So, just before leaving for work for another some weeks, I managed to finish the raised garden beds from earlier this month. I added the first plants (tomatoes, chillies, paprika and strawberries) and installed a paling fence around. Yes, the slightly shabby and irregular look was intended! Done for now.
Raised Garden Beds
It took me some time to make these two garden beds, interruptions and delays included, but now they’re done and ready to grow some greens.
Propagating Mushrooms
So I will try to propagate some of the mycelium from the oyster mushroom growing kit. I have already done this years ago and it worked fairly well, so I hope these will thrive as well.
The materials for the growing substrate are 500g of rye grains, 25g of gypsum and 500ml of water. Cook this over medium heat, stirring often, until no more liquid is left over in the pan. You want the grains to be evenly covered in gypsum and well soaked but reasonably dry on the surface.
Growing Oyster Mushrooms from a Kit
I grabbed an oyster mushroom growing kit at a garden store sale almost half a year ago and I finally found the time to put it to use. It’s a convenient and un-complicated way to learn how to care for and cultivate your own home grown mushrooms.
Northern Germany Driveway
The quiet, calm, sunny and hot driveway today. I love it.
Chicken and Pork from the UDS
Breaking in the new smoker platform today. So yummy.
Electrical and Faucet Post for the Cistern Pumps
We have (involuntarily) found out how the outside rainwater draining works in the northern germany refuge. There is a drainage sump as well as a ring drainage around the house and two cisterns in the garden that serve as a reservoir and have an overflow pipe in case they’re filled to a certain level. These cisterns can of course be used for watering the garden using a submergible pump, as they’re filled with free rainwater. Here’s what I came up with as an idea to make use of this reservoir. It’s a post combining the electrical wiring of the two pumps and an outlet for watering:
This is as much as I can do for now, since I need an electrician to wire the thing up correctly. We’ll see how (and if at all) this works this summer 🙂
Outdoor Faucet
Our garden water tap is at a completely impossible position. Due to structural demands the maximum height is fixed so it can run clear in winter. I really didn’t like it so I found a remedy building a disconnectable faucet-board. It resembles a little fountain and it looks nice enough. Please see my highly sophisticated sketch/drawing if you’re interested in building your own 🙂