Weekly Garden Thread - August 12-18, 2023 [The Perfect BLT Sandwich Edition]

August 12, 2023 | Diana in WI/Greeneyes in Memoriam

[Pete from Shawnee Mission]

Augie should increase your property value before then. (So will the chestnut trees!)

[Diana in Wisconsin]

BLT Pasta Salad

It’s the classic sandwich turned into a cookout side dish!

https://www.thepioneerwoman.com/food-cooking/recipes/a36068261/blt-pasta-salad-recipe/

Of course, use low-cal ingredients wherever you want to; I don’t find that it changes the flavor at all. :)

[Pollard]

Gave my first tomato away. A nice sized Red Deuce that was destined for a sandwich but I don't know if it was a BLT. Most of the red deuce are coming off a bit knarly with some sort of dark spots that I haven't bothered researching. It's a hybrid and in the meantime, all my heirloom cherry tomatoes are perfect and blemish free. Kind of the opposite of how it's supposed to be. Got a baker's dozen shisitos yesterday and have had a steady supply of cherry maters for a few weeks now.

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Still researching greenhouse/tunnel automation. Soil moisture sensors are the hard part. Seems there's mostly no-brand china stuff available that's not well built and only have a depth of 2 inches or less. Another issue and the reason for lack of choice is that it's a difficult thing to sense soil moisture with a device. Soil is very variable in nature so taking readings from sand is completely different than clay.

Example - doesn't look very rugged and only goes deep enough for small lettuce/greens or seedlings. Not going to help with tap roots of large plants.

I ordered a better one last night that's about 4 inches long on the blade part that goes in the soil.(A small Utah based company.)

This is what Davis Instruments and others have that are more of a pro version(with a pro price). I'm going to get on and compare it with the above one I bought last night.

Pretty much representative of DIY garden/greenhouse/tunnel automation. A bunch of low quality junk. The alternative is genuine commercial grade proprietary systems from companies who don't sell components or have any prices on their websites because they're strictly B2B and don't deal with the general public.

Since I work industrial maintenance at a factory that has a lot of automation, I've been bouncing back and forth between the DIY stuff and industrial stuff and basically want the best of both worlds. Since I've only been doing industrial maintenance for 8 months, I'm hardly an automation or industrial control circuit guru. My inclination with this garden automation is to go with the industrial stuff to learn things that will help my position at work. My love of tech is in opposition to my wallet however. A nice sized controller with color touch screen is a four digit price tag and not necessary, just cool.

This

Does the same thing as this

The difference is that with the top one, if I'm in the tunnel and decide I want to close one of the sides for a minute for some reason, I would need to plug my tablet into it and would have to go to the house to get it or make sure I bring it with me every time I go out to the tunnel. With a PLC(Programmable Logic Controller) with touch screen, I could do it right then and there. The two line, monochrome LCD display PLCs are pretty cheap. I'm eyeballing this one for less than $200 on ebay.

It's already mounted in a $130 weather proof box and has three $20 relays in it that I would definitely make use of. It's a steal and they have a couple of these at work so I have all the tech support I need LOL. That and when my 1 year review comes around and I've learned PLC automation, I can bargain for a pretty good raise and get away from some of the grunt work. Funny how things work out. I'd been thinking about automation for the tunnel for a couple of years now but had no idea I'd end up working maintenance at a place that uses a ton of automation. If I get the above PLC, I can connect it to the soil moisture sensor I just bought and would be able to control my little drip system to learn and practice this stuff. That is if it ever stops raining on a regular basis. I haven't needed to water in weeks.

Finally found a company, also out of Utah, that has industrial level products and sells individual components to the public at decent prices. One of their goals is to serve all scales of automation needs. https://www.controlbyweb.com/applications/smart-greenhouse-automation.html

But the real reason for this post is to share this pic:

Automated tunnel mania. Costa Farms - a use case/showcase on ControlByWeb (which despite the name, does not need to connect to internet - optional). Costa Farms is one of the biggest growers on the planet with multiple locations like this and they don't even grow food. They grow and sell house plants.

ControlByWeb even mentions closing vents in high wind which is my biggest need for automation. We get wind here in the Ozarks which sits on the edge of tornado alley. It's mainly the full length drop down/roll up sides that will need to be closed in high wind.(35 mph gusts + freshly transplanted seedlings = bad) That means an anemometer connected to a PLC that controls DC motors that operate the sides. ControlByWeb integrates with and sells Davis Weather Stations yet is open enough to work with other systems and WeatherFlow has a weather station that will work and is half the price.

Of course partially opening/closing would be nice but adds complexity. The mechanical aspect of building the sides will be tricky but fun. It's not something I can buy off the shelf so I'll have to fabricate it. My plan is horizontal bi-fold sides like a hangar or some shop doors.

But the tunnel sides will drop down instead of lift up to protect seedlings and keep walking/hopping critters out. I'll have to find a way to block the open triangles on the ends at the fold. It will drop down to about 12 inches up/tall so I could just put some 12 inch tall mini walls in ground on the ends. Couple little posts with metal roofing scraps wired to them.

Irrigation is something I'd like to automate as well even though I can go by feel. Soil moisture sensors in conjunction with going by feel and observation of the plants would help me come up with a simple time/volume based irrigation schedule. At that point, the soil moisture sensors would just collect data and not control anything. Irrigation will be broken up into zones/rows so if I grow something in two rows that likes a lot of water, I can water them more often or for a longer time than the rest by changing some numbers.

