We have been spending a fair amount of time lately organising stuff, trying to figure out
what we have, buying in more supplies for this season, and to store everything so that it is
out of the way, remains in good condition, but also easy to get at when we need it.
I am trying to get the the point where everything has a place,
not just so that we don’t spend time looking for something we need, or loose track of stuff.
But also so to prevent stuff from just being placed on the work bench,
or piled up in a corner of the shed, or stashed inside the entrance to one of the polytunnels.
I have already made two videos about all of this, with the first one being about a lot
of the supplies that I buy in for propagating, feeding and protecting plants, and with all the
different explorations, methods and trials that we are doing, it ends up being a lot of stuff.
The second video focused more on the tools and equipment that I have brought in with
the purpose of making tasks easier and more effective in the gardens, and a
lot of it seems to be made of out of plastic. With this third video, I wanted to go through
a lot of the stuff that I have repurposed, assembled or made, in order to support the
plants, create better microclimates, improve yields or to make some of the tasks easier.
Some plants need support, or can do better or produce more of what
we want with some extra support, or at least make it easier for us to harvest,
so it can be worth the effort of setting things up and the expense of buying the necessary materials.
Lots of the tall or long vining plants that we grow in the polytunnels are relatively easy to
hang from the frame, but outside it is harder to support plants, especially on this windy site.
Peas plants are a good example, as they can easily grow on the ground, but then it can
be harder to find all of the pods, which can also degrade or rot if they touch the soil.
But even using small branches or sticks to support these climbing plants can be
enough to make it easier to get a better crop. With the larger crops of peas, I have relied
on chicken wire or mesh to provide something for the plants too climb, but the extra weight
of a dense planting and to stay up in wind, I have found some strong posts can be necessary.
To support the taller winding runner bean plants I use to rely on damaged security fencing panels,
and these repurposed panels needed to be tied down or supported with poles
to keep them from blowing down. When the panels eventually became
too damaged to be useful for this task, I invested in bamboo canes to build a trellis
type of structure that are quite common. With both of these forms of support,
and with the wire mesh of the peas, the materials are an investment, and it does take effort to set
them up, and to take them down and to find a place to store the materials until the next season.
But the addition yield of peas and beans that I am able to get from these plants,
and the ease of harvesting, is worth it, I think. Last year I cut up the damaged security fencing
panels, removing some of the wires to make larger holes,
and bent sections into frames that I set over the beds of bush beans in one of the polytunnels.
This was an easy way to support these top heavy plants and the crop was definitely better quality
and easier to pick than without this support. But now I have these large, awkward panels that
need to be stored, or at least kept in use for other crops year round.
I have found that a lot of other crops need protection from the late frosts
and cold winds that we can get in the spring, especially the crops like squash that need a
longer time to grow with our cool summers. This is where I really started to rely on
crop covers and fleece, to create better microclimates, but these covers can cause
damage if they are not kept off of the plants and prevented from blowing around.
I have found that hoops that I cut from old plastic water pipe can really work well in
this situation, and have invested in a roll of thick fencing wire to make other hoops.
We also use smaller hoops made out of thinner wire to keep the covers off of some of the other crops.
Of course the edges of these sheets of fabric or netting need to be held
down and we generally rely on larger stones that have been dug out of the growing beds.
The sheets of material or netting need to be stored when not in use, and so do the hoops
of wire and pipes, and I still haven’t figured out an appropriate spot for them all to go that
is out of the way, but also convenient, and to prevent them from becoming a tangled mess.
And I also have to store the large rolls of wire that I bought for making these hoops,
and for making support wires in the polytunnels, in addition to all the rolls of material.
And the stones need to be stored as well, which isn’t easy as they are heavy to haul around,
so we tend to just leave them in small piles on the paths in the gardens,
and accept that they get in the way occasionally.
These covered hoops are essentially smaller temporary polytunnels in parts of the outside
gardens, and I should probably include the three permanent polytunnels in this list
of things that I have assembled or made for use in the gardens.
We have three polytunnels at the moment, each covering about the same amount of growing space,
but the two newer ones in the Black Plot are a lot taller and definitely bigger inside.
These are permanent structures, and will likely last a long time if I look after them,
but the plastic needs regular cleaning to allow as much sunlight in as possible.
I have also built plastic covered cold frames, which are essentially a four sided box made out of
a light wood frame that is screwed together, with leftover polytunnel plastic stapled to the sides.
