A simple drip irrigation method in our attempt to grow vegetables.
This is what we came up with, since we still want to preserve our 'grass-look'. I like green grassy lawn... those tak semak type. So to get started, we got ourselves one of those storage boxes; picked up a green one so that it blends into the surrounding. Then we used our garden stands, got ourselves a piece of concrete and turned it into a bench-like stand. The storage box sits on the makeshift (but sturdy) bench.
Then Other Half (who is ever handy around the house) got to drill the holes and fix up the system. It works all on gravity as I am using recycled water - from my periodic filter wash and also rain water. Our rough estimate shows that when full, the water in the container should last about a week.
But I've not let it run the whole course yet... which means that I do not know how slow the drip will become when the water in the container is reduced. At the moment, after about 4 days, the soil in the pots have been kept moist. In fact, with 2 drips into the bigger pot, I actually noticed some run-offs from it. Hence, I've moved one drip to another pot. I calculated roughly 6-8 drops per minute at the moment. Very little wastage of water takes place. But we've yet to see whether the vegetables thrive... right now I'm also battling the incessant presence of the snails. 8( I just read some where that 15% of snails actually survive being eaten by birds. They get transported to new locations via bird poops! How's that for distribution of snails? Snails fly too, cargo class. Wonders of nature!
We have another drip system in place using our pond water. The salad leaves I sowed seem to be growing but we'll have to wait and see whether they grow well.
Growing our own food... there many reasons for it. But one that makes it appealing to me is my vegetables are not laced with chemicals. I use very little of commercial fertilizers too as I bury most of my food peelings in these pots.
Am also looking into sub-irrigated planter as another option. 8)
4 comments:
aiyo, sounds a bit complicated...
Not at all la. Think, no need to water. For busy (and lazy) people very good leh. Just fill the container once a week. Plants grow well (hopefully)
Once upon a time when I still had 20-odd potted plants I set up a hose-network with pinholes just over each pot and when came watering time I just turned on the tap and wahla... Drawback was I couldn't rearrange the pots. So after some time, this lazy 'garderner' just did away with pots and all and admire other people's plants. Thankfully, my neighbour is a green-fingered gardener.
This one can be left perpetually on.... LOL! But I really want to try plant my own food.
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