Water
New Soil Moisture Sensor
Saturday, October 4th, 2008My Watermark soil moisture sensor arrived from the US the other day, and I’m currently working on connecting it to the small computer that will do the measurements and put them online on this website. As far as I know it works by measuring the electrical resistance in some material inside the sensor, and this [...]
Small Computer As Garden Control Center
Saturday, September 27th, 2008I’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 [...]
A New Direction
Saturday, September 20th, 2008Okay, 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 [...]
How To Grow Tomatoes
Tuesday, September 9th, 2008Yes! 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 [...]
How To Plant Trees
Saturday, September 6th, 2008There 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 [...]
The Local Weather Conditions
Saturday, August 30th, 2008Just wanted to show you what the weather conditions are like on average in my area:
Usually we have a wet and windy fall and most of the snow falls in January and February. There’s not that much heat around here, so growing oranges are out of the question and melons are difficult. But we’re not [...]
10 Reasons Why You Should Use Raised Beds
Sunday, August 10th, 2008
1. Easy for the roots to go down
The soil stays loose because you only walk on the space between the raised beds.
2. It’s hard on the weeds
The plants grow so close, that there’s not enough light for the weeds to grow in between the plants.
3. Moisture is maintained
A microclimate is developed under the leaves.
4. Good [...]
8 Ways To Grow More Food
Sunday, August 3rd, 20081. Planning - WHEN will you grow WHAT, and HOW?
2. Work every day - Find out what you can do TODAY to grow more food, and do it
3. Water your plants on dry days - How much WATER do your plants need?
4. Plant “seeds” - Order books, order seeds, make appointments
5. Read - Learn from [...]
Self-watering Tomatoes
Saturday, July 5th, 2008Originally I started out with tomato seeds, carefully looking after the small plants before planting them out in the open. Growth was really slow and eventually a killer slug began cutting them down. We’re talking 20 cm (8 inch) plants, but they’re no match for a grown killer slug. Then I got some plants from [...]
Saving Up For a Sunny Day
Monday, June 30th, 2008Just a quick update on the performance of my rain collection system. It’s a 1000 litres tank connected to one half of the garage roof which is an area of about 20 m2. Yesterday I emptied the tank completely into a new pond and went to bed at 23 p.m. During the night there must [...]
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