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6 Tips for Growing Tomatoes
Over the past few years, I’ve picked up some valuable tips for growing tomatoes. This by no means implies that each summer I’m guaranteed a beautiful crop, and in fact am yearly frustrated by the usual problems – pests, disease, cracking, blossom end rot. These tips can help improve crops. 1. Pinch those suckers. Different gardeners will tell you different types of tomatoes should or shouldn’t have the suckers removed. If you are planting in a small space and deal with crowding, go ahead and pinch them to make sure to keep the growth in check and allow plenty of air movement around plants. My first crop of indeterminate tomatoes…
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White Deer Park Rainwater Cisterns
After several posts on my home water cistern, I thought it would be fun to share what White Deer Park in Gardner is doing with rainwater. White Deer Park was built on land with its roots in agriculture, so they chose to have their cisterns resemble silos and built structures with lean-to roofs. Their picnic shelters all have cisterns to capture runoff. I’m not sure what most of them are used for, but one of these feeds into a hand pump in the natural playground and squirts out into a small constructed concrete stream that runs through the play area and under a foot bridge. The pump requires some priming,…
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Would a rainwater cistern save you money?
Once you start down the green road, it’s pretty easy to get hyped about conservation – soil, water, building supplies, energy, savings. You would assume a rainwater cistern for watering your garden would save you money. This could be true, but depending on the size of your garden, the frequency of use and the cost of your system, it might actually take a very long time to see those savings. The Biological and Agricultural Engineering Department at North Carolina State University has produced a free computer model that simulates a cistern for your garden based on historical rainfall data and and calculates how long it would take to recoup your…
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Rainwater Cistern Pump Troubleshooting
Several months ago, we were bestowed a 500 gallon rainwater cistern with a submersible pump. The pump turns on when it senses pressure changes such as squeezing the hose nozzle. Several weeks back, it grew less and less responsive taking several minutes to turn on. These were the steps I went through to troubleshoot: Shake the hose Fling the hose on the ground Jump on the hose to squirt the remaining water out Unplug the pump and plug it back in Remove the spray nozzle to allow for unrestricted flow Detach the hose from the cistern valve and fully open the valve Take out the pump and check for clogs…
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Rainwater Harvesting Cistern
Last week I got an email asking if we were interested in hosting a teaching and demonstration project for a class of NCSU students, which would involve the installation of a free rainwater harvesting cistern at our house. Of course I jumped on that opportunity as Joe and I have been attempting for awhile to get a system going for the garden. Two of our downspouts feed into this 550 gallon cistern, which has a submersible pump smart enough to turn on when it senses a pressure change. Mitch Woodward came out to our house last week to assess the site and bring by all the materials. Yesterday, a class…
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10 Weeks of Vegetable Gardening: Week 10
Each Friday I am posting a weekly guide for prepping your home vegetable garden. In Raleigh, the last killing frost date is April 11 (on average, give or take a week), so my first weekend for planting (summer crops) outdoors is April 9.It’s April! It’s April! One week to go before outdoor planting. Check the weather and make sure there is no frost predicted, and if not, begin to harden off your plants. Because mine are in a cold frame (or a hot box – mini green house), hardening off involves leaving the cover open during the day and closed at night for several nights before planting. If your seedlings are…
