Bathtub alley comes of age

Bathtub alley has left behind it's steam punk roots and adopted a more gentrified appearance in recent days. The grand plan for the garden calls for something that is not only functional and productive but also aesthetically pleasing.

Time is always the enemy however and most of these things end up being postponed until holiday time when I have the luxury of idleness to ponder what might be.

 The top watering system is working much better then the flood and drain method I was using before and allows me to start plants directly in the pebble mix as seeds.

The regular over head showering also helps to cool everything down when the weather starts to get hot. An Arduino based timer control lets me set when water should be provided so that the plants always have some time to dry out after each watering.

The plants that I am concentrating on in this area are tomatoes, beans, shallots, leaks, cucumbers and capsicum.

I have put some corn in but mainly just to help sop up the excess nitrogen as they are fairly hungry feeders. Most corn production is done in the fiberglass beds attached to the green tank which can turn out about 150 cobs at a time.

The bathtubs will be the permanent infrastructure in this zone but I am also considering other ways of taking advantage of the large nutrient store of the cray tank with things such as mobile bucket racks for tomatoes that get water pumped up to them and then drain it back into the tank with a gravity feed. These racks would be able to be moved around for mowing or disconnected if no longer needed.

















Greg Rutter