Truth is, we deep mulch all our garden, but stuff like potatoes, grains etc, that require vast areas, we grow without a mulch. This today made me question that. Quality over quantity…
Bob, if you are serious about it, its best to start now. Just pile up hay, stray, leafs or whatever on the part you intednd to grow on now, to kick start soil life and the natural processes, befor yeu plant next spring. This method is good but requires time.
Its our third year mending our garden like this, and the first year was a PITA. Mulch just evaporated. A foot of compacted hay juat gone, rotted away in half a year. But that was just soil, hungry for organic matter. Now its saturated, and mulch hay breakdown came down preety much to a stop. I only patched up a few spots with fresh hay this spring, other thain that we are growing in last years mulch.
I will go and find some old hay. We have been putting all the yard leafs in the back garden and chicken yard compost clean up for a few years now in the area I want to plant potatoes. They did not do well last year in the other garden space. But the garlic we planted last fall did great in the same spot. Go figure. I think this heavy mulch is the way to go.
Bob
Not sure if I’ve ever mentioned this, but I’ve always wanted to build one of these.
I actually want to make my own little Sauna shed complete with hot rocks to steam up the building.
Mostly want to make one of these because I don’t have a full body bathtub in the house. Would be a fun build I think.
Just trying to think of a more efficient way to heat those coils. Maybe a well built cast iron or brick stove with the coils placed before the damper. A Naturally Aspirated woodgas thermal generator if-you-will .
Might buy a watering trough soon if I catch a deal at the Tractor Supply or Southern States.
The heater I built for my green house works similar to that Cody. I’ve been revising the place and wanted to get it looking a little less chaotic before I posted pics but I’ll take some of the heater to show you.
Hi Cody, i’ve built something like that some years ago, out of an old Ibc-toute, (those big tanks on a pallet, in a “cage”)
An old water tank with copper coil inside for heating, with a pool filter pump from the scrap-yard for circulation, worked well until the heater froze/ break.
I can post some pic’s if you want?
These pictures didn’t come out too well Cody but here is my water heater. This was made out of a 44 gal well pressure tank and a 30 gallon air compressor tank. The compressor tank was set inside the well tank with the slot in the front to accesses the air tank. A copper coil was put inside the air tank. The one picture barely shows the water storage tank this is going to heat. It is 600 gallons. Water comes out of that tank through the PVC and feeds the coil. It also fills the space around the compressor tank. Small pieces of wood feed though the port in the domed lid, heat the water in the coil which thermosyphons in and out of the water tank and also heats the water jacket formed by the well pressure tank. This moderates the temp surrounding the heater to keep the plants in the vicinity around it from overheating. As the wood burns it turns to charcoal and can be removed periodically into an air tight can to cool. The fuel feed is as continuous as I want to make it. When I get this all operational I will do videos. It will all seem clear then.
Wife’s asleep after a nightshift. Went for the woods. All quiet. Not a sound, except a light breeze in the treetops and a woodpecker in the distance. You know you’re getting older when these are the moments you appreciate the most - sitting on stump listening to nothing.
Last bucket of blueberries this year. Freezers are getting packed with all sorts of goodies. Have to make room for lingon-berries in a few weeks.
I agree. Our wild blackberrys are coming on now.
As you said blueberries cycling out.
Our red raspberries are Willamette everbearing so will continue on into the late Fall hard frosts.
All in all; I’ve come to like berries much better than fruiting trees.
Lose a years to get established fruiting tree and you’ll cry.
Berries: bush or vine, are much more prolific and reliable. The berry fruits are much more nutrient dense. Preserve dryed. Dryed then in fat. Perserve cooked into high sugar. Preserve frozen.
Frozen preserved the easiest. With the most later use flexible.
Now to keep those foods freezers powered . . . WOODGAS electricity. Batch cycled.
Steve unruh
Ha! I was enjoying those moments at like 13-14 years old, a cold hard hike to the top of the mountain before day break to watch the woods come to life with a rifle or shotgun in hand in the fall. Peaceful and majestic to watch the world come to life in the silence and heavy fog, hoping to see the bird or buck to take home for the freezer. Always picking berries and mushrooms along the way, always have a mesh bag for shrooms and a few gallon ziplock bags for berries in the truck and in my pack. the same peace I find early morning on the lake, bank fishing or in the boat. These are my happy places, I would loose my mind without them in this crazy world. Little moments to cherish, days coming home empty handed of game or forage I still left the woods with memories
@Tone , that wuld make a lot of excelent blueberry liquer wuldnt it jam and stuff like that are good too
Btw JO, l saw on facebook you got a interwiew of somekind. Did you post anything about that here because l must of missed it? I am behind on lots of topics…
Ha, you probably picked that up on wife’s facebook. No, I don’t belive I mentioned here yet, but Niklas visited both @Jan and me a couple weeks back. He will post our episodes on his YT-channel “omställningsresan” later on.
Ordered two of these Attwood bilge blowers. They seem alright except for the big hole in the bottom. Will need to silicone that closed. I’m thinking of adding pull blowers that connect to the blowoff valve. Or using these as just pusher blowers going to the gasifier itself.
Garlic has natural anti-microbial properties against fungus, virus and bacteria. Some of which also break down the organic matter or otherwise make nutrients available to plants. Because of the residual effect, you have to be somewhat careful what follows in the same spot or may have to innoculate. Onions believe have the same effect, to a lessor extent.
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jam and stuff like that are good too 