Each box has a hinged lid which can be opened for a bit for ventilation or removed completely
in the summer to let the rain in. I made them to fit the standard size
bed of one of the gardens, and they are light enough that I can lift and move them myself,
but it is a lot easier with two people. None of these cold frames have blown away
in the wind, yet, but I do need to keep the lid secured to prevent them blowing open.
I have used some repurposed plastic containers in the past as small
cloches or covers of individual plants, but found them to be a hassle to keep in place.
And I have made a few cloches out of wooden frames, with plastic sides and a
mesh roof for ventilation and to let the rain in. I thought these would be useful in the Polyculture
Garden where it is harder to cover tender plants in the beds filled with many different crops.
But I am not so sure that they were successful and they were a lot of effort to build,
and take up a lot of space in storage, but I want
to find ways to create smaller temporary microclimates in this Polyculture Garden.
Also have collected lots of plastic containers, which I fill with water and
place under the covers mainly to improve the microclimate by providing some thermal mass.
This water heats up during the day, and releases the warmth slowly overnight,
to help prevent frost and to increase the growth rate of the plants in the spring.
Or, at least I assume that it helps, as I have not done an actual comparison to see what difference,
if any, these containers of water make to the growth rates of the plants.
But they are free and I think they are useful, but I haven’t been good at keeping them clean,
and out of the sun when not in use, mainly because they are quite bulky and take up a lot of space.
This means that they degrade in the sunlight, and become brittle and not useful,
but apparently they are no longer recyclable after too much exposure
to the ultraviolet rays of the sun, and they would be a real hassle to clean.
So we have been throwing a lot of them out, and I am working to create space to keep the
ones we have out of the sunlight when not in use, so they have a chance to last longer.
I have also been cutting out one of the sides of the standard 5 litre food grade
plastic containers, to repurpose them as trays for harvesting some of the vegetables in the gardens.
They are great for beans, peas, smaller tomatoes, herbs and smaller amounts of
other greens, and if I cut them open in the right way they are still stackable,
which makes them easier to transport and to set out surplus vegetables into the Honesty Fridge.
We try to keep these harvest containers a lot cleaner, and to store them out of the sun and in
a place that is still convenient for harvesting. And these convenient repurposed containers,
together with the larger totes I bought, have generally replaced the stack of
shopping baskets that I got a couple of years ago and repurposed for harvesting
and transporting a lot of vegetables. These wire baskets are still useful
for washing some vegetables, but I am not sure if it is worth keeping so many around.
I have, of course, collected a lot of other types of containers over they years, especially bags.
We go through a lot of growing medium or potting compost each year, and end up with a lot of bags,
which I have used for many different things in the past, including as
containers or grow bags for some plants. But now that I have invested in a lot of
large grow bags that will apparently last a lot longer in the sun, I am not sure how to
reuse all the other bags, but have still been collecting them until I figure something out.
We also have a lot of the large bags that the municipal compost we buy gets delivered in,
which are apparently single use, or at least I am not sure I would trust lifting them again.
These large bags are useful to store other stuff in, and we do use them to store sieved compost,
though they are a a bit of a hassle fill and empty again.
But I want to explore using them as larger growing containers, I just need to figure out
how to cover the sides so that the plastic does not degrade in the sun and start falling apart.
I acquired a bundle of potato bags that we have been using for storing the root vegetables and
potatoes in the shed and cellar, and if kept well, they will probably last a few years.
And I have bought a range of different plastic bags,
mainly for filling with salad greens and other crops, and I picked up a lot of smaller closable
bags for seeds that I save and want to share through the seed swap, or give to friends.
But by buying in bulk, I probably have enough of these bags to last many years!
We need to keep track of everything in the gardens, especially with all of the variety trials
and the huge number of grow bags the we use. For the past few years I have been using sticks,
with a flat section carved out of the the top that we can write on with a marker.
Most of the wood that we use has come from pruned trees and bushes
in the surrounding landscape, and at this time of the year I need to make sure to
collect enough for all of the labels that I think I will need the season.
It works well, and uses an abundant and free resource, that I can reuse by simply cutting
off another thin layer of wood, and they can be easily composted when rot enough to be no longer
useful, but there are a few issues. It is better if the sticks are dry,
especially so they don’t take root when I stick them in the ground,
and it would probably be better to cut them a year earlier and allow them fully dry before using.
