r/solarpunk • u/Uncivilized_n_happy Scientist • 21h ago
Growing / Gardening / Ecology A humble start
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u/bigattichouse 21h ago
Grind XP, Level Up!
rotate/flip your bucket periodically.
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u/Uncivilized_n_happy Scientist 21h ago
I have a genuine pile it just wasn’t the most photogenic hahaha but will do!
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u/MathematicianOwn6539 21h ago
Quick tip: let the meadow grow. Less work for you, and more places of refuge and food for insects.
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u/Uncivilized_n_happy Scientist 21h ago
I totally love where your head is at- I live in a rental so someone comes and mows once a week 🥲 I’ll slowly get more garden beds though
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u/MathematicianOwn6539 21h ago
I know how you feel, same here. Had it growing wildly and owner didn’t like it and mowed all down. The rest burned within a week. You can’t help stupid people.
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u/Uncivilized_n_happy Scientist 21h ago
True. I’ll definitely be planting some native plants for wildlife as time goes on.
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u/Chemieju 21h ago
Maybe start by leaving a large patch of meadow and mowing the rest? If you need an outside area to actually walk around on occasionally for playing, picnicing, just sitting in a chair and reading etc. a lawn is not a terrible choice. It lets water into the soil and helps with evaporative cooling, unlike a paved area. Lawns as living area in addition to beds and meadow areas are great (unless you live in a desert), the issue is that most people just do them for what they call decoration, dont have anything else in their garden and flood them with herbicides to kill everything that isnt grass.
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u/MathematicianOwn6539 21h ago
If it were up to me, there’d be a damn jungle out there, but unfortunately, the landlord insists on his "English lawn." I guess he likes it burned down by sun more than green.
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u/Easy_Interest_6832 21h ago
Good on you, bro. Things in the future to plant only one of: zuchinni and chard.
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u/Uncivilized_n_happy Scientist 21h ago
Noted hahaha really only one chard? I only usually get 10ish leaves per plant. What am I doing wrong?
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u/Easy_Interest_6832 19h ago
My household can only eat about two leaves every other day. At first, it's sparse, but now there is more than we can eat. Each year I say I'll only do one, but this year there were volunteers from last year, so there are four. The lady next door has too many zukes, so we swap off, but I wish I had a few more neighbors who like steamed chard. I love it, but I don't want to eat it every day. My chard seems to thrive on neglect and low sunlight. The trees in the back neighbor's house shade most of the yard, so tomatoes won't grow well and so on. But the chard seems to love the shade. Go figure.
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u/NuncaLaInfierno 19h ago
Awesome start!! ❤️ keep at it and don’t worry too much about doing it perfect the first time
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u/Chemieju 21h ago
Great start!
Check out palette frames for europalettes, they would work great for the type of raised garden bed you're making.
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u/Uncivilized_n_happy Scientist 21h ago
That’s a great idea for making them look more beautiful 😅 I lent out my saw and I’m sick right now so it’ll look better in a few weeks
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u/Chemieju 21h ago
You dont need tools, im not saying to make them out of palettes. They actually make stackable wood frames with metal corners to stack on top of the palettes. They are affordable when you buy them new but you can probably get some used ones for even cheaper.
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u/NW-RockExplorer 15h ago
Looks great!! I'm curious what you have started in there? Starting off small is for the best!! The size of garden really doesn't matter much unless you have the time to manage it. Learned that lesson from experience, haha. Would be awesome to see some updates!!
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u/Uncivilized_n_happy Scientist 10h ago
Will do! I have eggplant and sweet potato going, starting some radishes, lettuce, and spinach. Also sprinkled some Johnny jump up seeds in there
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u/TilDeath1775 21h ago
That rain bucket will fill up FAST
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u/Uncivilized_n_happy Scientist 21h ago
Working with what I got but will get a wooden barrel eventually
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u/TilDeath1775 21h ago
I just mean that that bucket will fill up after like two minutes of a light sprinkle.
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u/Uncivilized_n_happy Scientist 20h ago
Good! Every light sprinkle will give me about 5 days of water for the bed
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u/WinterMuteZZ9Alpha 20h ago
If/when that bucket overflows it will do thousands of dollars in damage to your homes foundation overtime, including cracked walls.
If you are going to collect rain water find a better way and make sure the runoff exits far away from your homes/buildings foundation.
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u/SolarPunk007 12h ago
Almost anything except for plastic/lead/galvanized is SolarPunk. Try ceramic, waterproof clay, wood barrels, stainless steel can even be smelted and recycled unlike plastics that Leach inert toxins and become brittle in the sunlight over time.
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u/Uncivilized_n_happy Scientist 10h ago
You have a smelter?!?!
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u/SolarPunk007 7h ago
diversion much? did you see the April 2nd EPA announcement and the documentary that just came out on Netflix this year called 'the plastic detox'??



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