New hobby

So I think I officially have a new hobby....Irrigation and spray systems! It's like LEGO for adults. A lot of people have been asking for an update, so here is a brief one.

Firstly the Organic AP dream is still very much alive. We have just had a lot to get done in order to make room for the Greenhouse. The platform built for the greenhouse had an issue which meant I had to de-construct part of the retaining wall. Essentially I needed to add a new H beam in the center of the back wall as the 2 meter span was a bit much for the wall to handle. The new H beam is in the ground, and I just need to reconstruct that section of wall and we are back on track.

We are also building a new room on the back of the house, and with the access path being just in front of the proposed greenhouse site we really need to get the room mostly finished before we can construct the greenhouse. That way we don't risk knocking it over with a bobcat. We have the footings for the new back room poured so bricking will begin soon. Once bricking is done, we can build the Greenhouse! Yay!.

Onto more exciting things...I have setup a new irrigation system to help control and deliver the right pressure to the various zones of the property. I have attached a pic to this post to check out. I got a little fancy and added a master solenoid valve (so that the infrastructure is not under mains pressure when its not doing anything). I also created a Fertilized distributor. Essentially this works by first filling the canister with Seasol (or any powerfeed) before a given schedule is going to run, then opening the ratio valve (blue valve in photo) slightly. With the canister mostly full, water will rush past the valve, and Seasol will be sucked out into the main water stream (diluting the Seasol in the canister at the same time). Its a very effective way to distribute power feed automatically to your garden. I love it. I originally had a prototype of this which was a PVC storm water beast, but this is much nicer, and I added the ratio valve. Whats more exciting is I have added the worm farms to the drip system to keep them moist. The excess fluid that drains to the bottom of the worm farm and is collected will be used as my fertilizer! Genius!

Water flows down through the filter (As front and rear zones are drip feeds and I am adding powerfeed, I don't want drip feeders blocking up) then onto each solenoid.

I must say the Rain Bird is very easy to configure, and has all the features anyone could need. Next I am going to add a rain sensor so the system cancels days schedule if it detects rain. Also looking at moisture meeter for the new turf lawn so it will not water it if the Rain Bird thinks the soil is moist enough.

So many options!

Stay tuned folks. More updates to come.