Inexpensive Mini-Greenhouse - DIY
Thirty years ago, I bought MOTHER EARTH NEWS to help pass the time while I was a U.S. Navy sailor stationed on an aircraft carrier. I enjoyed reading the magazine from cover to cover — often three or more times per cruise — and I couldn’t wait for the next issue. The magazine has inspired me to do many projects. Recently, I wanted to try growing in a small raised garden bed. I also made a mini-greenhouse cover for the bed so the crops could get an earlier start. Robert FordMontrose, Pennsylvania
Bookshelf Porn
SP 103/VH021: Florida Vegetable Gardening Guide
Sydney Park Brown, J.M. Stephens, Danielle Treadwell, Susan Webb, Amanda Gevens, R.A. Dunn, G. Kidder, D. Short, and G.W. Vegetable gardening offers fresh air, sunshine, exercise, enjoyment, mental therapy, nutritious fresh vegetables, and economic savings, as well as many other benefits. Steps in Gardening Site For convenience locate the garden near the house, on a well drained site, close to a source of water, and in a location that receives at least six hours of direct sunlight daily. Plan Before planting, draw a garden plan that includes the name, location, and planting date(s) of the vegetables you want to grow. Soil Preparation Gardeners often plant on whatever soil type is available, but it is usually worthwhile to improve the garden plot with additions of organic matter (see below). Organic Matter Most Florida soils benefit from the addition of organic matter, such as animal manure, rotted leaves, compost, commerical soil mixes, and cover crops. Compost Cover Crops/Green Manure Tables
3 Easy DIY Greenhouses for Under $300
© Angela Davis It’s seed-starting season and spring is just around the corner. If you’re looking to start seeds indoors and realize that you don’t have enough windows space to sprout seeds indoors, or don’t want to raise your electrical bill by installing grow lights, building a greenhouse from recycled and salvaged items might be the solution you need. 1. The Window Frame Greenhouse Probably the most popular examples of DIY greenhouses you’ll find on the Internet. The best time to salvage windows for this garden project is during construction and remodeling season where you live. © Michael Taeuber Here's another window frame greenhouse, this one by Michael Taeuber, who created an Instructable to demonstrate how to build a greenhouse from old windows for his plants. 2. © Alex Campbell Alex Campbell built this lean-to greenhouse, also using old windows, for his food growing operation. He graciously documented his project so others could follow along and do the same. 3. © Wolfie and the Sneak
Practical self sufficiency through food skills.
The Secrets of Foliar Spraying
Your tomato plants look limp and sickly. Their lower leaves have turned a nasty yellow between the veins. You need to do something quickly. Searching the web, you discover your tomatoes have magnesium deficiency. Under the bathroom sink, you find an old bag of Epsoms Salts and an empty spray bottle. Dissolving a tablespoon of the salts in a couple of pints of warm water, you spray the leaves of the tomato plants all over. From this example, it looks like foliar spraying could be the magic bullet we are all looking for. Mineral Deficiency Spraying Spraying for mineral deficiencies can be particularly effective: magnesium for tomatoes, zinc for grapes, boron for many vegetables; the list is long and complex. The main stumbling block is our limited diagnostic skills. Spraying for mineral deficiencies is emergency medicine -- fast and efficient. Foliar Fertilization We all have had the basic course in fertilization: plants need NPK – nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium.
20 Re-purposed Window Greenhouses
20 Repurposed Window Greenhouses Related Posts « Chia Seed – Ancient Food of Aztec Warriors Simply Raw: Reversing Diabetes in 30 Days [Full Film] »
Geiger Research Institute of Sustainable Building Home Page
How To Build A Greenhouse – SIX Part Video Series – Wranglestar
wranglestar Wranglestar is an incredible teacher, builder and homesteader who is kind enough to share his wisdom and his creative do it yourself spirit. Each of his videos are clear and concise as he guides you through the instructions as he builds so that you can do the project as well. The Homestead Survival website has featured many of Wranglestar’s homesteading building projects because he is in our opinion one of the very best. Part One Part Two Part Three Part Four Part Five Part Six
Free Plans
Several free plans by Owen Geiger are now available: Preview the Economizer House Plan here.Economizer House Plan PDF Solar Pit House PDF Preview the Solar Pit House plan here. esert Shelters PDF Preview Desert Shelters by searching this phrase in the built-in search in the right hand column. Craftsman Bamboo/Plastic Bottle House PDF (Honorable Mention in Shelters for All housing competition) Preview the Craftsman plan here. oot Cellar Plan Earthbag House for Haiti View download complete complete plans at Teach Democracy.org. Want to see more plans?
Build a $300 underground greenhouse for year-round gardening (Video)
Growers in colder climates often utilize various approaches to extend the growing season or to give their crops a boost, whether it's coldframes, hoop houses or greenhouses. Greenhouses are usually glazed structures, but are typically expensive to construct and heat throughout the winter. A much more affordable and effective alternative to glass greenhouses is the walipini (an Aymara Indian word for a "place of warmth"), also known as an underground or pit greenhouse. Here's a video tour of a walipini that shows what a basic version of this earth-sheltered solar greenhouse looks like inside: © Benson Institute It's a pretty intriguing set-up that combines the principles of passive solar heating with earth-sheltered building. The Walipini utilizes nature’s resources to provide a warm, stable, well-lit environment for year-round vegetable production. SilverThunder/via Cheap but effective, the underground greenhouse is a great way for growers to produce food year-round in colder climates.
DIY smart materials
The piano box is a (somewhat polyphonic) paper toy synthesizer with 12 keys, each triggering a tone and an LED. The keys are a set of capacitive sensors, made of copper tape, controlled by an Arduino Mega running the ... Last summer a few of us at NYC Resistor made the JelTone, a jello-based toy piano that can be eaten and played. Now, Marianne Cauvard and Raphael Pluvinage created the beautiful Noisy Jelly, a kit to make your own ... noisy jelly :: an agar-based musical game Organic Materials Jordan Bunker from Pumping Station: One has been making his own conductive ink based on a paper written by researchers at the UIUC Materials Research Laboratory. hackerspace-made conductive ink Conductive Materials, Techniques University of Illinois researchers explain how they make their conductive ink on this step-by-step tutorial. The Resistor JelTone is an edible toy piano created by NYC Resistor members Ranjit Bhatnagar, Astrida Valigorsky, Mimi Hui and myself for the Jello Mold Competition. Tools
