Carolina Morning Sky

I took the dogs "walkies" around 6:00 am and looked up.

Pretty stunning.

The dogs weren't impressed but, I was.

Spring cleaning

Muckin' out the pond

Unfortunately, this Spring I had a major algae outbreak in my koi pond. It got so bad, that my 3000 gph pump

got all gummed up and wouldn't pump the water steadily.

That meant I had to do a deep cleaning to the pond for the first time since I built it.

Not too bad though considering I put it in 4 summers ago!

Here's a link to my youtube channel and the building of the pond video.http://youtu.be/j5EcunDF6lA

This is the pond being drained. It doesn't look as bad as it smelled!

Yup, the balding, slightly over weight, middle aged dude is me. 

Totally holding my breath while I muck it out!

I decided to remove all the stones from the very bottom of the pond. This should help keep the pond cleaner longer.

A very freaked out neighbor.

Fillin' it back up. It looks a lot cleaner now!

I kept all my koi and goldfish in this barrel while cleaning.

I hooked up a smaller pump in the barrel to circulate water and added a home made venturi siphon for extra oxygen.
The pump was a gift from some family friends. Thanks Mr. & Mrs. E!

Full up and all systems go !

My water irises were in full bloom.

 When I put the fish back in, I used the extra pump to add

a bubbler in one corner of the pond. I think it turned out all right. I ran the pump line into the bottom of the sea shell

and it comes out in a fan pattern.

Here's what it looks like in action...

Flowers in my yard

The white peonies are in full bloom right now. The pink ones are getting ready to burst open any minute now.

The red hot pokers

The rose bush thats trying to take over the world.

The yellow rose of Carolina.

Dutch Bucket 'maters

DBT week 2.5

Let's do this!

The tomato plants are growing very well. Two and a half weeks in, all the plants except the middle bucket ( which got planted a week later) have grown another 6 - 8 inches taller and are already setting flowers.

I also have added a solar powered air pump. 

I don't really know how much this has added to their improvement but, it sure didn't hurt.

The pump wasn't unreasonably priced and it works as well as I had hoped.

Obviously it won't work when its dark out but, I don't really need it when the sun sets and the temperatures drop.

When I need it most is when it operates the best.

Around mid day to evening the solar panel gets full sun.

All in all I think it was worth the expense.

Here it is in action.

WOW ! Kratky method cabbage update

It doesn't get much easier than this!

Thank you Dr. Kratky. I now know how I'm going to grow all 

my leafy greens.

It is so easy. Just mix the nutrients into the water and watch it grow!

No weeding, no pests because I'm growing them inside, and no worries.

To see how I did this check my previous posts.

Kratky method Chinese cabbage update

Happy plants!

I had to move the plants indoors. The poor things were getting too much sun and heat in the afternoons and were looking wilty. Fortunately, I 

have windows that receive sunlight most of the day.

The cabbage seems very happy here.

They are growing as well as I had hoped.

It's amazing and satisfying when things

 go as planned. I also love the amount

 of weeding involved... NONE!

Dutch Bucket Tomatoes update

Doing good...

The cucumbers I planted in the middle bucket didn't make it . I think they might have been too immature. So, I put two more of my favorite tomatoes .... the German Johnsons.

The sweet millions are flowering already.

All the tomatoes are looking pretty happy. I will be draining the reservoir and refilling with fresh water and nutrients this week as we've had some rain lately. I don't yet have a device to monitor the parts per million in my mixture so, for now I'm planning on changing it out every two weeks.

Wish me luck.