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How to Grow Your Own Food
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May 26
I did a small experiment with my potatoes this year as I wanted to know more about chitting. I left several potatoes in an egg tray in the kitchen and as expected they put out several shoots each after a couple of weeks. Generally I find 1 cm (half inch) shoots to be the easiest to handle:
On half of them I removed all the shoots except one, and put those in one half of my “raised bed” (the soil was apparently very loose when I prepared the bed and later it sunk under its own weight. Guess I have to throw in more compost to justify the name
). In the other half of the bed I put the rest of the chitted potatoes, which had several shoots each:
It turns out that the difference is not that big. Sure the ones with several shoots immediately puts up several stems (lower half of the picture), but the other half with only shoot is not limited to having only one stem. So both kinds are growing at the same speed and are equally robust:
(Notice my experiment with a soaker hose; it’s not working that well in my particular set up
)These are the ones that had single shoots:
And these had several shoots before planting:
As time goes by it’s getting even more difficult to distinguish between the two. It will be interesting to see the difference in yield when time comes to harvest.
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May 25
This is my newest weapon against killer slugs: A small pie tin with a slight modification:
Cut an entrance hole for the slugs:
Fold the top of the entrance hole a bit to avoid sharp edges:
Turn the tin upside down, put some slug “poison” under it, and secure it by leaving some weight on top. It will keep the rain from reaching the pellets, so they’ll stay dry:
I’ve set up one trap at both ends of each bed that I have.
And as usual the cat just wanted to point out that I shouldn’t be exercising too much control over nature, so it flipped one of the traps open during the night and played with the pellets. It must be really boring around here during the nighttime
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May 24
Okay, maybe it’s not essential or life threatening if you can’t grow peaches in Scandinavia, but boy do freshly picked peaches taste good. And it seems like my little peach tree have survived with all its leaves still on the tree. Earlier I’ve had problems with peach leaf curl but I put up a plastic shield to protect the tree against the rain:
There was certainly a greenhouse effect due to the shield and the tree is now full of small fruits in development:
Some of the leaves that were close to the plastic on the inside of the plastic cover look like they are affected a bit still but overall it seems like I have fended off the peach leaf curl:
Time will tell if the fruits will mature properly. I sure hope so. I took care of the pollination by hand with a small piece of cotton wool at the end of a bamboo stick:
Oh, and I found this little fellow sleeping behind the plastic at the foot of the tree:
Maybe it’s not warm enough for cockchafers yet…
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May 23
That cat is driving me insane. It’s just too helpful sometimes when I’m out working in the garden. But I can’t blame it, it is just behaving naturally like a cat, playing, being curious, expressing its love. Can’t help wondering what people with dogs do, as dogs will dig just for the fun of it. Well the cat has started doing that and it’s very annoying when you have been crawling on your knees for hours sowing and the next day you wake up to a true mess. I can’t even imagine how it manages to find so many beans in the ground.
This is not a normal cat I have to say. Some weeks ago it joined me in the shower. But normally cats hate water. And I think this is the solution to the problem with the seeds:Remember to water your patches of soil where seeds have been sowed.
There’s a difference between dry and wet soil. Mud is just not that attractive from a cats perspective. Especially if everything else in the garden is dry. I’ll try this principle some more but so far it looks like it’s working.
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May 22
It was supposed to be easy. Build a wooden box, put it up in the garden, and the bumble bees will move in to pollinate your plants on a daily basis. Well they haven’t arrived yet. I’m still crossing my fingers though. Or maybe I came too close with lawnmower.
I made the mistake of using raw untreated wood with no protection from the rain, so the nest box has been deformed in the bottom, which is not good.