Gable vents with or without fans are already available as self contained units that operate based on temperature but it would be nice to automate those more fully too. Don't need a fan trying to fight a 25 mph wind. Might want to close one gable vent that's in the direction of the wind in a bad rain storm too so that one end of the tunnel doesn't get swamped.

The big operations even automate their shade cloth but I won't be doing that.

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But now I must go finish a goat shed. Got the floor framed up. I designed it with a 16x16 support grid for all four sides of four 4x4 pallets to sit on. Some pallets have thick boards close together and work good for a floor. I knew a guy in FL who made a 20x20 deck out of them. When the pallets get nasty or boards rot and/or break, I can lift pallet(s) out and drop pallet(s) in. Free replaceable flooring. Sides and roof will be corrugated tin a neighbor buddy gave me a few years back. Spent $200 for framing wood and $30-40 for screws.

[Liz]

Mmmmmmm......a must try.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

I used to buy houseplants from Costa Farms for Jung’s Garden Center. They are a great organization and have awesome product. That was a fun part of my job, for sure!

“The Houseplant Truck is here! The Houseplant Truck is here!” LOL!

Glad you’re having fun ‘Macgyvering’ all of this stuff. Pretty soon you’ll have it so automated that the plants won’t even need to see you until they go into the ground! ;)

[Diana in Wisconsin]

I’m going to make it this week, since I have plenty of tomatoes on hand. A friend from work used to make this for gatherings and it was always a hit. :)

[Qiviut]

Looks yummy - thanks!

[Pollard]

LOL, figures you’ve heard of them I guess. I don’t do house plants so I never put any thought into how big of a business it is.

My goal is to sit in the garden more than work in the garden. I sit in my little front yard garden and drink a few beers and look at the plants and yard beyond. Might get up and adjust a mater plant hanging on the lean and lower strings or check for suckers. Even on warm days, it’s decent under the shade cloth. I will have fans in the tunnel, including one just for me:)

Decided to redesign the goat shed a little. Just swapping some 2x4s for 2x6s for the uprights. The floor was the only thing I put any thought into before shopping for wood.

No rain in the forecast so I’m getting ready to drag the floor over to the shady spot I picked out for them. Gotta weed wack and spray permethrin first. They’ll have a deck today and I’m sure they’ll discover and make it theirs pretty quick.

This week is my weekend off so I’ll get it finished up then. Gotta hit Lowes first. There goes another $50. No more tech purchases this week.

[Qiviut]

Bird news:

The young Red-shouldered hawk is hanging around - currently ‘screaming’, which it does a lot. I saw it sitting on a fence post the other day - that fence is the boundary between the wooded neighbor’s property (squirrel haven) and ours. We have a fence perpendicular to the boundary fence & that is the squirrel ‘highway’ to our backyard. The hawk has evidently figured this out. Since the hawk started hanging around, I have not seen a single squirrel in the backyard, nor have they been tearing up my sunflowers, which have gone to seed. Also, not a single squirrel spotted in the front field either LOL! I love hawks & Red-shouldered are my favorite: rufous breast, black/white striping on back & top of tail, a large hawk & beautiful.

The hummers are draining one of my 2 feeders every other day. I saw why yesterday - there was a ‘flock’ of hummers around that feeder, at least 4 & I think maybe 5. They were chasing each other & taking turns at the feeder. The other feeder is getting plenty of visitors, but mostly one at a time & that feeder empties at half the speed of the other one. After a very slow start this spring, there are loads of hummers this year (yay - I love the little guys/gals).

[Qiviut]

Best laid plans off track again. I had planned on canning (5 batches of jalapeño pepper jelly, 3 of Blackberry Merlot). I only want to drag my canning stuff out the fewest times possible, so even if I’m exhausted with tired feet at the end of the day, canning multiple batches is how I like to do it.

I got our ‘road trip’ truck out Saturday night to load for our Lake trip/picnic Sunday. No AC (& it was just fine on Wednesday). This meant we had to take mom’s car - the one with treads down to the wear bars & needs new tires.

I took the back roads to stay off the interstate & we got there just fine. We were packed up to leave & my brother noticed I had a flat tire on the front passenger side. There was a slash in the sidewall (I will spare you how that happened, but I was unaware). The good news: my brother & nephew put on the ‘donut’ spare (although the car fell off the jack, nephew missed serious injury by an inch or two) so I didn’thave to do it. I broke out major in hives driving home - 3 slicks & a donut, in the dark, on back roads for 3 hours, was not fun - had to keep speed down to 50 or less on the donut.

Vehicle #3, our 23 yo truck we use for dump runs & a spare vehicle around town, needed state inspection before Sept. 1.

Mom also had appointments 4 days out of 5. So the old truck passed inspection & there are 4 new tires on mom’s car. The other truck will go in next week for the AC - didn’t want to leave it in the repair shop parking lot over the weekend.

No large block of time for canning - the heat/humidity were brutal all week & it would have been a great time to do it. The humidity breaks this afternoon & we should have a beautiful weekend which will give me time to get in the garden without melting & mow all the back pastures - I got the two front ones & the yard done last night in 3 hours.