The garden is growing

It's hot out and I'm already thinking of how I'm going to cool off the greenhouse. Crazy! And we may put some drip hoses on the garden beds because of a lack of rain. But everything is growing fast. I have flowers I didn't have until June last year. Of course nothing is lasting long because of the heat. But here are some photos of the garden. We are planting strawberries, flowers and lettuce around the outside of the raised beds. Some of the seeds we planted in the green house last week are already up. My biggest challenge is keeping everything watered. I may need to water 2 times a day. I'm use to watering 2 times a week in April but the heat is drying everything out fast.

BTW our garden beds are built with shipping pallets. Jürgen and Nicole built these for my birthday last year. They have either 4 pallets to make a square bed, or 8 pallets to make long beds. I used up my compost piles on the bottom of the beds, then top soil, then the very top of the beds has good compost. They are at an easy height to work in. You can stand up and garden without hurting your back. We get very few weeds and no slugs. If you want to try this, use stainless steel brackets and screws that don’t rust. Make sure your shipping pallets are heat treated not chemically treated pallets. You can use old pallets, but be sure they haven’t been used to carry anything toxic. Because I’m growing vegetables in my raised beds, Jürgen bought me new pallets. They only cost about 5 Euro each. I’m sure I will not have anything bad leeching into the soil and vegetables. I would like to build 3 more long beds in my garden. Shipping pallets are built to transport stuff over the sea. I think they will last a good long time. This is my experiment with using sustainable Martials to grow food. You could grow a pallet garden on a roof top or in a parking lot. You don’t need much space to grow vegetables. You also don’t need to spend years building up good soil. You can have very good soil from day one. This is a practical thing if you live in a city (like half the world does). I would love to see mission’s teams that build these pallet gardens in church parking lots and in poor neighborhoods all over the world. There are many hungry people in this world. We could empower people to help grow some of their own food. I’m trying this out in my own yard, but I want to see the idea used.

Comments

chicken coop idea

Why not start with an IBC and cut a hole for the door? You could build closed laying boxes into it, and something for the chickens to roost on. Put some straw or saw dust on the floor. You could add vents to the side for air. If it sat inside a chicken run that you can walk into, the chickens could be safe, dry and happy. I have an extra IBC. Maybe this could be my chicken house? I bet I could even plant the outside of it with mud and grass for extra insulation and good looks.

The Opel Agilia

I think I don't want to spend the money for the VW New Beetle. It's a very cute and safe car, but cost about 17,000Euros new. I can find it for 13,000Euros (this is the most basic model) but that's more then I would want to spend. I don't really drive that much. I'm pretty cheep at heart. I need real value for my money. I keep thinking we really should take advantage of the money Germany is offering to trade old cars in for 2500Euros towards a new car. If I buy a car that's around 10,000 Euros, then the Government is actually going to pay 25% of the cost of that car. That's really a very good deal. Since I know I will need a new car in the near future, I feel I should get a new 10,000 Euro car. The Opel Agilia is around 9,900 Euros. It's got 5 doors, and room for 5. It is pretty safe, and comes with a 6 year warranty. I would not call it my dream car, but I could easily afford it. I'm trying to be wise here. There are other cars in thi...

Reading Kingdom

I am very happy to review the Reading Kingdom. This is an online program that uses a variety of methods to teach reading. I decided to share this product with my adopted granddaughter Ruth. Reading kingdom uses a six skills integrative method Ruth only just began to use the program. She is only 3 years old and cannot use the program without help. But her mom says that she can already recognize words like girl and kids when they are shown on the screen. Sylvia wrote that she loves the repetition of the words in the program . That Ruth is memorizing the words she sees. She will be able to use it for an entire year. But I expect her to become a very good reader. And what a great gift to give to any child! She will have a lifetime love for books. Sylvia also works with teenage mothers in Uganda. And many of these women have never attended school. So she plans to use these ideas to h...

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