My miniponics system continues to amaze me.  Tomato cuttings love the floating raft system…and my fish are so happy they are reproducing!  All of this inspires me to get going on the big system (okay…and all my seedlings are still in the greenhouse)…so yesterday afternoon, we went shopping at one of the big box home improvement stores…then we went to one of the big box farm supply stores…and STILL we are missing an important part…it’s the fitting that goes through the tank and grow bed walls and connects the piping. 

We found a small one, but nothing in a size we could use…1” and 2”…so I went home and got on the internet…at the stores, the only name I could find for the part was “water tight straight connector”…NOT very helpful…but here you go…I found it on the internet…it’s a bulkhead fitting…most specifically it’s a threaded pvc bulkhead fitting…will be placing an order today.

In the meantime, we are building a table for the grow bed, which must be higher than the sump tank.  We have a pump and lots of plumbing elbows, connectors and reducers…should be fun…stay tuned for the putting it all together post coming soon.

In the regular container garden, it’s been a rough season, one moment its hot as blazes, the next moment we are having frost  far later than our average last frost date.   The corn in my three sisters garden hasn’t minded the cold but my beans will have to be replanted.  My rhubarb is flourishing in the ground, my asparagus overstepped its bounds onto the driveway and needs a trim.  Volunteer (those mystery tomatoes) tomatoes are STILL popping up everywhere.  I’ll keep the healthiest looking ones and clip the rest, and it’s time to redo the front beds.

The front beds have been filled with lantana for several years.  It takes 6 flats of flowers to fill the beds, so the lantana has been perfect, except it comes out so late the beds look sadly neglected until they do.  Pansies are deer fodder here, so I am at a loss as to planting schemes.  I thought of keeping the lantana and planting lots of spring bulbs underneath them, so that the lantana covers the dying foliage and the beds aren’t empty in spring and winter…but my husband says no…something green…something perennial…in builder’s sand…with root nematodes…one side in sun, one side in shade BUT because they are mostly symmetrical, they should match…hmmmm…little wonder I love my containers so much…but next week, we will tackle this problem.  This weekend is aquaponics, my favorite local fair: Sparkleberry Fair, and a fantastic horseback ride for charity, The Boykin Spring fling…how are you spending your weekend? You can find more information about Sparkleberry Fair here: http://sparkleberrycountryfair.org/ .

Well, I know we’ve had all these late frosts and tomatoes should NOT be in the ground yet; however, Mother Nature knows best and she has planted tomatoes and other “foreign” seed into every container I own.  Welcome to the dark side of being green by reusing your container soil: unexpected seed germination.

Sweet Baby Girl is one of my favorite tomatoes.  She’s as close to a grape tomato as you can get, both sweet and prolific…perhaps too prolific, as she has reseeded my entire container collection and the seedlings are popping up now, in the midst of 38 degree mornings and 60 degree days with no ill effect. I also have something resembling sunflower seedlings competing with my salad garden.  I surely didn’t plant any of these plants THIS season. 

This is the problem of refurbishing container soil instead of replacing it: mystery plants.  I happen to like mystery plants, but not when they steal nutrients from my intended plantings.  So, you have two options for dealing with these intrepid interlopers.

1. Just pull them out by the roots.  If they are too close to your other seedlings, then cut the tops off with a pair of scissors. Or you could:
2. Transplant them to a more desirable location.  Use a trowel and dig a good two inches around the seedling.  Using your hand, carefully pull the seedling from the soil.  You may want to dip the roots in water (this lessens the stress of transplanting) and then gently plant in its new home.

So how do we prevent this issue while still being green and conserving our container soil as much as possible?  In a dirt garden, we would mulch the soil, but even there we don’t mulch until the soil warms.  In a dirt garden, you can also turn the soil over three times, at intervals of 10-15 days prior to planting, but we already know that destroys soil ecosystems.  In both dirt and container gardens, you  can solarize your soil by covering it with black plastic mulch for a week or two.  Then turn all the, shall we say, unplanned plantings under.  This also disturbs the soil ecosystem though perhaps not as much as multiple tillings.

In our containers, we can add new soil to just the top of our containers, making sure to add at least three inches of new soil, earthworm castings or well-aged compost.  We can also embrace the adventure of mystery seedlings, trim or move them as necessary and see what happens.   

Take advantage of this inevitable cavalcade of seedlings with your herbal pots.  I have not planted cilantro, parsley or basil for several years now.  I let it flower as it will, and  voila, perpetual  pungency for my pantry!   

Well, we managed to cut the top out of the shipping-tote-turned-fish-tank and bought the third stock tank to act as a sump, worked out locations for everything, moved my old garden out of the way (don’t worry, if the veggies do well in aquaponics, we will have flowers and root veggies in the pots!) and bought all the lumber needed this weekend.

To cut the tote, we did the following:

1) Removed the top metal bars with a screwdriver

2) Used a framing square and a permanent marker to draw a cutting line all the way around the top of the tank

3) Cut the tank using a jig saw

4) filed the rough edges of the tank

5) rinsed the tank

We also checked for leaks AFTER we cut. I would recommend doing this first.  We had no leaks but assuming does no one any good.

My miniponics system is up and running WITH fish now. Spent a hilarious hour laughing with mom as we dipped net after net of water weeds before FINALLY capturing 7 tiny minnows. They’ve been in the tank for 5 days now and seem to be adjusting well. They still get skittish when I come to the tank but are quickly figuring out that food mysteriously appears with me. Have no idea what kind of fish they are and will probably have to re-release them back to their pond at some point in the future because they will quickly outgrow the 3 gallon tank.

In the meantime, I pulled lettuce from half of the planting cups on top of the tiny aquarium, placed a camellia cutting, a tomato cutting and started corn and sunflower seeds there instead.
Harvested the last of my winter carrots and my 2-year old asparagus this past week. Made delicious honey glazed carrots. Cherry trees continue to grow and my blueberries are starting to ripen if the deer don’t eat them first!

Next weekend is good Friday. I’ll hopefully be building shelves for the big aquaponic system grow-beds and I will be cleaning harnesses for a family picnic complete with carriage rides. Happy Planting everyone!