After watching the tops go yellow for a week, today was the day to do the big harvest. Who would have thought that four months had passed since the build stage of the potato tower?

Above you can see the yellowing stalks and leaves, a sure sign that things are coming to an end inside the bin.

A gentle shove, and a few potatoes spill out onto the ground.

My total harvest, not as big or as productive as I had hoped.

A whopping great 1.5kg of potatoes…

What a learning experience this has been, I have a long way to go before I catch up to my grandfather who grew bulk potatoes for wholesale. Not bad for a half arsed first try.

While the total cost to produce these potatoes was $12/kg (not too bad considering they can be as much as $6/kg in the supermarket), there are some simple things will do next time to increase my yields:

• More dirt / compost in the bottom of the bin
• Water more regularly
• Fertilise more regularly (including seaweed extract)
• Put straw on top in small regular amounts instead of 1ft every three weeks
• Build the bin higher as the leaves grow
• Insulate the inside to prevent too much heat transfer

This was a really worthwhile experience that I would recommend to any one, especially people with young children. I did get a tad excited picking them and I’m well over half way to 50, must be a big kid at heart.

What do you get when you cross a tank full of fish and a vegetable garden?

You get a very productive food producing system called Aquaponics!

Over the weekend I ducked down to my local nursery and ordered a Balcony Kit aquaponics setup. I wish I had the balcony to put it on, but the kit is small enough to fit comfortably in a small space. Measuring only 2.7m by 1.5m and 97cm  high there are three grow beds that have the capacity to feed three people consistently (both fish and veggies).

Aquaponics works on the theory of growing plants in an inert media such as expanded clay pebbles with an ebb and flow water system, as is done in an hydroponic setup. The similarities of the two systems end there. Where hydroponics requires the regular addition of nutrients to the water, aquaponics uses fish to create nutrients.

The system works by adding fish food to the water, the fish eat the food, their by products are pumped into grow beds where natural bacteria turn ammonia into nitrogen which plant roots suck up and grow prolifically. Nutrient free water is then drained back into the tank for the process to start again.

Not only do you get a supply of vegetables, but as the fish grow to plate size you can take them to the kitchen as well!

So why am I giving away growing most of my vegetables in dirt you ask? Living in a tropical environment there are many problems I have found when growing in dirt, I’ve had more than my fair share of fungus, mealy bugs, weeds, birds, ants, weeds etc to deter the most enthusiastic gardener from even trying to get their plot growing to any kind of respectable standard. Not to forget over watering, under watering, over fertilising, under fertilising, digging the soil, conditioning the soil… the list goes on!

Call me lazy, but given my hectic work schedule these days the time to spend in the vegetable garden is getting limited (especially in the cooler months with less daylight hours!). I’ve see aquaponics as a way of getting the best food home grown food for my family as I can with less time input, or working smarter instead of harder!

So you can only grow leafy greens in aquaponics?
Not at all, many forums such as AquaponicsHQ and BackyardAquaponics have members that have had great success with root vegetables such as Beetroot & Carrot. Other popular vegetables include Corn, Peas, Beans, Tomatoes, Cabbage, Chili, Capsicum, Lettuce, Broccoli, Cauliflower, Egg Plant, Celery, Strawberries… Murray from Aquaponics.net.au has even grown a PawPaw tree!

Added Nutrients:
As the system is almost closed, the fish food is the only main additive, there can be times where plants become stressed due to nutrient deficiencies. Iron, Magnesium and boron deficiencies can be common, especially when your plants are getting large. Cheelated Iron, Epsom salts and borax can all be added safely (in small quantities) to the water without detriment to the fish. To reduce the need for additional nutrients a high quality fish food with a full range of minerals should be used.

Pest control:
Unlike dirt gardening, where you can get away with a squirt of insecticide now and then, any form of pest control in an aquaponics system must be organic. Should you go through with a dose of insecticide there will be a tank of floating fish. White oil, chili and garlic sprays and diluted milk will be you new best friends.

