Things have been soooo busy here I have barely had time to take pictures let alone post! So a quick catch up... We have been building a hydroponics system.. the plan is to have it as an aquaponics system however we will be not adding fish until next year some time so for now... hydro/vermi-ponics r us.
It was a team effort on the drilling of the NFT pipes... - 90mm storm pipes drilled with a holesaw the same size as the cup that will sit in it. I was careful to measure everything out and have a line on the top of the pipe so everything lined up.
The pipes are attached to shelf ends so there is NO weight on the fence. The turns are made using a 90 degree, pipe - started at 10cm has since been cut down to 5cm. 15 degree , 5cm pipe, 90 degrees... the reason for the 15 degrees is to give the pipes a downward slope...
These brackets are how we affixed the pipes to the shelf ends.... Nice and secure!
On the left is on completion - still need to glue joints but they are holding together nicely! On the right, first plants are in.
As you can see my "pond" is the dogs water bowl that they do not like... they prefer the muddy wagon that has my plants sitting in water... and the plant saucers... in fact anything that is not their water bowl... so I have taken the bowl and given them one of the "party buckets"... they will drink out of that because it's for humans hehe. Anyways at the moment we are only pumping 4 levels of 6 until I can afford a bigger pump or can set up a second level reservoir. My 2 meter head bilge pump comes up about 30cm short lol.
Not a great shot but our Native Violets are flowering... pretty and tasty! Thanks Henriette... they are spreading too ;-) On the right you can see my radishes.... Easter Eggs and long reds... have flowered (tasty flowers too!) and gone to seed! Woo Hoo... this was actually our intention as we were out of seeds and I cannot see me doing another order for a while... so lets see what we get out of these :-).
Today I also managed to make a fence for my berries... raspberries, loganberry and blackberries... as they keep escaping and catching people unawares... We have fruit on two of the Raspberries - only about 6 but it is our first year! This way I can train them along the fence line and stop them from spreading (hopefully)... On the subject of berries, we are still harvesting strawberries - got to be quick though... everyone loves them... I think we will end up with some in the hydroponics. We got about 8 blueberries, about two each lol. The cape gooseberry is going well... in fact there are about 5 readying to go there... assuming someone hasn't got there already lol.
We have a heap of Lazy Housewife beans just popped up, cherry tomatoes just starting to fruit... Still got carrots coming out as "snacks and lots to little onions... yes I need to get outside and take photos... maybe tomorrow... happy gardening *hugs* Sarah
It was a team effort on the drilling of the NFT pipes... - 90mm storm pipes drilled with a holesaw the same size as the cup that will sit in it. I was careful to measure everything out and have a line on the top of the pipe so everything lined up.
These brackets are how we affixed the pipes to the shelf ends.... Nice and secure!
On the left is on completion - still need to glue joints but they are holding together nicely! On the right, first plants are in.
As you can see my "pond" is the dogs water bowl that they do not like... they prefer the muddy wagon that has my plants sitting in water... and the plant saucers... in fact anything that is not their water bowl... so I have taken the bowl and given them one of the "party buckets"... they will drink out of that because it's for humans hehe. Anyways at the moment we are only pumping 4 levels of 6 until I can afford a bigger pump or can set up a second level reservoir. My 2 meter head bilge pump comes up about 30cm short lol.
Not a great shot but our Native Violets are flowering... pretty and tasty! Thanks Henriette... they are spreading too ;-) On the right you can see my radishes.... Easter Eggs and long reds... have flowered (tasty flowers too!) and gone to seed! Woo Hoo... this was actually our intention as we were out of seeds and I cannot see me doing another order for a while... so lets see what we get out of these :-).
Today I also managed to make a fence for my berries... raspberries, loganberry and blackberries... as they keep escaping and catching people unawares... We have fruit on two of the Raspberries - only about 6 but it is our first year! This way I can train them along the fence line and stop them from spreading (hopefully)... On the subject of berries, we are still harvesting strawberries - got to be quick though... everyone loves them... I think we will end up with some in the hydroponics. We got about 8 blueberries, about two each lol. The cape gooseberry is going well... in fact there are about 5 readying to go there... assuming someone hasn't got there already lol.
We have a heap of Lazy Housewife beans just popped up, cherry tomatoes just starting to fruit... Still got carrots coming out as "snacks and lots to little onions... yes I need to get outside and take photos... maybe tomorrow... happy gardening *hugs* Sarah
