Posted on Jun 22, 2008 under Uncategorized |
With the summer holidays approaching, I think now is the best time to pack our stuff and move, so the kids can transfer to a new school when the new school year starts. We have been searching for a suitable location for a while and I think we have found just the right spot. The property we are looking at has 10.000 square meters of land in the middle of nowhere, the nearest neighbor is about 400 meters down the road, yet all important facilities like doctors, schools and stores are only a few car-minutes away. The property also includes a 340 square meter barn which would be perfect to house the little company we are planning. We have an appointment with the real estate broker next weekend and we are so excited about it that we have trouble sleeping!
Posted on Jun 21, 2008 under Aquaponics, Gardening |
With some help of the nice people over at Backyard Aquaponics, I now know why my tomato plant didn’t grow. The gravel I was using as grow bed medium was the wrong type of stone, probably limestone or marble. This caused the pH of the water to rise up to 9.0 and inhibit the plants nutrient uptake.
They say that lessons learned the hard way stick better, I agree. Before getting the next trunk load of gravel and take half a day of washing it and shoveling it into my grow beds, I will take a sample home to test. I’m quite sure I will not forget to do that!
Well, back to aquaponics, square one. I got a bag of Seramis expanded clay granulate to use as grow bed medium. This stuff is specially made for plants, so it should do the trick. It is a lot more expensive than gravel, but it has a few advantages: the very porous material is very lightweight and the capillary action will suck the water up for quite a few inches. Because of this it can be used in a constant flow system with a constant low water level, so no more messing around with loop siphons. I used a small square container as grow bed. A hole in one corner is covered with a drain sieve which prevents the clay granulate from washing into the fish tank.
I’ve planted some lettuce into the grow bed and threw some basil seeds in. Stay tuned for their progress!
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Posted on Jun 09, 2008 under Aquaponics, Compost, Gardening |
Almost 4 weeks have passed since I set up my aquaponics system and planted a little tomato plant in there. Another seedling from a seed of the same tomato has been planted into compost which I have enriched with cow manure. The plan was to compare the total yield of both plants, but there is nothing left to compare.
The aquaponics plant has not grown at all in the 4 weeks. The only difference to how the plant looked 4 weeks ago is the color: the plant is now purple, which is a sign of not enough nutrients and too much water. I guess I planted too early. I will let the system mature a little longer and try again in about a month.
The plant in compost is doing very well. It has grown tremendously in the last 4 weeks and looks very healthy with juicy leaves and a thick stem. Even the Lego minifig I placed into the pictures for size comparison noticed the difference and wanted to stay in the compost veggie-garden.
For now the score is: Compost 1, Aquaponics 0. But I expect this to change once the system has matured…
Posted on Jun 07, 2008 under Gardening |
Our garden is swarming with life. We hear little birds all day from all directions. Most bird nests are well hidden in tall trees or dense shrubs, but if you provide the birds with a suitable nesting location you can place it somewhere where you can watch the little ones grow up and fly out. We got a pair of great tits in our birdhouse and after seeing the parent birds fly on and off with food for the little ones for a while, they where ready to spread their wings today. We watched 6 little birds come out of the birdhouse and fly away into the big world.
With the summer holidays approaching, I think now is the best time to pack our stuff and move, so the kids can transfer to a new school when the new school year starts. We have been searching for a suitable location for a while and I think we have found just the right spot. The property we are looking at has 10.000 square meters of land in the middle of nowhere, the nearest neighbor is about 400 meters down the road, yet all important facilities like doctors, schools and stores are only a few car-minutes away. The property also includes a 340 square meter barn which would be perfect to house the little company we are planning. We have an appointment with the real estate broker next weekend and we are so excited about it that we have trouble sleeping!