The planting density in an Aquaponics setup can be fairly thick given the even spread of nutrients from the water. Reports from forums state that you can plant most things at around half to 1/3 of the spacings that are recommended for dirt gardening. This won’t apply to plants such as cabbage or possibly tomatoes which spread to a large size.

Right now, I’ve got the area measured up, some seedlings getting ready to transplant, and another week or so to wait till my kit turns up!

Its been three weeks since the build stage of my potato tower!

After removing a heap of weeds that popped their heads up early, the potatoes began to show through and have developed well. Keeping in line with the plan I’ve put down a layer of hay on top to cover them up so they will continue to push through and grow clean potatoes amongst the hay.

At the base there is a micro irrigation dripper that will deliver 4 litres per hour to the base of the plants, but I expect that over time I will need to add some water to the top to ensure the spuds grow to a good size. A good liquid fertiliser from time to time will also give the plant a much needed boost.

Here is an alternative to my Potato Tower that I found on YouTube.

It’s been 14 days since I filled my Tumbleweed Compost Tumbler with grass clippings and horse manure. With a tumble or two each day the contents became very hot (too hot to touch one day) and has turned to a nice earthy brown colour with a sweet smell. The heat generated in the bin will be enough to sterilise any weed seeds that get put in, so there is no limit to what you compost!

Turning the bin can be a bit of a challenge when it’s completely full, but as the days go by the volume reduces due to the decomposing material. After the 14 days there appears to be a ~50% reduction in volume, leaving me with 110 liters of great compost.

My next challenge will be finding enough material in the yard to fill the bin every two weeks. There is already a stockpile of brown material such as leaves and old lawn clippings to add to the bin along with kitchen scraps and horse manure, but the continued supply may be an issue.

Over the next couple of months I will experiment with different materials in the bin and see how they compost.

This one armed bandit doesn’t let his injury stop him making compost. Using two lawn mowers to break down the leaves and garden waste into compost sized pieces.

Knowing when your compost is finished is very important. Some great tips.

Some great tips for creating a compost pile.

Composting in a plastic bin, down to basics explanation on how to do it, not how it works.

Hopefully these tips will give you and your compost bin a boost in the coming days.

Collect horse manure – My friend owns two horses, I regularly go and ‘clean up’ her paddock for her, taking home at least one ute load of horse manure to dig into my garden beds.

Rake leaves and compost them – Most compost heaps don’t have enough ‘brown’ matter in them, rake up all of your leaves and run over them with your lawn mower to break them up, then throw them into your compost heap.

Dry leafy prunings, shake leaves off as mulch – Recently I’ve began to leave the branches I prune in the garden beds. Coming back a week later I shake the leaves from the branches back beneath the  plant they came from. Easy mulch!

Burn old wood & spread cold ashes – Having old timber lying around your yard can attract termites, it can promote wood rot and is a haven for snakes to live in. Burn those old logs in a fireplace and spread the cold ashes over your garden. It will raise the pH, provide Potassium for your garden.

Collect sticks from bush and make a climbing frame or tomato frame – No need to spend money on tomato stakes, you can collect as many as you need from the forest or bush around your house.

Start a compost heap – Just in case you haven’t got one, you can build a compost heap to break down all the leaves, lawn clippings and kitchen scraps in your yard.

Make scrooge bottles – These are great for saving water in the garden. I have one beside my lemon tree, one beside my watermelon vine and one beside my passionfruit vine. I fill them up with water every three or four days, they provide water directly to the roots.

Collect rocks from the bush to edge the new garden – My new garden bed requires some edging, there is a small spot way out bush that has some great rocks for edging. Half a ute load should be enough to keep the flowers in.

Use garden fork to aerate lawn – Over time the soil that the lawn grows in gets compacted, by using a garden fork to puncture holes and break up the soil the soil can breathe and the water can penetrate deep into the root zone. Doing this will give you better lawns that require less water.

