Happy plants

I have some super happy plant so far.
I pulled four tomato plants I had growing because they just weren’t happy so I’ll need to do a little more research about how to keep them happy.

Awhile back I had started an avocado tree from one I had bought. I had forgotten about it until it caught my eye. It had begun to grow a stem. 😊 I had tried to start some peppers but they were taking so long that they were molding instead of sprouting because my water just isn’t warm enough. So I took one of those pots and planted the avocado. As you can see he’s quite happy.
 I have 5 cucumbers going that all seem quite happy. I thought I had more than one lemon cucumber started but only one seems to be an oddball out of the 5.

A bean plant has gotten quite cozy with a spaghetti squash.

The beans I put in the vertical garden are growing inches by the day, literally. I can almost sit and watch them grow. I’m still trying to figure out how to guide their growing. I moved them into the front as opposed to the back as in this picture.

All in all, everyone seems super happy, except the failed peppers and tomato plants.

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Syrup recipe

So round freaking 3 of trying to do this post.

Over the past couple of weeks I have been out picking a conglomerate of berries in search of the ultimate berry, the Alaskan blueberry. *dun dun dun* Yea I never found em. Sneaky little buggers went ripe way early this year and got gobbled up by the more berry savvy people than myself.

Realizing the fact that I wasn’t going to find any I went in search of a yummy jam recipe. I don’t know the first thing about jelly or jam but one thing I discovered, there are four things needed; berries, pectin, jars and heat. The REAL trick is getting that mixture just freaking right.

For mine these are the amounts of everything I used; 4 cups of… Chopped rhubarb, pears, pre frozen rosehips and high bush cranberries. (the freezing was required since even those buggers are almost past ripe and its only the first couple weeks in freaking August. So to mimic first frost BAM the hooman freezer)…. The final bit was a mix of low bush cranberries and what are called crowberries. (I froze this mix as well because of the cranberries) This mix amounted to give or take 4 cups. (heavy on the give side of that equation)

I combined it all into a LARGE pot with just enough water to cover everything and let it simmer. I only did about 30 minutes but I strongly recommend an hour to a hour and a half. (I added some cloves in at this simmering stage and think it added to the flavor. Gave it a homey flavor.)

When it was done I then extracted the juices from everything. I recommend that if you have a juicer use it. I tried blending some and that was a HORRIBLE idea. It obviously made a big ass goopy mess… I was sleep deprived. Shoosh judgments lol. Trying to get the juices at that point was ALMOST not worth it.

Once all the juice was extracted I put the juices back into the large pot and used about 6 cups of sugar (if you use crowberries I’d recommend only about 4-5 cups as they are really sweet. Although the six was well received by tasters.) I only had 1- 4.something oz size pectin container the store sells. With this amount use more…. Like 5-6. The one container will make a syrup.

Bring the mix to a rolling boil for about 5-8 minutes stirring constantly. ( the juices will double in volume so be sure to have a large enough pot you can use. I didn’t the first time….)

Put the mix into whatever jars you are wanting to than secure the lids and give them a water bath for approximately 5-7 minutes, until the lids no longer pop up and down. The water shouldn’t come up over the lids but if it does I wouldn’t stress it. It did with some of mine and they all turned out fine.

Happy jelly making.

New phone app test

I just got a new app for my windows phone!!!! We’ll see how well it actually works. Fingers crossed it works great. Maybe my posts will be more fun. When I use my laptop I’m usually battling a 10 month old for possession if my key board.

Anyways, I got the plants transplanted into the new addition.

It all went pretty smooth except I lost two of my squash transplants because I accidentally snapped the stems. O well more shall grow. I started cucumbers, lettuce, spinach, hot pepper surprise and bell pepper surprise. I also planted runner beans in the rain gutters I had the transplants growing.
 

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Update 2.2

Well the first attempt at an update deleted so here I go again.

 All of the original plants are doing great minus the lettuce I had attempted. But I pulled that and used the space to help squash seedlings and some tomato clipping I had experimented with that actually worked great. 🙂

 

Since everything is doing so well I knew I would need an addition. After looking on Instagram I found a post where a person had used the downspout for rain gutters instead of PVC. I had actually thought about doing this myself but could not figure out how I would close off the ends. Once I saw how they had done theirs it only made sense. Use the curved parts one end facing up and the other down. DUH!!!! I cant say whether they are cheaper then what PVC would be but I know it was easier for me to find than large PVC.

I had a hard time trying to figure out how I would get the water flow evenly distributed between the 4 tubes. I ended up dividing the main flow into two then each of those branches into another two. I don’t have the pump right now, I’m still waiting for it to come in the mail so I can’t test to see how well it works. I also haven’t cemented anything so I’m kinda worried bout leaks. Where everything is it is really hard for me to get in and cement it all how it should be. That and that shit STINKS!

