April 10, 2009

Planting log 090408

Photos of the garden, everything looking very much not there but the tank for the greywater system is in place , there is tons of organic stuff in the beds , had to do a lot of digging to take out stones and concrete from the soil but from now on it is going to be a no dig garden with organic mulch .

The Pomegranate


The strawberries along with chickpea

Herbs

Lemon

Almonds

Beds with mulch and the greywater filter

The Plum tree hasn't shown any inclination to acknowledge it is spring.

April 04, 2009

Greywater system update

The greywater system is up and running. The water goes to the first tank and once the water crosses a point , the pump kicks in and pumps up the water to the filter cum tank . We had a very water intensive day today with a few loads of washing and kids in the bath but from what it appears we might have more water than what we need !! Next stage is to connect the water to the drip system .
Visually the water seems ok , no turbidity , a bit of soap coming through , a few days more till the biological filter or schmutzdecke kicks in.
The removal of contaminants in slow sand filters occurs mainly in the colmation layer or schmutzdecke - a biologically active layer consisting of algae, bacteria, diatoms and zooplankton. A ripening period of 6 - 8 weeks is required for this layer to form, during which time filter performance is sub-optimal.

From here
The amount of water makes me think that maybe we are underutilising the greywater system and should have integrated it with the flush water . But maybe I will just earn some 'brownie points' by offering to water my neighbours patch .

April 01, 2009

Planting log 01.04.09

Planting so far:
Trees planted on 15th Mar 09
Almond
Lemon
Plum
Pomegranate
The Pomegranate is reasonably big , can expect fruit next year.
Cost of trees 300 shekels
Herbs
Mint
Sage
Zatar
Zuta
Cost of herbs 20 shekels
Seeds
My first set of seeds were dug up by the cats , the nicely dug soil to hard to resist I guess .SO another planting session on 31.03.04
Cucumber
Capsicum
Chillies
Lettuce
Rokat
Melon
Watermelon
Zucchini
Parsley
Cost of seeds 40 shekels

Now I have to think of a nasty contraption to keep the cats out of my seedlings , something that gives them a vicious poke that scares the living daylight muha-ha-ha-ha..........

Food

For the last couple of months I have been reading voraciously about food , organic , backyard , the ills of industrial monocultures , Fukuoka , Geoff Lawton , the broken nutrient cycles , Monsanto , the Future of food , Permaculture , Bill Mollison, Emilia Hazelip and more . It is quite clear that my mind is made up , industrial production of food is bad for me and my family and the environment . So time to take the plunge seriously into growing my own food or part of it and at the same time utilize wastes that we create in a manner that is not only non destructive but also adds to the immediate environment . Not that this is the first time I am trying to do so , I have at least two seasons of growing but not producing anything with my blessed black thumb but I believe I have reached a point where I have enough know how to do it better . We will be using greywater from our bath , composting all our kitchen and yard wastes and using a lot of mulch .