems: the shelf will shade the crops below, and the weight of a potato barrel will be substantial, especially when watered

- The siphon system you outline above will result in bone dry beds with all the nutrients washed out into the sump.

- The plant spacing and the humidity you outline in the greenhouse will result in a very humid atmosphere with resulting fungal diseases sweeping through the crop.

Have you tried these out? Have they worked? Have you encountered and overcome the problems I mention above?

I'm not trying to snipe, your ideas are interesting and could be made to work, and I'm interested in intensive food production on a garden scale. Let us know how you've got on.

[Carefulnow]

Carefulnow, have you actually built any of these things or are they still at planning stage?

I'm asking because there are a few problems with the plans you have put up here which suggest they are theoretical.

- The potato barrels above the raised beds has two signficant problems: the shelf will shade the crops below, and the weight of a potato barrel will be substantial, especially when watered

- The siphon system you outline above will result in bone dry beds with all the nutrients washed out into the sump.

- The plant spacing and the humidity you outline in the greenhouse will result in a very humid atmosphere with resulting fungal diseases sweeping through the crop.

Have you tried these out? Have they worked? Have you encountered and overcome the problems I mention above?

I'm not trying to snipe, your ideas are interesting and could be made to work, and I'm interested in intensive food production on a garden scale. Let us know how you've got on.

Some are designs and some is stuff which I have used before.

The Green house system works fine. You just need to put in air conditioning into your tunnel and your be okay. In a ideal world I'd want the greenhouse to get hot as possible so I could grow Tilapia.
I might just be lucky because I've never had fungus on my plants.
And even before air conditioning I would just open both doors.

The Siphon System is just a rough idea. What I really want to create is a way to pump all my fertaliser into the raised beds and then have the excess water collect into a sump tank to repeat the process while making more compost tea. I forgot to illustrate the pump but I understand what your getting at.

As for the raised bed system I was pushing my luck I guess. I have used grow barrels loads of times. Mainly because there so easy to make and use.

I think in the end its probably just be a case of using a pre built product like the video below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wSjQehUZqjs

I'm just a tight sod thats all. Dont like spending what little money I have.

[Carefulnow]

Carefulnow, have you actually built any of these things or are they still at planning stage?

I'm asking because there are a few problems with the plans you have put up here which suggest they are theoretical.

- The potato barrels above the raised beds has two signficant problems: the shelf will shade the crops below, and the weight of a potato barrel will be substantial, especially when watered

- The siphon system you outline above will result in bone dry beds with all the nutrients washed out into the sump.

- The plant spacing and the humidity you outline in the greenhouse will result in a very humid atmosphere with resulting fungal diseases sweeping through the crop.

Have you tried these out? Have they worked? Have you encountered and overcome the problems I mention above?

I'm not trying to snipe, your ideas are interesting and could be made to work, and I'm interested in intensive food production on a garden scale. Let us know how you've got on.

I just thought I'd add that grow towers dont work well if they are filled with media. Aeroponics is the king of high tech farming. The only down side is energy cost. I think 20% Aeroponics and 80% permaculture is the way to go.

I think its best to make use of all vertical space on the edges of your property and put as many raised beds as you can in. I actually might order my brother to put his car on the side of the road so I can cover the drive way with potato barrels lol.