I get a sort of "mini-effect" like that under my (now huge) Opo plant. :-)
If I'd planned it better from the start, I could probably have a 15' x 15' area with nothing overhead but Opo plant.
Wifey chastises me for keeping a couple trash bags of used 2 liter soda bottles. But, today, to take a break from computer headaches, I made a quite decent “one month plus” chicks’ feeder out of nothing but a cut up 2 liter soda bottle, a ~2-1/2” deep “saucer” on clearance from Wally World for 25 cents, and a few dabs of hot melt glue.
Note: Normally adhesion of hot melt glue to PET plastic, and similar “low surface energy” plastics is poor. So, where you want a joint (weld), hold the two pieces together and punch a hole through them with a 1/8” cheapest-you-can-find soldering gun tip. Keep the pieces held together for a full minute. This will tack the two pieces together. Then come back with a hot melt glue gun and run a LITTLE hot melt glue through the hole, filling it, and creating a bit of a cap on either side. This will create a sort of “hot melt glue rivet”, but unlike a metal rivet, it won’t corrode / rust. Clip off any excess if need be, but remember you are making a sort of “rivet” for a “permanent” attachment.
If you want to hang the feeder, you can make a couple hot melt reinforced holes, 180 deg. apart, near the top of the feeder.
Use a fairly high temp hot melt glue gun if possible, but with care. The high temps will get you better adhesion than might be expected — I suspect by activating the plastics’ surface not unlike a flame treatment. The trick is to not melt your parts TOO much! :-)
Given the time involved, this is not cost effective, but, as a sort of “craft” (or “prepper?) project, it is rewarding - esp. when the chicks get used to their new feeder and excitedly gather ‘round at feeding time!
NOTE: The “cap end” of the bottle becomes a “cone” at the bottom-middle of the feeder, to divert feed to the openings into the saucer. Use as much of the straight sided portion of the bottle as possible, to hold feed. Once the chicks get 6” tall or so, they eat a lot...
WELL!!!
We got about 1/2” of rain last night. Some areas around us got more. It’s not a drought buster, but, with almost 3” more forecast for the next few days, it’s a good start.
What with us having just been “placed” in D3 drought last week, the soils can soak up quite a bit of intermittent rain before we become “soggy” again. I suppose that for the garden, this equates to “good drainage”, in a way.
The bad news is that a sizable chunk of a large (~18” dia. trunk) dying tree out by the east end of the garden, came down. I was planning on taking the whole thing down this fall, after the last of that part of the garden dies off, as that’s pretty much the only place it can go. Last night, undoubtedly helped by our thunderstorm, the biggest branch came down anyway, clipping several plants including my now monstrous Opo plant in a couple places, but, fortunately not clobbering the section where 3 of the fruits are growing. What with near ideal conditions the next few days (highs around 80 deg. F, lows around 65-70 deg. F, and occasional rains, the plants I think will recover - none got a direct hit, somehow...
I have some of the debris cleaned up already: Another hour should suffice. And, now I don’t have to worry about that branch clipping the fence when I take the rest of the tree down - Yay! Got a bit lucky, actually - a couple feet further west and the branch WOULD have both taken out the fence and really clobbered the Opo.
The fruits on the Opo continue to do well: Two are now 4” diameter and right at 17” long. That’s “harvestable”, but my plan is to monitor them and harvest right when they stop growing. With luck, that will be at 3 feet or more long.
Past that point where the fruit’s growth stops, the skin gets much tougher and you lose the volume with the seeds in it - sort of like cucumbers, etc. Of course, that last is “ok” if one wants to harvest some seeds.
I was driving home late last night between t’storms, and I don’t know which was “thicker”, the deer out, or the wet leaves completely covering the road in many places. Those wet leaves are really slippery - it was almost like driving on ice. I cut my speed by about half in those areas, so I got in pretty late. :-(