 

I also created a light stand using an idea I got from pintrest Here. I did mine in a continual strand. It was a lot easier than I though it would be. 1 inch PVC pipe works wonderful for the light fixtures to fit into perfectly. I had to remove a little metal bracket thing first. I didn’t paint it or anything fancy just connected the pieces and wallah!!! Light fixture. Everything for the light thing was about $65. Put in the fact that I can add to this that is pretty damn cheap. The blasted connectors were the most expensive. Too bad 1/2 Inch doesn’t work it’s about half the price.

I made a reflective blanket tat I just laid over the top. I can lift up one corner to access the plants. I have the lights coming in the mail with the pump so in about 2 weeks I will have another update bout how the plants are doing! 🙂

 

2 Week update

As promised here is a 2 week update. So I have 0 patience and as a result was fiddling with the plants and killed a couple, oops. There was originally a bean in the bottom gutter but while trying to move it to where it would get better light I snapped the main root. But regardless I had done an experiment with a few squash seeds I had saved from a Spaghetti squash and an acorn squash. One of them did GREAT the other not so much. I can’t tell you which is which because I’m kinda a space case and forgot to mark them. I am super excited about the fact that one of them had 100% rate. There were roughly 8 seeds all germinated. I also decided to add some Basil seeds to the top gutter and they have all begun to germinate and make yummy yummy basil!!! WHOOP WHOOP!!! I LOVE me some basil. 

Eventually I will be transplanting the squash into a larger system using either gallon containers or 2 litters The 2 litters might be easier to find the needed hardware. I’m going to make a cool light fixture s well which I’m excited about. I’m pretty sure that my boyfriend thinks I have gone garden crazy. The kids love the fish. 

The vertical system is alive!!!!

First off, this damn thing is going to be the cause of an aneurysm and second, if you go into this thinking it will be easy to do chances are you will be wrong…….. It looks dummy proof. If you are like me you probably wont have all the supplies on hand nor a few of the essential tools like a hole drill…. or you will have to change your design about twelve times because you have had to do it in segments of spare time.

Regardless though it is finally done. I had to jump the gun and put in the little seedlings I had started because when it was all said and done I was no longer able to put the pots on the top of the tub lid like they had been. I think they might do a little better in the grow beds anyways.

I had the idea to use bell siphons in the grow beds but because they sit at an angle the “bell” acts as more of a crap catcher which is needed!!!!!! I kept having trouble with one of the beds and the stupid clay pebbles floating into the drain and clogging it. I then began to mix in gravel with the clay to help off set the weight of the gravel and the tendency for the clay to float.

One big problem I had was my pump is a pretty weak one (120 gph) but if it was any stronger I would have a flood plain on my hands. I had to get the pump spout up high enough that it created a trickle and sadly that height was JUST below where my original top bed had been so I removed that and put the seedling light there instead.

I had a ton of set backs while I was making this. I had originally wanted to use big PVC pipes but I couldn’t find any in my stores so i though of rain gutters. Which are great except that there is a ton of room fot a leak to spring. mainly out the top if it over flows. THAT is  night mare trying to fix. the clay pebbles loved going into the drain tube. 

Then when it was all looking good I realized that the top bed was leaking from the drain so I had to pause everything and re caulk that. Then I went to add the 4th bed on I realized that my fishies were too high for me to get the drain flowing right. I had a slightly lower table to put them on that fit under my system perfect so yay for that.

Then the pump wouldn’t pump up to the additional couple of inches I was needing. So I eliminated that bed.

OOOO the beds sit at a pretty steep angle angling backwards so I had to figure out a way to get them to sit in the brackets a little more level. I wound up using wash cloths jammed up under the gutters. the best thing would be to create a wedge to attach to the vertical board then the bracket to the wedge.

A few positives……. My pump doesn’t draw near as much as I feared it would so I don’t need a secondary tank off to the side. With the fish up off the floor my 9 month old cant get into them like he was, and so far only about 5 fish have had to be flushed. I’m projecting that as they get bigger I will need to build another system which now that I know what to do different I can.

All in all it looks like a redneck hillbilly built it but that may be because the Alaskan version of a hillbilly did build it. We love duck tape and it happened to be the only tape on hand.

I will have to see how it does over the next couple of weeks.

                          

Frame built finally

Well I have finally been able to make the frame I was wanting to build for my system. I forgot to add a top over hang for the lights though so I will have to do that once I get the time  and my reflective material comes in the mail.

