begetting rainwater collection

BEGETTING RAINWATER COLLECTION
at the country n we have been collecting rainwater for over
ten years and
have been using it as our sole source of drinking water for
8 years

the goal is to influence others to do the same
and i have tried over the last ten years to infect as many
people with the rainwater collection virus as possible

here are some of my victims

the first was my rainwater brother
i gave him a 300 gallon tank as a gift
his wife didnt know he had it as she was gone when it
was delivered
if you dont want it then just move it yourself she was told
he got the infection bad and ended up with multiple tanks

the infection spread even beyond this
if the hoa only knew

then the next victim was my nurses husband
heres where it started and it also spread
so now there are several tanks around the
house

my nurse she tried to vaccinate him against the
virus but it didnt take
am afraid the infection will just continue on
unabated

then my neighbor saw my system
doc he now calls me doc water
i want one of those systems
so he put in a gravity ran system of over
15000 gallons of collection to water his paint
horses he raises and to use in his garden
doc i need more tanks
see hes got the disease also

then my wife shes fellow teacher bought her a new house
and we infected her and her husband with this tank
(we also donated them a 4 ft square garden to go with it)

then we infected two local high schools
the first was a school of 2000+ students
a teacher and student helped us
hopefully this rainwater collection virus will
spread to some of these other students

then we donated a tank and put it in place at
the school where my wife she works
hope the infection continues
know the staff there is getting the infection
more tanks please

then theres the habitat house we just finished
the one where we donated the 4 ft square keyhole
garden and the tank which is in the background
it will soon be in place and will im sure make
her want more as it does everyone else

then finally theres this one
this is the one im the proudest of
its mr b
my walk to end alzheimers buddy

sorry mom but he got the infection
it started with he addition of 5 gallon buckets
under the gutter spouts and then i had an extra
tank at my house
i gave it to him
i know what will happen the virus will spread
and mom will be mad at me
mr b may be the next mayor of his own tank town

so  my original rainwater tanks have begetted a large number
of tanks that are collecting rainwater all over this area
i hope that the rainwater collection virus will continue to
spread and infect many more people
this is especially important if the drought continues here and
the water shortage worsens

i think mr b may be the hope for the future of rainwater collection
why dont you get infected and have your kids get involved

the organicgreen doctor

that bastard, the garden progress

THAT BASTARD
its the rapistrum rugosum
not some person thats made me mad

its known as the bastard cabbage
if youve got it in your yard or on your land you know
why its called
the bastard cabbage











its an invasive species from europe and north africa
sometimes its eaten there like you would cabbage
theres so much around here we could feed the homeless
and starving in the us for a year on whats available here
now in texas

why is it bad
its an aggressive plant that grows first low to the ground and
shades native grasses and native wildflowers so they can
not sprout and grow
then the bastard will grow as high as 5 ft and will shade
everything else out
on my property when i pull it up  if it gets too high there
is absolutely bare ground underneath the plant

because of the drought here there is a lot of grass that has died
and a lot of bare ground is present
the bastard just takes over the area and no wildflowers will grow
that includes our beloved blue bonnets

some one was riding with me and asked wow thats a field of
pretty yellow plants
those are bastards
dont let any get on your property

my neighbor plowed up his native grass and planted oats and
sunflower seeds
that native grass is all gone and
he has a field of bastard cabbage now with no wildflowers

the seeds drift onto my property
thanks buddy

heres how i manage it
i pull the whole plant up
if you mow it down it grows right back
i put the plant in my chicken coop compost pile and
my girls scratch eat the seeds and eventually destroys the
whole plant
ive managed to keep it under control on my 10 acres of land
this way

you should pull it up and bag it and send it to the land field
its one of the few plants other than nut grass that i recommend
you do that to
each plant makes lots of seeds so if it lays around somewhere
they can be blown onto any bare ground on your property

that bastard
lets try to get it under control or
it could greatly reduce our wildflowers in this state

pull it up and bag it

KEYHOLE SQUARE FOOT GARDEN PROGRESS
here is an update on the keyhole square foot garden my wife she
and i put in at the habitat house i am working on

in review we used all recycled stuff from my property that i had
left over from various projects
we dug a 4 ft square down 6-12 inches
she has good soil at her house not the caliche stuff we have at
the country n
then we put it a central 4 ft composter that is 1 ft in diameter
and is buried 1 ft into the ground so that 3 ft is sticking up
out of the soil

