I’ll be insulating it from inside the raised box. Thinking about using pine wood chips as the insulation. I also think the benefit of insulating from inside is to give the soil more O2. What do you think?
I’m hoping with some lighting up top, 110 gallon reservoir inside a cheap 59 harbor freight GH (I live at 4,700ft with a lot of sunny days so that should give some pretty good hydro heating) that this bed might just be able to do strawberries over the winter for me! What do you think?
Hey guys, sorry I only have my YouTube short about my radiator under the raised bed with my old plumbing configuration here old plumbing (my YouTube short about this project)
Or now I have this configuration. Any thought on how doing the double ending will effect heating on the left hand side of the bed?
Thanks
I tried leaving it out in front of fan for 48 hours…all of this because I left a humidifier on in my room. How long should I leave it like this? Or should I open it up now and take a look?
And yes all new silicon packets
Weird thing was when I tried last to charge from a Jackery it was showing 2 watts going to charge it for about 3 hours but did nothing.
Anyone else have some advice??
Other things added besides the stuff I have pictures of (and multiple bags of those things I have pictured) would include bail of alfalfa, a couple bags of alfalfa pellets (live in alfalfa growing area), the green little stones are zeolite, about 5lbs of ammonium sulfate, coco coir chunks, pine wood pellets and about 3 yards of wood chips.
95% done by hand, other 5% by gas 2 blade rototiller.
Hoping to have underground left/forward section (West/north) and then put slated deck over that. Over the deck will have greenhouse (geothermal cooling heating) took forever and still more but the majority of major soil amending is done!
Well if you go to Walmart you might notice that some of there black mulch (non brand name) is composting inside the bags. Well I thought to take advantage of this and speed up that composting process. Tell me what you think. I was focusing mostly on giving it plenty of oxygen with also adding in some fruits for sugars, alfalfa (little layer) and well you can see the rest of the ingredients and layering I used…
Would like to get this mulch to a hot enough state that I can use it as an underground greenhouse heater in my small 6*6 harbor freight greenhouse. By no means is this a receipt for a good compost to plant with. However being an organic gardener I went organic way instead of just using urea pellets or ammonia nitrate.
Well use zeolite soaked in blood meal if I need more ammonia in this compost mix
Anyone else always check ph and EC before and after runoff?
I took a timelapse of my chipping setup today and wanted to get some advice on stabilizing the upslope leading to the green. As you can see, there’s quite a bit of bend in the middle, and I’d like to firm that up.
I’d prefer to avoid using concrete if possible. One idea I had was to run a couple of 2x4s underneath toward the end, letting the main cross beam rest on those. I’d just cut them to length and set them in place.
My concern is the soil—it’s heavy clay. Even if I wet it, add some gravel, and hammer the boards down, I’m worried they might still sink over time. Maybe that’s not a big issue, but I’m not sure.
Another option I’ve considered is building a small retaining-style wall in front, then staking multiple 2x4s into the ground and fastening everything together with 2.5-inch deck screws.
As you can probably tell, carpentry isn’t exactly my strong suit, so I’m kind of figuring this out as I go.
One thing I do really like is the natural arc the wood creates on both sides—it almost feels like a mini putt course, but more realistic since greens often sit above the fairway. The tricky part is figuring out how to secure that curved structure—especially tying it into the side trim and angling it into the ramp.
Metal brackets are an option, though I’ve heard mixed opinions on those…
Anyway, hopefully this gives a clearer picture of what I’m building. Appreciate any advice.
Also, didn’t get as much done today as I hoped—just ran out of energy.
PJ
I need a lab to send in my soil because I plan on amending it to grow a perennial rye and Kentucky blue mix on it and am going to be using it as a “lab” golf coarse fairway.
Who do you guys recommend?
I have everything framed up now so it is going to look very similar to the render you can see on the second pic
Pulled up a garlic plant from my garden and thought this was a really cool visual of how roots respond to soil conditions.
You can clearly see the roots clustering and growing into the darker, almost black section of soil. That area is much richer in organic matter compared to the lighter, drier soil around it. It’s more crumbly, holds moisture better, and is likely where most of the microbial activity is happening.
The contrast made it pretty obvious that roots aren’t just spreading randomly — they’re actively growing toward the most favorable environment. In this case, that means better structure, more nutrients, and more biological life.
This bed has been amended with compost over time, and I’m guessing this darker zone is where a lot of that organic material has broken down and accumulated.
Curious what others think — would you say this is mainly driven by moisture gradients, nutrient availability, microbial interactions, or a mix of all three?
So the back of the alley is soon going to be chipping zones (currently just compressed DG) then comes a 2x4 retaining wall and then I left a gap in the deck that is about 1.5 long or so…(sand or water feature??? Possible) then the deck comes which will be padded with stable mats and then I have to decided on an artificial rough to put in that area. To the sides of this rough going to do landscape fabric, 1/4 inch crush compresses, DG (I get it for $12 a yard because I’m 8 miles from a pit on the eastern sierra Nevada’s. Sand on the other hand cost closer to 30-60 a yard depending on what you want. Would love to put plants but this ally gets no light at all.
After that comes the fringe deck in which I’ll put either a 1/2 rubber or maybe just 1/4 poly type pad with some sort of fringe nylon grass.
Am curious if anyone can think of a good risk reward to the side of the fringe because it is much more skinny then the rough. Here I think the compressed DG would be perfect.
Then last but not least the nylon green with kiln sand infill at a 10-11 Stephen….i have those tilting greens so I am thinking I can make this a fun training hole???
Any advise would be appreciated
I know I need to add a pea gravel base, but besides that I think im doing alright, it is going to be dual sided so one side is chipping putting while other is into net/screen. What do you think??