The system definitely cost more than I was thinking it would. I was able to cut some costs though. For instance, I used rain gutter instead of the typical 4 in PVC pipe so the cost was $4 as opposed to $16/ 10 feet but then with that gutter I needed to buy the brackets (I was originally thinking that I would use rope to tie them to the diagonal beams) I also needed to make sure I had the end caps and a sealant. I was going to get the end caps that had the seal in them but while I was at the store I couldn’t figure out the trick to get the damn things onto the end of the gutters. The dang brackets and end caps were almost $4 EACH!!!!! so that added up fast. I was able to use decent priced 2x4s for the frame.

I found myself needing to buy a lot of the needed tools as well so adding that into the cost sucked but I LOVE the miter saw I got.

If all of this works right I will update this post with a shopping list of what to buy. (tools not included)

I decided to use a clear tub for my fish and water mainly because I want my kids to be able to see and interact with them. I do plan on hooking up a tall 33 Gal trash can I acquired to the side of the clear tub so as water empties out of it the water from the 33 gallon fills it up to a certain spot and stops. I will have to see how much my pump pulls though.

It took me a couple tries to get the angles right for the stupid diagonal and in the end i had to do some finagaling to get the right angle cut. Getting the screws in at an angle was a Beach until I remembered that awhile back I had bout a Kerg jig but for whatever unknown reason I didn’t buy the clamp so when I went to the store I got it and O MY GOD I LOVE THAT THING!!!!! It is sooo easy to get the perfect depth and angle needed. 

In a couple days I will be putting the whole thing together to see how it runs. then if all goes well I will be starting the month long cycle to build up the needed bacteria in the system. It probably wont need that long since I am using some pond water from a pond near my house but I want to make sure that the grow medium is nice and ready.

Auto watering pop bottle planter

So, as many of my ideas begin, I saw a GREAT idea on Pintrest, a 2 Liter self watering soda bottle planter with a fishie in the bottom part. Off to the pond up the road that my sister in-law has put goldfish into……… Truth be told I’ve only ever seen one in the whole thing so it was a doomed mission from the beginning. Regardless though I though of a new idea.

I decided to filter out some of the pond water to remove all the bug larvae (I don’t particularly want bugs in my house and since there aren’t any fishies in it they wouldn’t get eaten. I used the pond water as a test run to see if it will kill my plants. I saw on a site that I can use local pond water to help speed up the cycling in my aquaponics system that I’m going to get starting sometimes this next week.

Once the water was filtered I then cut a large circle out of a flour sack towel that I had laying around. i pulled the middle through the top to create the self watering aspect.

I then got my plant and put it in the top half being careful not to get the soil on the outside of the towel.

Aquaponics set up plan

After a ton of research and looking at peoples designs I have finally settled on a vertical set up with the top half of it being PVC pipe roof gutters filled with a gravel/ leca clay and then below those a grow box or two. When I went scouting for materials I couldn’t find the needed PVC so I looked at the rain gutters and they are so much more practical and cheaper. I’m planning on having the whole system be about 6 feet tall with the length 3 feet. On the back of the diagonal I’m planning on lining it with reflective surface and on top of that chicken wire to allow vine plants to grow up or down it.Ill also have the reflective stuff on the inside of the top portion. The grow box is going to be filled with the plants that need to spread out more then the others. Once I start assembling it I will post the updates. Take care and chime in if you have any comments! All advice is welcome.

SQUEEEE!!! the garden lives

During the end of May I decided to finally start my garden. If I was anywhere else that would have been WAY late but I’m in Fairbanks Alaska so it’s quite normal.

It is expensive as hell to start from young plants but I hadn’t gotten any seeds started and I had enough to do it. Won’t say how much it was for a few plants *Cough*250*Cough* To be fair though I bought three bags of soil and two of the plants were very large already bearing blooms and baby veggies.

I have attempted gardens in the past and they have proven to be unsuccessful to say the least. With that in mind I didn’t have high hopes but have been thrilled with the results……… minus the one casualty, the cucumber. We had a pretty cold couple of nights and even though the tag thing SAID cold hardy it was a LIE. Everything else LOVED the cold….. Bunch of weirdo plants I tell ya.

I was able to use a couple old tires my mother in law had laying around for the zucchini and then the pot the zucchini came in for the tomato plant which has just exploded. There were other various pots laying around that I was able to use for the two pepper plants and the lettuce once it was ready to transplant.

I had been saving bottles which I drilled holes along the bottom and one side. I only did about 6 holes going up (two rows of three staggered). I used the bottles as self watering things so all I’d have to do is fill those and not have to worry about the water getting on the plant and causing damage. I love how easy it is to water. I have them in all the pots except the baby basil and the oregano in the rectangle planter box.