we then added 1-11/2 ft of good hill country garden soil from
the natural gardener
we filled the composter up with layers of chicken compost, regular
compost, leaves, newspapers
then we planted the garden
the garden is sectioned off in 1 ft squares to assist in planting

she has planted arugula beans sweet banana pepper basil
malibar spinach muliplying onions leeks sweet 100 tomato
early girl tomato oregano jalapeno pepper, bell pepper
and egg plant
nice starter garden

she just adds water to the top of the composter and if needed
waters each plant individually
she also adds compost materials as it composts down

you should try it youll like it and feel good about your green thumb

the organicgreen doctor

keyhole square foot garden

KEYHOLE SQUARE FOOT GARDEN
whats a keyhole square foot garden

well i made it up
i took the ideas from the keyhole garden and combined it
with the ideas of a square foot garden

what comes out of this is a keyhole square foot garden

mel bartholomew is the god of square foot gardening
i have three of his books
the first is dated from the 1980s and i have his latest update
version of his book square foot gardening

here is his website for the square foot gardening foundation
which promotes square foot gardening nationally and internationally
and
here is his blog the mel bartholemew blog

the idea is simple
you can garden anywhere
in an apartment in the city in the country in a high rise etc
build a 4 ft square frame and add good dirt
and then add plants
its that simple
he has a mixture he recommends internationally and nationally
but a local source of his soil for the area where i live is the lady bug brand
of square foot garden soil-a mixture of coir fiber and vermiculite
to hold moisture and five different composts

i recently wrote a blog on the keyhole garden method that is
being promoted especially in africa and other areas using
local rocks and materials to build a circular raised garden with a
central composter and with a pie shaped wedge cut out of the
circle so you can walk into the composter and reach the middle
of the garden
it has been a very successful method of gardening in these foreign
countries
here is a reference to an article on keyhole gardening and my blog
reference

so i had the idea of taking the features of both methods and combining
them into a method i call the keyhole square foot garden

here it is

at the habitat for humanity house i am working on my wife and i
donated a garden to the new home owner
we recently met with her and the three of us put in her new garden

heres how we did it

first we located a site that gets at least 6 hours of sunlight
this one gets some late afternoon shade

we scraped off the top layer of soil
since the soil is deep at her site i opted to dig out 6 inches of her
soil then added this 4 foot square frame of left over 2x6 untreated lumber
dont use treated wood
use cedar or rock or concrete blocks or untreated lumber
so we then have a space thats 4 ft x 4 ft x 1 ft deep

i elected to go to my nursery i like here called the natural gardener
they are the ones that makes mels square foot garden mix for this area
it probably takes 3-4 bags to fill a 6 inch deep garden as mel usually
recommends

i opted to use their hill country soil instead which is the best garden
soil made as it has several types of compost in it granite sand
all the bacteria and fungi needed for plant growth
just dump it in and plant the stuff

we lined the bottom of the hole with cardboard recycled from the
construction site and cut a hole in the middle for the composter
that was made from left over chicken wire and concrete wire
it was placed in the center of the space and was placed it another
6 inches in the ground
its total height was 4 ft (guess that would make this is a cube foot garden)

the bottom was then lined with 10 sheets of newspapers
just trying to keep out all of those dang weeds and also provide
food for all those worms we want to attract to the garden

next the 4 ft square frame was placed down over the composter
there are 1 ft squares marked off on the frame using wire stretched
across the frame
this makes it easy to plant things in 1 ft squares

then we dumped that good old soil in there and we were ready to plant

in the composter we placed layers of chicken poop compost thanks
to my girls at the country n  of compost from the natural gardener  of
oak leaves  of shredded newspapers and added a bananna peel on
top to top it off
shell add compost material over time from her kitchen from mowing and
from leaves as they fall
all she adds is water to keep it moist

later we will add 2 ft path around the square foot frame using
plastic to block the weeds and addi crushed granite on top of the plastic

we planted these items in her garden-two tomatoes malabar spinach
oregano leeks mulitplying onions swiss chard arugula beans basal
bell pepper banana pepper jalapeno pepper and egg plant
nice garden choices huh
this fall late she will add a winter planting to this area

we then added bird netting over the pvc frame we placed to protect
against varmints
that squirrel sat on her fence and licked his chops
at 48 hours he has not attacked yet

now we have the new invention
the keyhole square foot garden
a self contained garden
just add water and compost material and love

will update pictures as the garden grows

the organicgreen doctor