SUSTAINABLE GARDENS IN CANADA

WOW!!!! Just realized it has been quite a while since my last post.  My how time flies.  If someone told me I would be spending the summer gardening, rather than hiking, mountain biking, diving, or touring in the car, I wouldn't have believed it.  But here it is, October and the gardening is winding down....  OR IS IT? 

Who'd a thunk I would be involved in Aquaponics, Squarefoot gardening, hoophuts, greenhouses, cold frames etc etc etc, a year ago.  This all started with my wife making a keyhole garden last year.  It produced so much food for us, I figured I would jump on the band wagon and help this year.  After all, my wife D, had 600+ mason jars to fill with food.  Back in December, she showed me a youtube video of an Aquaponics system in Australia.  Since I hated getting dirt under my nails (for 30 years now)  I figured I could contribute by making the fish to veggie system in the basement of our house.  I promised D I would help with the dirt gardens, after I bought her Mel Bartholumew's book Squarefoot Gardening. 

The planning for it was left to D.  She calculated we needed four 4x4 ft gardens to sustain the two of us.  So when it came time to make the frames, I made EIGHT.  Ok so I don't listen, but we did have 600 jars to fill.  Eventually, we ended up with ELEVEN.  I was in charge of seed planting in the house, and the aquaponics.  Like the SFGs I was a bit extreme.  160 species of plants were seeded. Everything from veggies, fruits, herbal meds, flowers, catnip, hell, I even saved apple seeds, grapefruit seeds and my beloved Keylime seeds.   Since I knew nothing about gardening, I had to go on the side of percentages.  The more I planted, the more would grow.  Thanks to the internet and input from everyone under the sun, we started to have successes.  Here is a photo history of the garden project.

This is the start of the SFG.  Eight 4x4 ft gardens.  My job was to make the frames, haul the dirt up the mountain into the backyard.  D got to line the frames with cloth, mix her special mix of dirt, compost, and perlite, and transplant the seedlings.  The day we got the seedlings planted, the weather guys were calling for frost. We scrambled to make the hoophuts to save the crop.

This was the result of the hoophut scramble.  It worked great.  No plants suffered.  Note the uncovered garden to the right.  D is masterfully calculating the exact location for every plant.  Also note, the pot at the lower left has a piece of plexiglass on it.  This was a two-fold success, it kept the plant from freezing, and it kept the damned cats from eating it, it was catnip.  The trellace in the back row is made from 1/2" conduit, and is for the beans and peas to grow onto.  It worked great.

I made a stand, to mount a grow light, using a fluorescent light fixture.  I had it sitting on the counter over our beer and wine fridges.  D put the tyvek cover on it to keep the seedlings warm.

This was the aquaponic setup, and my indoor greenhouse for the seedlings.  I used CFC full spectrum lights in the greenhouse and the seeds loved it.

This is one of two grow beds in the aquaponic system.  Those are Jalepenos and Gypsy peppers.  To the extreme right, are tomatoes that grew to the ceiling.

Who ever said gardening was relaxing never had neighbours like these looking in on our progress.  That bruin is about 20 ft from the gardens, biding its time until I would leave.  This guy showed up about 8 - 10 ft from where D and I were working on our retaining wall.  She saw it first and ran.  THEN and only THEN told me there was a bear 3 steps away.  My first assault was with the broom, bounced off, then the shovel, again bounced off,  then rocks..... ok ok.... anyone who knows me, KNOWS I can't throw anything. However, I did manage at a distance of 8 feet girly toss a few rocks and connect.  That was enough for me, I brought out the big stick.  As soon as the bear saw I meant business, he climbed the tree to wait me out.  For the record, the big stick is just that, a BIG STICK.

That ain't no super telephoto I am using.  That squirrel on steroids would not leave.

I took this photo in more or less, a RAGE.  That beast sat there swinging his foot back and forth, with his bear nads hanging down.  Determined to taunt me into leaving.  D insisted she didn't want a bear skin rug. 

As the seedlings started to grow rapidly, we transplanted them into buckets.  We found we needed every available space, including our cats railing walkway.  Everyone had to sacrifice for the sake of the garden.  This is our herb gardens.  Thyme, Chives, Parsley, Catnip, Anise, Cumin and Stevia.

When the weather got warmer, the hoophuts came off, and everything exploded.  We still had hundreds of seedlings to find homes for.  I had created a monster.  I had no idea the success rate for germination would be so high.  I estimate about 80%.

AQUAPONICS UPDATE MARCH 17

GOTTA LOVE AQUAPONICS

Now this is the type of gardening I like.   After the initial setup of the system we let the pump cycle for a few weeks.  This really wasn't needed but we wanted to make sure all was well before we spent billions (ok ok maybe 10 bux) on fish and plants.  We bought a couple of the Jiffy Greenhouses.

These units come with little 'pellets'.  We call em coccoons.  Simply add water, they swell up, put your seeds in them and wait.   Everything worked well except the cukes.  We had one sprout and it has been going crazy ever since. 

 

Starting the transfer of plants to the grow beds

The Kale, Lettuce, Tomatoes, Peppers and a few of the herbs were growing as much as 1/2 inch (.5 cm) a day.  We only used water from the tanks to feed the plants.  When they were big enough, (we guessed at what was deemed 'big enough') we started planting them in the garden.  In retrospect, I should have planned it a bit better.  We put tomatoes and cukes together with onions and kale.  Next time around we will put the shorter plants in one grow bed and the taller growing ones in the other.  That way the cages won't block out the light to the little guys.

The tear drop on the paper is what we call a Kanban. My past is catching up with me.  This is a signal to let me know if Denise watered the plants that day. 

About the fish.   We used feeder fish (the cheapest you could buy in bulk).  I set up a glass fish tank and had them all in there until they became acclimatized.  Then put 15 in the aquaponics tank.  We had a few (3-4) die but the rest are going great.   I keep track of the Ph, Ammonia, Nitrites, Nitrates etc etc and all are within the so called correct parameters.  At first we had jump started the system (before the fish were introduced) by adding some ammonia to get things going.  Must have put too much in so we diluted it.  Now everything seems to be balancing out.  Need more nitrites / nitrates?  Toss in some more fish.  10 seems to be about right for now. 

 

After 6 weeks

 



This photo was taken 6 weeks after we had initially planted the seeds.  I had to replant some of the cukes, as only one grew.  Hopefully we will have more success with the new batch.  They should be ready just in time for outside planting. 

Denise's Porta - Greehouse with Jiffy pellets soaking up water.

 



 

Now the Plants have more space to grow

 

Denise assembled her portable green house to expand on the seedlings.   Now that the cukes are coiling around everything we put the wire cages in the growbeds for the tomatoes and cukes to grab.  Note the peppers in the far grow bed.  I built a makeshift shelf above the cukes to hold the smaller Jiffy greenhouse.  This one has just been seeded with Beans, Peas and Lettuce. 

I have noticed that some Aquaponamians (what ever ya call people who aquaponicize) do is plant the seeds directly into the grow media. Might try that in the future, but we wanted to control and document the growth rates of the plants.  YES DOCUMENT.  I have a book I have been keeping track of the chemical make up, how much water we need to add weekly, and what seeds, and where we have planted them.  I want to seed the most hearty of the plants for next year's crop.