Re: Inside Bon Vivant Nursery

> I'm sort of curious about the misting.  Are they misted from above?

Yes.  I ran a piece of PVC all the way down the middle and zip-tied it
to the frame.  There's a spot for a sprayer every four feet (the
tables are in eight foot segments, so it made sense), but I really only
have sprayers every eight feet.

I use cheap 50-cent center-strip sprayers from Menards.  They cover about
a 20'x5' area and put out two gallons per minute.  They connect to a 
1/2" nipple.

Since they're spraying down instead of up the coverage isn't quite as 
good, but they still seem to get a fair amount of water down into the
pots.

One thing that I did was leave about six inches of space between each
flat -- that way the plants weren't overhanging each other nearly as
much.  

I've also been adding superabsorbent polymers to the soil mix.  I got
the skinny on how they work from my brother; he used to do research 
for BASF developing diapers using the same superabsorbent materials.
Personally, I'm sold on them, and the plants seem much happier.  If
I ever get my lawn ready I'm going to till some in as well; it'll pay
for itself in no time and it's completey non-toxic.

One thing that I've learned is that plants do better in full sun and
open air with shade cloth and water than in a shady area without shade
cloth.  Some shade plants suffer in my backyard, but the second they're
put under equivalent shadecloth in full sun they do much better.

> We have two enclosed beds (6 timbers high) with 2.5 inch resin risers on 
> the bottom for drainage.  They are enclosed in the same manner you've used 
> with pvc but we use bird netting.  It's to keep bunnies out.  Then we have 
> an in ground bed surrounded by pvc covered by fencing.  We also have a 
> pot-in-pot setup that has worked very well, plus a few more beds.  The 
> inground plantings do fine with rain and spray.

I've been thinking of building a framework to put 30% shadecloth over my
parents' vegetable garden.  The tomatoes will still get enough sun and 
the water savings will make it worthwhile.

Now I just need more space here!  Can I have some of your beds?  :)

Chris

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