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May 17
This is my highly subjective list of people who I think have contributed the most to the “grow your own food” community. If you know of someone I’ve missed please leave a comment below the list:
Jules Dervaes * Founded the “Dervaes Institute” in 2006
* Creator of the public urban homestead model “Path to Freedom”
D. G. Hessayon * Wrote gardening manuals “Expert Guides” (50 million printed)
* Guinness World Record for “bestselling non-fiction author of the 1990s”
* Awarded the Royal Horticultural Society’s “The Veitch Memorial Medal”
John Jeavons * Developed the “Grow Biointensive” method
* Wrote “How to Grow More Vegetables” (500.000 copies)
Eliot Coleman * Wrote “The New Organic Grower” (1989)
* Co-owner of “The Four Seasons Farm”
* Executive Director of the “International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements (IFOAM)”
Alan Titchmarsh * Awarded the Royal Horticultural Society’s “Victoria Medal Of Honour” in 2004 (RHS in UK)
* Runs his own charity: “Garden for schools” and “Seeds for Africa”
* Host of TV program “Gardeners’ World” in UK
Kent Whealy * Co-founder of “Seed Savers Exchange”
* Received “The Genius Award”
Amy P. Goldman * Wrote “Melons for the Passionate Grower” (2002) (American Horticultural Society 2003 Annual Book Award)
* Wrote “The Heirloom Tomato” (2008)
* Wrote “The Compleat Squash” (2004) (American Horticultural Society Book Award)
Barbara Damrosch * Co-owner of “The Four Seasons Farm”
* Wrote “The Garden Primer”
* Co-hosted the TV-series “Gardening Naturally”
Jeff Lowenfels * The world’s longest running garden columnist (32 years)
* Wrote “Teaming with Microbes”
* Founder of “Plant a Row for The Hungry”
Maria Thun * Publishes an annual biodynamic gardening calender in 18 languages
* Wrote “Gardening for Life” (2000)
Mel Bartholomew * Wrote “Square Foot Gardening” (1981)
* Created the “Square Foot Gardening Foundation”
Michael Pollan * Wrote “The Omnivore’s Dilemma” (2006)
* Wrote “Second Nature: A Gardener’s Education” (1991)
Carol Klein * Own plant nursery, “Glebe Cottage Plants”
* TV show “Grow Your Own Veg”
* In the TV show, “Gardeners’ World”
Carol Cox * Ecology Action’s Garden Research Manager
* Co-author of “The Sustainable Vegetable Garden”
Toby Hemenway * Wrote “Gaia’s Garden: A Guide to Home-Scale Permaculture”
* Associate editor of “Permaculture Activist” from 1999 to 2004
Barbara L. Bowling * Wrote “Berry Grower’s Companion” (2005)
* Was chairperson of the “American Society for Horticultural Sciences’ Viticulture and Small Fruit Working Group”
Joy Larkcom * Wrote “Grow Your Own Vegetables” (2002)
* Was in 1993 awarded the Veitch Memorial Medal for her services to horticulture by the RHS, and was also Garden Writer of the Year in 1993
Charles Dowding * Wrote “Organic Gardening: The Natural No-Dig Way” (2007)
* Created a market garden in rural Zambia
* Gave lectures to the RHS in Tokyo
Eric Toensmeier * Wrote “Perennial Vegetables”
* Co-author with Dave Jacke of the two-volume permaculture design manual “Edible Forest Gardens”
* Manages the Tierra de Oportunidades new farmer program of Nuestras Raices
Shane Smith * Wrote “Greenhouse Gardener’s Companion”
* Director and a founder, in 1977, of the Cheyenne Botanic Garden, Wyoming’s only public botanic garden
Stella Otto * Wrote “The Backyard Orchardist” (1995)
* Benjamin Franklin Award winner (1994)
* Fruit farm owner
Fern Marshall Bradley * Author of Rodale’s Vegetable Garden Problem Solver (2007)
* Co-author of “Vegetable Gardening” (2006)
* Managing an organic market garden in western New Jersey
Mike * Blogs about a 2 acres market garden
* His blog has 1400 daily readers
* 1300 links back to his blog from other websites
Rose Marie Nichols McGee * Co-author of “McGee & Stuckey’s Bountiful Container”
* Blogs about gardening and food (100 links back to her blog)
* Rose Marie is President of Nichols Garden Nursery
Joe Swift * Wrote “Joe’s Allotment” (2009)
* Wrote “Joes Urban Garden Handbook”
* Host on BBC’s “Gardeners’ World”
Steve Solomon * Wrote “Gardening When It Counts” (2006)
* Growing Vegetables West of the Cascades (2006)
* Wrote and self-published “Growing Vegetables South of Australia” (2002)
http://www.soilandhealth.org/05steve%27sfolder/05aboutmeindex.html
Gayla Trail * Wrote “You Grow Girl: The Ground Breaking Guide to Gardening” (2005)
* Blogs about gardening
* 2200 links back to her blog from other websites
Marjorie Harris * Wrote “Seasons of My Garden” (1999)
* Wrote “The Healing Garden” (1996)
* Wrote “In the Garden: Thoughts on the Changing Seasons” (1995)
Jerry Baker * Wrote several books on gardening
* Host on gardening TV and radio shows
Liz Primeau * Wrote “Front Yard Gardens: Growing More Than Grass” (2003)
* Founding editor of Canadian Gardening magazine
* Former host of Canadian Gardening Television on HGTV
Steve Ott * Wrote “Homegrown Vegetable Manual” (2009)
* Co-author of “The A-Z Guide to Growing and Cooking Farm-fresh Food” (2008)
* Editor of Kitchen Garden magazine
Sarah Raven * Wrote “The Great Vegetable Plot”
* Guest presenter on BBC’s “Gardeners World”
Alys Fowler * Wrote “The Thrifty Gardener” (2008)
* Horticultural researcher on “Gardeners’ World” on BBC in the UK
Suzanne Peabody Ashworth * Wrote “Seed to Seed” (2002)
* Owner of “Del Rio Botanical”
Stu Campbell * Wrote “Let it Rot: The Gardener’s Guide to Composting” (2003)
* Wrote “Mulch it!”
