Wednesday, 9 October 2019

Daphnia ok but not thriving

The few plastic containers I have with daphnia are all still going after a couple of weeks, but they are not thriving.
Currently feeding them yeast every alternate day. Need to start some green water to see if that helps. 

Friday, 4 October 2019

Waterproof and automating pond water top up

I won't be building a loop aquaponics system in the immediate future. So for now, I see 3 auto systems needed...
1. auto fill the reservoir from the mains
2. auto fill reservoir water into the fish pond
3. auto water the veges with the fish pond water

I have all the parts for number 2 so...
First task was to insulate the power outlet better. Then to create a waterproof housing for the extension cord. Lastly add a timer to the water pump in the reservoir. That will periodically feed dechlorinated water into the fish pond.

This is 2 pics pasted together to show the whole setup. I didn't have to use a single new part :)


Thursday, 3 October 2019

Harvest - curry leaves

We have 2 curry trees and quite a few little shoots spouting in random places. I cut off one tree because it was in a bad position, blocking access to the compost. Today's harvest was the top part of that chopped down curry tree.

The chopped tree had a little of the white stuff that damaged previous curry trees... think it's called mealybugs. Youtube is full of videos on how to get rid of them but I havent seen one that says how to protect them, which makes me wonder why these creatures were put on this planet. I might test feeding them to the fish one day.

Fish Food - Earthworms

It was tough killing the earthworm. Hopefully it gets easier.

Compost Harvest

This pile was left for about one or 2 months. The bin reduced to this...

Another month would have been perfect, but still good enough to use...

For future, we need at least 3-4 bins. Start one each month, and harvest the oldest. 

Tuesday, 1 October 2019

Air Pruning

Went for a short course on home vege gardens last month, and 'learnt about "Air Pruning". Never heard of it before. Here is a random video on it...

Starting small with a wastepaper basket and some leftover mosquito netting.

Out in the garden later...

Wooden Pallets

Found these discarded at a factory nearby. The plan was to dismantle and use the wood.

Problem with these pallets...
- if you find old ones sitting on the ground level, dont bother. they will be rotting and home to lots of tiny creatures
- rusty nails all over
- soft wood resulting it lots of damage when prying them apart.

I have a couple of projects in mind like...
- fences
- storage box for unsightly stuff
- seat