The lettering also tends to fade in the sunlight and elements, so I need to go around and rewrite
the labels that have been in the ground for a while so that we don’t lose track of things.
We are trying to use a bit of linseed oil to coat the top of the stick,
hoping that this will help the text last longer. And I am also flattening two sides of the stick so
the labels on both sides, increasing the chance of being able to identify things in the future, and
making it easier to read them when in the gardens. Some of these labels last a long time,
and others decay within the year, depending on the type of wood used, and these stick labels
are another pile of stuff that we need to have an appropriate place for to store for reuse.
And a place to store the freshly cut sticks so that they can dry quickly.
We buy in a lot of municipal compost for use in the gardens,
but also make a lot of compost with the community composting system that I manage.
It is of course possible to make compost with just a pile of material on the ground,
but in this context, with a fairly restricted space and a lot of material, I find it’s better
to contain it in some way, which takes a fair amount of infrastructure, and some equipment,
a lot of which I have repurposed or made. I have used a lot of different things
to try to contain the active compost piles in the past, including pallets.
But I’ve migrated to making quite a few wooden frames lined with wire to contain
the compost piles, and to restrict access by wildlife, but to also let the air in.
And these are topped with plastic lined lids or hoods to keep the excessive rains out,
and prevent the material from blowing away, with everything simply screwed together.
These frames contain the more recent compost batches,
which then end up as a line of loose piles to further decompose,
which we can cover with a compost cover material that sheds most of the rain, but lets the air in.
And we need something heavy to keep the covers from blowing away, and old tires
were the easiest option on hand, though I don’t like having too many of them around.
I built a compost sieve several years ago to help separate the useable compost from all the stones,
rubbish, and undecomposed pieces, which we also use to clear rough ground.
We often store the sieved or almost finished compost in the reused large bags,
to make space for more compost piles, and have been using an old pallet,
lined with scraps of plastic as an easy lid to keep the rain off, which won’t blow away.
I have a few compost thermometers to monitor the heat and activity of the piles,
and a riddle which is good for producing finer compost for some uses, which is all more stuff
to add to the infrastructure and tools that we use to make and process compost.
I have also been using old pallets lined with plastic to create different types of
storage bins, with one of them by the compost piles as a place where people
can drop off larger sheets of cardboard. We collect a fair amount of cardboard,
which we often use for clearing and mulching growing spaces, and it is a lot better to keep it
dry while waiting for when it is needed, and this bin has saved a lot of space in the other shed and
hassle trying to deal with really wet cardboard. I have a few other bins in a row, one of which
we use for collecting twigs and branches so that they can dry for making biochar.
And another bin for storing dismantled pallets and other pieces of wood that
might be useful for future building projects. And I like to have a bin to use for putting
large loose materials and other objects in out of the way, where they have a chance to dry a bit
and won’t get blown away, before we get around to clearing them up and storing the stuff properly.
We have two makeshift sheds, one an old abandoned hen house that we try to reserve for tools,
smaller supplies, and all the propagation material, and an A-Frame shed made from
repurposed metal gates from an old construction site, where we store all of the bulky material.
The latest addition to all of these objects in the landscape is a shelter for us, as a place to sit
out of the rain and wind in the winter, and out of the sun in the summer, which is assembled out
of pallets and leftover polytunnel plastic. This has a bench, that serves as a lockable
storage box, and a convenient place to set up a weighing station for when we document
all of the harvests, and a place to keep the bins of recently harvested vegetables out of the sun.
Building a few more small storage spaces like this in convenient places will help,
especially in the area of the Black Plot, but I am not sure how much
more I will get done before we start getting really busy in the gardens.
I feel like I am finally getting around to properly managing a lot of the stuff I have
collected over the years, a lot of this stuff we regularly use in the gardens, and other stuff we
might use in the future, but there is likely a lot of stuff that we should probably get rid of.
Like many growers I tend to be a scavenger, collecting things that I think might be useful
in the gardens, and I have also been buying in a lot of supplies in bulk quantities.
But a lot of the stuff I need to sort and store or get rid of is because I often try out a lot
of different things, many of which have failed or have been replaced with something better.
And I can easily use the exploration nature of this RED Gardens Project, and all of the different
growing methods we are trialing, as justification for having so much stuff to deal with.
As it is the nature of this type of project, to experiment,
to try a diversity of different approaches, tools and materials, to fail regularly,
or to move on to something else. And this results in way too much
stuff, but at least I feel that I am getting better at managing it all.