Circle of Life: part two

Our anniversary was this past week, and nothing says “I love you” and “Happy 8 years, babe!” like a vermicomposting system. In my husband’s defense, I claimed this as my anniversary present, because I felt bad spending the money. He actually got me an awesome present complete with a beautiful love letter and cooked me filet mignon (I get what all the fuss is about now!).

Vermicomposting is raising earthworms to create compost. They live in a nifty black box with layers of trays that you fill with shredded newspaper, rabbit poop (or goat poop, among other stuff), and kitchen scraps that rabbits and goats won’t eat. The tray has a grid bottom with holes big enough for the worms to migrate to the tray above once the one they are in is all dirt and no food. Then we get a tray of black, fantastic worm castings (worm poop) to amend the dirt in the garden. And thus completes the second part of our new circle of life!

We went back an forth over ordering an actual system or just rigging one up ourselves. The husband guy (very true to form), after we decided to buy a system, ordered the deluxe model and the most worms that you could possibly fit in it. That would be 5,000! It wasn’t necessary at all, because if they are happy they double their population every 90 days. However, it will totally jump start the process and any excess worms go to the chickens who will love them and are greatly benefitted by eating them (Aww! it’s a cute little circle within a circle…chicken poop is great for worms which are great for becoming…well…um…chicken poop. Ok. Yeah. Cool, but never mind).

 

That is her excited face, kind of. The worms are tiny right now, but they had to re-hydrate after being in the mail and get settled in. Eventually they will closely resemble the worm I dissected in my 6th grade science class. I won’t tell you here how cool these things really are, because the fact that I am so excited about raising 5,000 earth worms in my kitchen is going to get me enough raised eyebrows and polite, concerned smiles.

 

Just because I know you were wondering what 5,000 earth worms looks like. You’re welcome.

So I always proof read my posts (sorry for any typos that still make it through). As I was re-reading this one, I was struck by how much poop is a integral part of my daily existence. I change poopy diapers everyday, I’m relieved that my bunny is settled in enough to have an established “toilet” corner and I am already thinking about how to get her poop in with the worms, I feel daily guilt about the goat yard that should be mucked out and poop added to the compost pile near the fence, and I mildly swear every day when I go take care of chickens and step in their poop (it’s beyond nasty), I read about the benefits of steer manure vs. horse as an amendment for my garden, and I’m going to be adding a poop making machine to the mix in a few months. At least newborn poop smells like buttered pop-corn. Whatever! It so does!

i [heart] physics

Physics is how my garden grows.

We are going to actually plant stuff! [SQUEEE!!!] <— crazy excited noise. So here is how this rig can allow me to start a garden in the middle of a Las Vegas summer and not doom myself to failure.

 

The grow beds (left) are flooded with water from the sump tank (right) to about an inch below the rock level. The sump also pumps water into the fish tank.

 

Here is the brilliant physics part. When the fish tank water level gets to a certain point it drains out that tube on the right back into the sump tank, but it pulls the water from the bottom of the tank. So ucky fishy water leaves from the bottom while cleaner water flows into the top. Meanwhile in the grow beds, physics is hard at work being even more awesome!

 

This is the auto-siphon inside each grow bed. It is three layers: The open drain pipe attached to the bed on the right, the bell covering thing on the left and then the gravel guard lying on its side in the right picture. Put these together and when the tank fills to a certain point a siphon is formed to drain the water faster than it comes in. So it cycles (filling and emptying) about 5 times an hour. This is excellent for the plants because they have a constant root temperature, constant nutrient rich food supply, and are oxygenated when the system drains. Because of this the plants can grow much faster. But wait there’s more!

I also [heart] chemistry and biology. The way that the ucky fish water can be good for the plants is actually because over time a bacterial colony will grow on the rocks in the grow bed. This bacteria will convert the ammonia to nitrites and then to nitrates (which the plants devour ravenously) as it fills and drains. Then the cleaned and de-ammonia-ified (like that word making up?) water goes back to the sump and back to the fish.

These are the happy plants that get to live in our garden. Best way to start seeds. EVER. Plus it meant I had an excuse for Panda Express. Total win-win. Here we have zucchini and yellow squash up top and spinach on the bottom.

 

On the left we have cucumbers (foreground), Roma tomatoes (back left), and  green beans. On the right we have cherry tomatoes (foreground), cantaloupe (back left) and watermelon.

Once we get these suckers planted, we add in this rank smelling seaweed extract to start the whole process. Then after the system has been running for about two weeks we add our fish. Which means we have a deadline to 1) decide on fish 2) figure out where to buy said fish. Current thought is Koi, unless anyone has any suggestions for a fish that can thrive in 85+ degree water and is easy to keep alive? I don’t have a great track record with fish. So I’m calling them Neil’s fish so as not to bring down my horrible aquatic juju on our unsuspecting aquaponics system.

Aquaponics

It is nice to know a guy who works in the concrete industry. It’s even better when he thinks my husband is brilliant, makes his life easier, and is a nice guy to boot. Also a plus when said guy is a total cowboy and so has lots of land, had his arm in a sling from shoulder surgery and so was bored out of his mind, and likes my kids. Neil told Ron about some aquaponics stuff we wanted to do after checking this out. Ron said that the concrete company had a tank lying around that no one wanted, and some plastic totes, and lots of gravel. He also said we could build it at his place. And we said done and done!

When he said tank what he really meant was a 10 foot diameter, 3000 gallon monster. So we figured that we needed to bury it a few feet down to help control water temperature and to make everything else workable. The grow beds will drain into this tank (which will be the fish tank) using gravity, so if the tank is five feet tall the grow beds have to be way up in the air which is no good. Burying it was the best option. Above you see our labor and our management.

Not sure which category this one falls into. Our conversation before I took the picture on the left went something like this: “Mommy this is my spot. I sit here and then I’ll build my own fish tank. It is pink.” Then, turning to Neil, “Daddy! My fish tank is pink! Do you love it? Is it beautiful?” He answered affirmative to both and then she played in the dirt the rest of the evening. Really love my girl.

Shovels are good. John Deere tractors are soooo much better. Especially when Ron’s dog, Lilly, drives.

Roll it, position it. Push it over.

It made the greatest noise when it fell over into the hole.

Sitting back admiring the handiwork. Layna did stroller yoga to celebrate phase one completion. A few miscellaneous things: we agreed that it would be the best red-neck swimming pool ever. If you bury your pets in the back yard, remember where you buried them. We accidentally uncovered a rottweiler skeleton from about 20 years ago. Garyn was thrilled to go and get his paleontologist on, not creeped out at all. I knew in his head it wasn’t a dog, it was an adolescent troodon  skull.

We really should decide what fish we will be raising in the tank. We’ve kicked around koi, but aren’t sure if we actually want to eat them or not. We also need to source some of the more exotic piping components, but are making progress on that front (might just buckle down and order online). More to come when we get the grow beds together and plumbing rigged up!