Zenbaas's Gardening Thread (Picture "heavy" Thread)

[Zenbaas]

This follows on from Tville but we used to stay in a flat in JHB and I used to grow mostly using hydroponics in dutch buckets etc. This follows on from about 2015 when I was last active on the forums as life takes over sometimes.

About a year ago we finally moved into a bigger space(house instead of a flat/apartment) and I can finally start my veggie/tomatoes again.

Below I've attached some pictures of our progress over the last year or so. The house had an old garden space already dedicated but was quite rough and made from an old tennis court that had been taken down. It took forever but we disassembled it bit by bit and eventually had it all cleared up and had a structure put up with 40 percent grey shade netting.

I had decided that long term I want to be planting in raised beds and we considered many options. Building with bricks seemed like the best option but the costing ended up being prohibitively expensive so I ultimately decided against it. I will update in a later post what I ended up deciding on.

[Rockoe10]

Incredible! Absolutely beautiful!

[MissS]

Your hard work paid off. It is gorgeous!

[Zenbaas]

So as I've been saying deciding on what to use as garden beds was a challenge. Building the beds from bricks would have been ideal but time, labour and logistics of it all just didn't pan out. Wood would have been great but the cost would have been prohibitive here by us.

So ultimately I decided on corrugated sheeting. I have a roofing company bend them for me and as things stand I'm still assembling them and I still have to reinforce the sides so that the soil pressure doesn't cause them to bulge.

In the interim I have started digging some trenches for the irrigation. Busy with getting costing on that but it's taking some time. So this is where I'm at now. After the pipes are in I can finish assembly of the beds and them start slowly filling them.

We have a fair amount of garden "refuse" that we'll use but my plan is to fill the bed according to the hugelkultur method. Bottom half will be stumps and twigs etc and top half will be compost.

[PlainJane]

Wow, what an effort. You should be able to grow a tremendous amount of produce in this space.

[Zenbaas]

Wow, what an effort. You should be able to grow a tremendous amount of produce in this space.

What was truly an effort was having to cut all 28 corrugated sheets "shorter" as they were too high for my liking. Best part of 4 hours worth with an angle grinder. Would not recommend it

[Rockoe10]

This is spectacular. I'm green with envy.

And that soil. So red, it's pretty.

[Zenbaas]

This is spectacular. I'm green with envy.

And that soil. So red, it's pretty.

Thank you! I won't lie I've been planning and dreaming about this for a long time so I'm very happy to see it finally coming together. Yes our soil is very fertile and things grow very well without much effort.

[bower]

What an awesome space!!! You're making something fantastic.... can't wait to see it full of gorgeous plants!

[Zenbaas]

So today I finally got around to reinforcing the beds. Had to cut 84 pieces of "water pipe" to length and then 84 pieces of 8mm Threaded bar. The threaded bar then goes inside the water pipe to protect it from the elements. I then used dome nuts on the outside of the beds to tie everything together. They should now be able to handle whatever I will be putting inside them.

Next up will probably be me cutting open about 110meters of 15mm pipe which I will be putting on the top edge of the beds to protect the little ones from possible cuts etc. The corrugated sheeting actually isn't all that sharp at all but I decided to do it this way in any case. I first looked at dedicated rubber edge trim but it ultimately costs way too much whereas the garden hose worked out much cheaper.

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[Zenbaas]

SO today consisted of laying most of the piping down as well as some conduit for lights etc in the garden space. Lots of cutting and fitting about 107 different sections of pipe to each other and heating them up with a flame to get them to seat. I'm relatively happy with the progress today now hopefully tomorrow we can cover most of it with soil again.

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[Donnyboy]

Look up either Shawn James or "My self reliance" on youtube. He gives great information using tree limbs and trunks in his new raised beds inside a geodesic dome in the Canadian wilderness. He also built a water tank to moderate the atmospheric temps inside the dome in summer and winter. His goal is to be totally self sufficient in the wilderness. He has some great ideas.

[Donnyboy]

"The corrugated sheeting actually isn't all that sharp at all but I decided to do it this way in any case. I first looked at dedicated rubber edge trim but it ultimately costs way too much whereas the garden hose worked out much cheaper."

I've used garden hose with a slit on one side on sharp edges as a cut preventer and/or a reinforcement on weak edges. I use polyurethane spray foam insulation in a can to fill the hose as I slip it onto the edge. The foam glues the hose to the the edge and becomes hard and rigid when cured. Normal caulking applied with a caulking gun will help stick the hose to the edge if reinforcement isn't needed.

[Zenbaas]

"The corrugated sheeting actually isn't all that sharp at all but I decided to do it this way in any case. I first looked at dedicated rubber edge trim but it ultimately costs way too much whereas the garden hose worked out much cheaper."

I've used garden hose with a slit on one side on sharp edges as a cut preventer and/or a reinforcement on weak edges. I use polyurethane spray foam insulation in a can to fill the hose as I slip it onto the edge. The foam glues the hose to the the edge and becomes hard and rigid when cured. Normal caulking applied with a caulking gun will help stick the hose to the edge if reinforcement isn't needed.

I had thought of that but assumed it would be crazy messy. Perhaps I will revisit this idea under your recommendation.

[Zenbaas]

Three loads like this today from a friends yard.

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And basically filling the beds with all the garden refuse. I still have two or three small tress to cut down that have to be added in as well.

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[PlainJane]

Strange [mention]Zenbaas[/mention], I don’t see pictures in your last post, just the word ‘Image’.

[Zenbaas]

Strange @Zenbaas, I don’t see pictures in your last post, just the word ‘Image’.

I have no idea.? I can see them. I'll see if I can reload them differently tonight. Can you see all the previous ones? They're loaded from Google photos directly.

[Amateurinawe]

[mention]Zenbaas[/mention] may 23rd and may 29th all have the image word but not picture for me. The rest come through okay, and it all looks brilliant!

[Zenbaas]

@Zenbaas may 23rd and may 29th all have the image word but not picture for me. The rest come through okay, and it all looks brilliant!

Thank you! Maybe it has something to do with google changing over on 1 June. I'll see if I can rather add them as attachments from my pc.

[worth1]

I can't either.
It's easier to just download right from your device or computer as attachment.
That leaves Google out of it.