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I’m going to build a system for my food production using an NSLU2 computer from the company Linksys. This is a small computer with USB and network connection but no keyboard or mouse connected. This a is a bit challenging because you have to do all communication through the network, but when it’s up and running it’s very convenient. It consumes only 5 watts so it can be left on 24/7. This means that you’ll be able to produce a constant flow of information or use it for control tasks like for instance automatic watering.

The price is about $100 and I think it’s available all over the world. I’m going to use it with a system consisting of a simple communication protocol called 1-wire, where you connect different electronic devices to the same pair of wires. So I’ll have this pair of wires running from the house and out to the raised beds, where I’ll connect an electronic rain collector, moisture sensors, temperature sensor and an actuator for automatic watering. Or maybe I’ll use a pump for the roof rain collector instead.

I think it will be useful with local area temperature graphs. The more information the better. Maybe it’s even possible to get certified so that the collected data can be used other projects as well. In these times with global warming it’s good to have even more measurements in order to really find out what’s going on with the weather.

It’s possible to install Linux on this small NSLU2 computer, so I’ll install Debian and have a whole community as backup if I need to make special things happen in the software. Linux is also available for your desktop computer if you want to use it for that.

There are really endless possibilities when you have a 1-wire system running. You can turn on and off mains appliances like lights and different machines and do all sorts of measurements, like temperature, light, wind, moisture etc. Connect it to the Internet and you can do some really neat things like surveillance of your property when you are away or on vacation. You can control it all with your mobile if you have one that’s newer than about 3 years. I’m also playing with the idea of using all of this in a green house to create the optimal conditions for growing food. But that must be a future project. Right now I’ll focus on the raised beds. Suggestions are welcome if you have some ideas that you would like to see implemented.

Judging from the worm sticking out of the potato it seems that I have waited a little too long before taking the potatoes up. I’ve read that it was okay to let them stay in the ground after the plants die until they were to be used in the kitchen. It doesn’t seem to be true around here at least. There were previously no potatoes grown in this bed so it’s not like there was a build up of pests year after year. These are of the Bintje kind.

Then I went further down the bed and started digging up the other kinds of potatoes. Those were Asparagus potatoes or Almond potatoes as I believe they are called. After some searching on the internet it seems like they are a local Scandinavian kind, because there is very little information to be found about them and a property like being able to grow at low temperatures is highlighted. They are known in Sweden at least but also in Denmark. I’m not sure Almond potatoes are the same thing but I guess they are. If you can clarify on this please leave a comment.

I only found a single worm in all of the Asparagus potatoes despite the fact that they are grown in the same row as the potato in the picture. It’s the Bintje kind by the way. The two kinds were planted at approximately the same time so the conditions should be the same. Apparently the worms don’t like the Asparagus potatoes. Do you know what kind of worm this its? Next year I’ll dig up the potatoes when the plants die above ground.

Okay, this blog is about to go in a slightly different direction. It will not be your usual gardening blog, but more about what will happen if you add some high tech to your garden. The reason I got myself into this whole grow-your-own-food thing was that I felt I had to. It was the pressure of the decreasing quality of the food available in supermarkets, where it’s all about profit. It was because of the rising prices on produce and because we’re running out of oil so that we will not be able to transport the food across these ludicrous distances. This is what I was supposed to do and it still is. But in reality it’s far from what I’m best at. Now I’ve been in the electronic industry for 7 years straight with an education in electronics engineering, and I’ve been playing with electronics since I was a child. My father and grandfather worked with electronics, my step dad is a computer geek (he’s in the closet, but he is. ) This is who I am. I have to accept that.

But this is not who I want to be. I want more than sitting indoor for the most of the day, without ever feeling the sun or the rain. I want more frequencies in my life, more bandwidth. But I think I’m being arrogant dropping such a big part of me in the dumpster, making a 180 degree turn and just walking naked into the forest and living of the land. I know I can provide value to a lot of people using the skills I’ve already got. Nobody knows what a post oil, post economy, post third world war world will be like if we ever come to that. I think we have to prepare, but going back to the stone age is not necessarily the most intelligent way to go. Why not use what we already know? Sure, electronics require electricity, but what’s wrong with steam power? Or wind power or water or sun power for that matter? What I’m getting at here is, that I want to go outside and create stuff. We need food on the table, and what I bring is the small scale automation.

