Steves first SFG

Simso 11/24/2021, 2:01 am

So after gardening conventionally for 30yrs and growing up on a farm have embarked in the SFG gardening field.

Simso 11/24/2021, 2:03 am

Australia - Peth.

So picked a spot in my back yard and cleared it of overhead tress

Simso 11/24/2021, 2:05 am

Mapped out my sunlight

Simso 11/24/2021, 2:07 am

Managed to find some frames on gumtree (your version of craigslist)

Simso 11/24/2021, 2:08 am

Problem is soil is sandy, so frames are sinking with nothing on them, going to have to put some foundation work into the ground to support the frames

**sanderson** 11/24/2021, 2:53 pm

Four large pavers under the feet?

I have found that the 4"x4" wood feet under my table top beds in this area of the back yard, would start to sink due to the neighbor's over watering. I used 12" pavers under the 8"x16" concrete blocks to slow the sinking (usually starting in one corner Razz

)

Simso 11/27/2021, 4:10 am

Local granite place uses lumps of wood between the granite blocks when shipping, so managed to get a trailer load of wood planks and offcuts

Simso 11/27/2021, 4:12 am

Notched the ends out and sat them on top and between the beams, one frame topped, will make some beds and then do the other frame

Simso 11/27/2021, 4:14 am

Still got more wood

**sanderson** 11/27/2021, 5:29 am

You scored a lot of wood!! Steves first SFG 3170584802

Simso 11/28/2021, 1:42 am

One garden bed made another to go

Simso 11/28/2021, 1:44 am

Lined with weed matting and ready to fill the first one, raked up all my saw dust and put it in the bottom as well

Its deeper than I need, 12 inches in depth, want to grow carrots and root vegies as well, so bit extra cost in my soil mix, but its a once investment and everythign so far has cost me next to nothing except for labour

markqz 11/28/2021, 10:23 am

That's an amazing set-up! Over here, there's been a run on lumber, so getting everything nearly free is a real coup !

Do you know if the wood has been chemically treated? Some people might worry about that sawdust. Just mentioning before you put in the expensive MM.

Simso 11/28/2021, 6:45 pm

Ht only, I was concerned about pallets and sawdust as well

The sides are acq and i didnt kepp that sawdust

Install some retic now and then i can do some planting

**sanderson** 11/29/2021, 5:26 pm

Just a caution on sawdust. It will tie up nitrogen while it decomposes. My thought is a couple handfuls of ammonium nitrate sprinkled over the sawdust and mixed it. ??

Simso 11/29/2021, 6:41 pm

I did not know that. Dang, will do a bit material shuffling

**sanderson** 11/30/2021, 3:41 am

Steve, The more I think about it, the more I think you should remove the sawdust. Period. And, the boards lining the inside, unless they are structurally necessary. If you need a filler for the lower part of the beds, you can use clean sand. The beds are 12" deep = 2-3" of sand, 7-9" of Mel's Mix and 1" summer mulch. ??

Simso 11/30/2021, 4:49 am

Cool, i only put sawdust in one of them, i just removed the bulk of the mels mix and then scraped it clean of the dust, so now i have some mels mix and sawdust on the ground, will dig that through the dirt

The inner wood frame is actually screwed to my outer sides and the base with the weed matt between them, so kind of need it structurally so nothing bows, they are just ht

Simso 11/30/2021, 4:52 am

Only got one bed marked out with retic piping, not enough time to get the other one done. Hopefully tomorrow

Simso 11/30/2021, 5:40 am

Old sawdust removed, just mixed into the ground around the frame base

**sanderson** 11/30/2021, 1:12 pm

Simso 12/1/2021, 6:16 am

Drilling holes for the water spray.

According to mels square gardening book, he saids to drill qty 2 - 3/16 holes in every pipe, thats approx 4.7mm in hole size which I thought was huge, with the grid layout, some squares will have 8 - 3/16 watering holes covering the square compared to other squares which will only have 4 water feed holes

Am i overthinking this, or should i drill out each section so it only has 4 spray holes and is 3/16 to big?

After that I then have to make the decision do i use house water or bore water, my bore water which i use for our garen beds is crystal clear but high in calcium as we have a limestone base under us which filters the water

Steve

markqz 12/1/2021, 2:14 pm

Simso wrote:According to mels square gardening book, he saids to drill qty 2 - 3/16 holes in every pipe, thats approx 4.7mm in hole size which I thought was huge, with the grid layout, some squares will have 8 - 3/16 watering holes covering the square compared to other squares which will only have 4 water feed holes

I use drip hose myself, in order to be sure the quantities are regular.

I think (but am not sure) that the book literally means only two holes per pipe -- no holes on the opposite side of the pipe. You can kind of see this going on in pictures 4 and 5 on page 175. If you arrange things properly, that means every square is watered by just two holes. Which means that 3/16" isn't that big. But maybe someone who has used this configuration can wade in.

OhioGardener 12/1/2021, 7:18 pm

When designing/implementing a drip irrigation system, one must consider the water pressure on the feed line. As an example, I use 1/4" driplines with emitters ever 6" along the line. Each of those emitters has a different flow rate based on the water pressure on the line:

10psi - 0.42 GPH per emitter
20psi - 0.60 GPH per emitter
30psi - 0.80 GPH per emitter

I have a 20# pressure regulator on my line, so each emitter provides just over 1/2 gallon per hour. I experimented with 10psi, 20psi, and 30psi to determine the best watering level for my beds.

The same experimenting would have to be done with holes drilled in piping - how much water flows based on the pressure regulator?

Simso 12/4/2021, 6:42 am

And let them grow.

Now I can start making some more beds down the back corner and along the fence line

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