Collect cuttings from the park to propagate – While walking in my local park I occasionally snap off a small piece of plant to take home and propagate. This is a really cheap way to multiply your plant population.

Make weed tea – Lots of weed seeds can live through the composting process, instead of sending them off to landfill, take a 20 litre bucket and fill it up with weeds and then with water. Leave it sit for two weeks until it turns black and the weeds die. Dilute this brew down and pour on the soil around your plants to give them a boost.

Using three lengths of poly (polyethylene) pipe around 4m long, six star pickets and 7m of 70% UV reduction shade cloth I have created a shade tunnel over my vegetable garden.

Start by banging the star pickets into the ground then sliding the poly pipe over the top of one side then bending it over to form a hoop. Make as many of these as you require, I used three and placed them ~3m apart.

Connect your shade cloth at one end, securing it with wire or zippy ties (use UV stabilised ones), then drape the shade cloth over all of the hoops and securing at the other end.

Since construction I have noticed that the humidity is higher in my vegetable patch, I hope this helps the growth of the vegetables, I know it will help the pests and diseases thrive!

Here is a photo of the clouds that look like rain, but are just teasing.

A simple search for Gardening revealed hundreds of different projects for you to build. Here are three that jumped out at me today:

Scrooge Bottle – A great water saving device built to plant beside water loving plants. It is simple to make and cheap to construct, and is a great way to recycle old socks and soft drink bottles.

Pipe tools – creating a great planting trowel / shovel out of some steel water pipe is the best and cheapest way I’ve seen to create gardening tools.

Easy Garden labels – a thrifty student has used plastic spoons to make sturdy and long lasting plant labels.

So how about we all get out there and start creating things from old materials to make our lives in the garden easier.

Over the past couple of months we’ve been adding to our new large garden bed. We’ve put in plants such as Passionfruit, a lemon tree, Moses in the cradle, honeysuckles, ponytail tree, marigolds, vinca, lavender etc. All of these plants have different water requirements, but to help preserve what goes on, it has all been mulched with hay, and some parts have been covered with horse manure to help the hay break down into a nice rich topsoil / compost / mulch.

I’ve been using my standard watering sprinkler which puts out a whopping 990 liters per hour over a large area. It takes 4 moves of the sprinkler to get the whole area covered, and it is easy to forget to move it, and some areas get neglected from time to time.

Working with small scale irrigation systems is quite easy, even for the first timer who has no experience. Your basic setup requires a few key materials and a little common sense.

For our setup I bought fifty meters of 13mm hose, two T pieces, a hose adapter, a filter (to stop the drippers blocking) with pressure reducer (keeps it at 100 bar), and some drippers.

Overall it only took 30 minutes to install. The first step was to lay the hose out in the desired pattern, cut and fit joiners where required. Next attach the hose and fill with water, take the hole making tool and start installing the drippers.

Each of my drippers run at 4 litres per hour, I used these on the larger plants such as the lemon tree, passionfruit vine and other larger dedicated plants.

To make placement easier, I used some smaller 4mm flexible hose to attch to the main 13mm hose. This allows me to move them around the base of the tree as required.

Over my anuals (which will be replaced with perennials when the current perennials grow to be a bit bigger) I used a small rotating sprinkler head. Using upright raisers to get them above the mulch, they spin around distributing water over a larger area. The exact water usage from these is unknown at the moment, but should they begin putting out too much water, I can easily add taps to their raisers and they can be turned off.

The best part of creating your own drip irrigation system is that it can be modified at any time for little cost, once the initial financial outlay has been done.

By completing this job, my household water consumption should drop significantly thus reducing my water bill. Along with the installation of the low water toilet bowl and dual flush cistern in the bathroom, I’m taking the first step top making my house even greener.

For more information on DIY Watering systems you can visit:

• DIY Network
• Irrigation Tutorials
• Gardening Australia

Get HomelyCapers via your favorite Feed Reader

Now that it’s almost done, I can shower, go to the toilet, and most importantly get back to blogging here. Photo’s to follow when the product it completely done.