My plan is to apply what I know about automation and electronics to the process of growing food. I have no idea where this is going to take us but I think it’s going to be interesting. I want to raise awareness about what is going on with the soil. What is the temperature, how is the moisture? Why not automate the watering so that it will provide the soil with the optimal conditions? What exactly is going on inside your composting box? Let’s find out. Nobody says it can’t be done post oil even if all our technology comes crushing down. Give me your old C64, I don’t care. Who says it’s going to be fancy million dollar systems. I’m talking low scale, for you, me, and our neighbors. And it’s going to be affordable. More better food in a smaller area in a sustainable way that you control.

So my first project is a small system, that makes graphs of my raised bed temperatures and moisture, plus the air temperature, with graphs for a year, a month, a week and a day. With this information available on a web page I’ll know exactly when to plant and when to go out and water my beds. The goal is still to grow the most food I can, but I’ll do it in my own wicked way. Later I’ll talk about automatic watering and where to get the electricity from, but it’s also still about farming. I hope I can convey this wisdom in an understandable way and please let me know if you want your own system and what problems you face installing one.

Imagine receiving an email from your garden telling you when to plant or add material to your compost based on the current temperature. Add some Rudolf Steiner theory to the system and I’ll bet you it’s going to produce food in abundance with no need to involve money hungry corporations.

But that’s all hot air coming from me now, I know, so I’m going back to work now to materialize this

The beans are growing like crazy now. There are beans to be harvested every three days, both runners and the smaller ones. The trellis is made from nine bamboo sticks held together with plastic ties (yes I know – it’s not a very sustainable lifestyle with all that plastic ). I have an earlier picture showing the bare trellis here.

I had to secure the trellis with two pieces of string since the winds are rather strong around here. We’re not that far away from the coast. It’s seems to be holding up, so I’ll definitely be growing beans next year too. The fridge is already well packed with beans for the winter.

In the middle of the picture we have the runners, Phaseolus Vulgaris Promotor, and to the right we have Phaseolus Vulgaris Maxi. On the left you can see white mustard but yet only as small plants. They are supposed to collect nutrients from the soil so they won’t go to waste during the fall and wash down with the rain. Then the plants will be harvested and put in the composting box.

There are some small bugs sitting on the short bean plants, but they don’t do any harm, they just sit there. The cats chased all the birds out of the garden, so I guess there are no enemies to eat them, so why not just sit and relax and enjoy the sun

Tagetes are supposed to keep pests away, and that’s fine. But there are different types of tagetes and these are the tall ones. They have nearly taken over the raised beds so next year I’ll plant the short ones instead. They are beautiful though and draw a lot of butterflies into the garden.

Yes! The first tomatoes are finally ripe. They’re late because the ones I originally planted were cut down by killer slugs. That was a tough one since those original ones I sowed indoor where they germinated in my windowsill and grew up to become sound 20 cm (8 inch) plants. I’m not sure what to do to keep the killer slugs away from my small tomato plants next year, I’ll have to figure that out.

It was just before vacation I lost the original ones, but a friend looking after the garden in the meantime played a prank on me. He found some new plants at the supermarket which were even taller and planted them instead of the slaughtered ones. He didn’t say a word about it until weeks later after we got home from vacation, and I didn’t tell him that I knew what he did. But of course I knew, they were my small babies. So I don’t actually know what varieties I’m growing, the ones you see in the picture I would like to try to save seeds from tomatoes but I don’t think I’ll do it this year since I don’t know what they are. But they’re healthy and the taste is okay. We only tasted the variety on the left so far, the one on the right is a beef tomato.

There are not many leaves left on the plants, because I have worked from the principle that if any leaves are casting shadows on any of the fruits, the leaves have to go so that the sunshine can reach the fruits. I’ve also pinched any shoots appearing between the main stem and the side branches to keep the fruit production high. Those shoots will not produce much fruit. Next year I’ll try and limit the plants to having only one main stem per plant. They are sensitive to the wind as they are now, so I hope that they will be more stable with only one stem.

