FenceFurniture
24th March 2020, 10:53 AM
For one reason or another I didn't plant anything in the vege garden last Spring/Summer. I've just put in 400 Coriander seeds which should be ready for pesto making in mid-May - there's 6 litres of frozen lime juice (100 limes) waiting for it :D.
With the pandemic situation the way it is I have decided that I should grow what I can in the next few months and quick steam/blanch much of it for freezing. The quality won't be as good as freshly steamed, but I've nothing to lose except some seeds and water. Recently I used some Silverbeet that was grown 3 years ago (steam/blanch/vacpacked/frozen at the time) and even I was surprised at how good it still was in the context of a Gozleme filling (thread here (https://www.woodworkforums.com/f120/turkish-gozleme-super-easy-quick-mighty-tasty-excellent-panic-food-233422)). Very full flavoured!
At 8x5 metres the garden itself is too big to enclose in plastic, and it would mean that it would never get rained on. Also, the plastic would be too exposed to hail storms, which are reasonably frequent up here. It is wrapped in 25mm Bird wire, so the plastic could sit on it, but would be too much to hold down anyway.
470399
So I'm going have a poke around the internet to see what I can discover, but my initial thoughts are to make small individual tents which might be up to 1m³. Something along the following lines:
Frame: 20x20mm sticks of Crapiata
Cover: 200µm clear plastic film. Preferably Polypropylene for its excellent toughness and clarity, but it might have to be something else for availability and cost reasons
Shape: Sides something like this? Join two of together in the desired width with 5 sticks.
470393
That one might be 600-800mm wide and up to a metre high depending on what I want to grow in it.
Hold it down: obviously that will be quite wind-prone, so a screweye in the bottom corners with 2 or 4 tent pegs should do the trick (2 at diagonals might be enough).
I will need easy access for watering, and easy access for harvesting and other maintenance. I don't want to lift the whole thing off for watering so it would need either a hinged top or front door. A front door would more or less allow for harvesting, but a hinged top could be tricky for that purpose - e.g. getting beans down the bottom. For harvesting it would probably be ok to lift off the whole tent, as it it a longer process anyway. Watering has to be able to be done quickly.
Actually, just thinking about getting some genuine rain on them, a skillion lid might be better because then I could whip around them all and flip the lids over if it starts raining - nothing like the real deal for water, especially if it's charged up thunderstorm rain! :zap:
470397
So has anyone had experience with this kind of thing?
With the pandemic situation the way it is I have decided that I should grow what I can in the next few months and quick steam/blanch much of it for freezing. The quality won't be as good as freshly steamed, but I've nothing to lose except some seeds and water. Recently I used some Silverbeet that was grown 3 years ago (steam/blanch/vacpacked/frozen at the time) and even I was surprised at how good it still was in the context of a Gozleme filling (thread here (https://www.woodworkforums.com/f120/turkish-gozleme-super-easy-quick-mighty-tasty-excellent-panic-food-233422)). Very full flavoured!
At 8x5 metres the garden itself is too big to enclose in plastic, and it would mean that it would never get rained on. Also, the plastic would be too exposed to hail storms, which are reasonably frequent up here. It is wrapped in 25mm Bird wire, so the plastic could sit on it, but would be too much to hold down anyway.
470399
So I'm going have a poke around the internet to see what I can discover, but my initial thoughts are to make small individual tents which might be up to 1m³. Something along the following lines:
Frame: 20x20mm sticks of Crapiata
Cover: 200µm clear plastic film. Preferably Polypropylene for its excellent toughness and clarity, but it might have to be something else for availability and cost reasons
Shape: Sides something like this? Join two of together in the desired width with 5 sticks.
470393
That one might be 600-800mm wide and up to a metre high depending on what I want to grow in it.
Hold it down: obviously that will be quite wind-prone, so a screweye in the bottom corners with 2 or 4 tent pegs should do the trick (2 at diagonals might be enough).
I will need easy access for watering, and easy access for harvesting and other maintenance. I don't want to lift the whole thing off for watering so it would need either a hinged top or front door. A front door would more or less allow for harvesting, but a hinged top could be tricky for that purpose - e.g. getting beans down the bottom. For harvesting it would probably be ok to lift off the whole tent, as it it a longer process anyway. Watering has to be able to be done quickly.
Actually, just thinking about getting some genuine rain on them, a skillion lid might be better because then I could whip around them all and flip the lids over if it starts raining - nothing like the real deal for water, especially if it's charged up thunderstorm rain! :zap:
470397
So has anyone had experience with this kind of thing?