* Wrote “Improving Your Soil”
Anais Dervaes * Blogs about urban homesteading in California
* 1900 links back to her blog from other websites
Andy McKee * Wrote “The Polytunnel Handbook” (2009)
* 500 links to his blog from other websites
Carleen Madigan * Wrote “The Backyard Homestead” (2009)
Carole B. Turner * Wrote “Seed Sowing and Saving” (1998)
Dick Raymond * Wrote “Joy of Gardening”
* Head vegetable gardening specialist at Garden Way Gardens
Edward C. Smith * Wrote “The Vegetable Gardener’s Bible”
* Wrote “Incredible Vegetables from Self-Watering Containers”
Kenneth E. Point * Internship on a forty acre organic farm (1985 – 1994)
* Blogs about gardening (2005 – 2009)
* 800 links to his blog from other websites
Tonopah Rob * Owner of 2,800 square meters farm in Tonopah, Arizona
* Sold more than 550 kg produce in one weekend at Tonopah Rob’s Vegetable Farm stand
Gillian Carson * Blogs about gardening
* 1000 daily readers
* 800 links to her blog from other websites
Sally Jean Cunningham * Wrote “Great Garden Companions” (2000)
* Has a TV and radio show on gardening
R. J. Ruppenthal * Wrote “Fresh Food from Small Spaces” (2008)
Emma Rawlings * Co-author of “The A-Z Guide to Growing and Cooking Farm-fresh Food” (2008)
Jeff A. Hartenfeld * Co-author of “The Farmers’ Market Book” (2007)
Cavagnarok David * Co-author on “The Complete Vegetable & Herb Gardener : A Guide to Growing Your Garden Organically” (1997)
Sharon L. Lovejoy * Wrote “Roots, Shoots, Buckets & Boots: Gardening Together with Children” (1999)
* Serves on the National Children and Youth Garden Advisory Panel of the American Horticultural Society
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May 4
My red currant bush just doesn’t behave like it’s supposed to according to the books. Again this year it’s flowering on 1 year old wood and there are very few flowers on the 2 and 3 year old wood:
The party is clearly on the 1 year old top shoots, and not much is going on below on the older wood:
The numbers on the picture below is the age of the wood:
But what the heck – I bet the fruit is just as good if we can get to it before the birds.
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May 3
The 1-wire soil moisture sensor circuit I use in my garden is designed by Eric Vickery from http://www.hobby-boards.com.
(c) 2006 Hobby Boards Designed by Eric Vickery
Title: Moisture Meter 3
Rev: 3
Date: 10/27/2006 06:11:30p(Click the picture for a larger version.)
Here’s a bit of explanation on how it works.
The circuit is connected like this:
- Watermark soil moisture sensor: Pin 4 and 5
- 1-wire network: Pin 1 and 2
- 12 volts power supply: Pin 1 and 3
and the circuit works like this:
- Watermark sensor gets wet
- The time constant of oscillator IC 555 changes
- 555 IC oscillates faster and its supply current goes up
- Current in resistor R2 goes up causing the voltage across R2 to go up too
- The value of the current register of IC DS2760 changes
- Current register of IC DS2760 is read via 1-wire network
In my case I got the following values during calibration. I let the Watermark sensor dry in the wind and recorded the current register value, and afterwards the sensor was soaked in a bucket of water:
Dry = -0.2368
Wet = -1.400These numbers form the 0 and 100 % limits of my soil moisture readings.
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4 Responses to “Soil Moisture Sensor Circuit Explained”
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Dennis Hall said on July 13th, 2009 at 11:13 pm
Quick question. What type of data is provided for the output? Is it serial or a square wave? Please let me know, I want to send the output to a transducer or a pizzo for a simple alarm when the saturation point is reached. Thank you for your time and consideration in reviewing my request.
Sincerely,
Dennis Hall
technician1965@hotmail.com -
Thomas W. said on July 14th, 2009 at 1:48 pm
@Dennis: As I see it the “output” of the circuit is a software register.
I think what you need is an OpAmp Schmitt-trigger measuring the voltage across R2, and removing U1, R1, C3 and D1, but I’m not sure if that’s what you want?… -
braulio said on March 9th, 2010 at 4:51 am
Hi, I want to do this circuit, but in dallas website, the ds2760 is no loger available, I could change the ds2760 to ds2762? thanks, best regards
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Thomas W. said on March 9th, 2010 at 1:29 pm
@Braulio: I think you can use DS2762 instead as the manufacturer Maxim states, “DS2762 is an update to DS2760″.
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