I’m using a growing bag which I’m sure is filled with all kinds of nutrients. It works well but in the long run I would like to use my own compost just to live a little more self-sufficient. Besides, I’ve read that tomatoes should be able to grow in almost anything, so I think it should be possible to do.

The self-watering box I use below the growing bag is very good at providing the soil with the right amount of water at all times. I’m considering buying two more and digging holes for them in the ground, so that they are out of sight. The cats are using the box like a scratching pole which is not a pretty sight and it won’t last long either.

There are probably many ways to plant a tree, but this method I learned from an experienced gardener. Her garden is about 1000 m2 (11,000 sq ft) and I think it’s at least 20 years old, so I guess she knows what she’s talking about. It’s even open for visitors on some occasions. I have used this method with success several times so I think it’s worth sharing. It’s not that advanced but sometimes also the small things counts. So here goes.

This is the tree we want to plant. Soil is still attached to the roots. You can see the grass of the lawn:

Dig up three times as much turf as the root is wide and put it aside for later:

Dig down to about the double height of the root and put the turf in the bottom of the hole with the top down. Put the soil aside for late. In time the turf will turn into mould and provide the tree roots with nutrients. It will also prevent water from draining down too fast:

Put half of the soil from the hole back again. This could also be replaced by horse manure which would be absolutely great for the tree if you have it at hand. Or maybe compost. Just remember that horse manure will probably be compressed as time goes by so use a little more than you would do with the original soil:

Fill up the hole with water:

Let the water in the hole drain into the bottom and surrounding soil, and wait until you can’t see it anymore. This usually takes around half an hour in my soil. Then moisture is available for the tree in the coming days. Put the rest of the original soil back to fill up the hole. Also do a bit of watering on top of the soil:

This method can also be used on warm days since the soil will be wet below ground even though the sun is shining on the surface.

Here’s a cheap way to make a good composting box. I’ve bought the wood with the notches pre-cut in a DIY kit, but you could cut it out yourself. Notice that the length of the notches is a little bit shorter than the thickness of the wood, therefore the wood will wedge itself together making a rather strong construction. I had second thoughts about using pressure-treated wood due to the chemicals used and the risk of it leaking into the organic material inside the box, but I did use it and at least this type of material will last longer. So let’s see what happens. Comments are welcome on this issue (or anything else you have in mind )

If you want big healthy vegetables you need a good soil. The first year we grew vegetables in raised beds the soil was loose all right. We dug a rectangular hole below the raised bed wooden frame to a depth of 30 cm (12 inch) below the ground. This soil we put aside and started filling up the hole with the good stuff. We’re talking box trailer full of horse manure and several 25 kg (55 pound) bags of peat moss. Then we put the soil back as a top layer but this turned out to be a bad idea. The horse manure and the peat moss got so compressed under the weight of the original soil that those two layer shrunk to about 10 cm (4 inch). The roots didn’t have a chance of reaching the good stuff, but the vegetables turned out well anyway.
This year it’s quite different because the beds were turned completely, so all of the 50 cm (20 inch) dirt inside the wooden frames was mixed very thoroughly. I’m very pleased with the vegetables this year, they’re very healthy and beautiful as you can see in the picture. The loose soil provides good draining of excessive rainwater, so that’s another bonus.

Here are two inspiring videos for you:

The first one is called “Greening The Desert”. A guy called Geoff Lawton is talking about a project they did in the desert 2 km from The Dead Sea. They’re harvesting the small amount of rainwater they get in that area and bringing the soil to life again. Figs and citrus fruits are grown on the 40,000 m2 (10 acres) land.

“You can fix all the worlds problems in a garden … and most people today actually don’t know this and that makes most people insecure.”
- Geoff Lawton

In the other video Geoff shows a 300 year old food forest, which he came across on a trip to Vietnam. The forest has been owned by the same family for all these years, so they know what they’re doing.

“It’s a view of the past – and the future. The only possible future we have.”
- Geoff Lawton

Check out the Dervaes family for more inspiration. It seems like they also know what they are doing.