The Greening of Gavin

Archives for November 2009

Low Pressure Drip Irrigation Part 3

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This is the final in the series, as I have finished my drip irrigation project this afternoon. It took me another 4 hours of constant work to finish it off, but well worth the effort.  For those who haven’t read the other two parts, here are the links to Part One, and Part Two.  Best to catch up so you can understand what I am talking about in this post.

As mentioned in part 2, I laid the main 19mm line all along the back of the veggie patch beds, and inserted a 19mm to 13mm T piece so that I rig up the piping for each bed.  This is what it looked like before I started work today.  When using harvested rainwater, make sure you put in an in-line filter to stop your drippers from getting blocked.  Some silt may get into your tank so this is a simple precaution to avoid having to purge your system everytime you inadvertently put dirty water into the pipes.  Here is the filter setup;

Here is the mainline with the T pieces inserted;

So, today I began by making a set of isolating taps for each bed which were all 13mm fittings.  It was a little bit fiddly, but once I made one, I managed to bang out the other 4 very quickly.  This is the mainline isolation tap and the secondary tap assembly for one of the beds;

Then I put in a secondary line of 13mm pipe, down at the level of the soil, and then ran a few tertiary 13mm line down the length of each bed and used Moss Inline 13mm drippers where there was a plant.  This is quite easy to do, but much simpler if you lay the pipe and drips before planting.  You can get to all the bits without damaging existing plants.  This is the first garden bed completed (tomatoes, leeks, and red onions);

 The second bed with three tertiary lines (zucchini, cucumber, and eggplants);

The third where I used 4mm Drip Eze by Pope irrigation systems (click the link for an installation video).  20metres cost me about $25 and I still have about half of it left over.  Each drip point in the hose releases 2 litres per hour (click photo to enlarge);

The fourth bed (tomatoes) where I used the inline 13mm drips;

And finally the fifth perennial bed;

After all the beds were completed, I got stuck into putting in 4mm lines with little taps for each of the fruit trees in pots.  I used the lasso method, where you use Drip Eze to make a circle around the tree all joined by a 4mm T.  This method give you about 4 drips per plant and cover the entire root zone.  This will make it easier to water the potted trees and I will still be able to isolate them if the need arises;

I gave Kim the grand tour, and tested each bed to make sure everything worked without any issues.  As I had reused old 13mm poly pipe that I had kept from old installations, I had missed one hole that I missed during installation, but quickly fixed it up with a bit of black silicone and a goof plug.  All sorted and each bed worked fine.  Then I turned it all off, because the beds were already damp from all the rain we have had recently.

With all that finished, Ben helped me to planted up the empty bed with some mixed lettuce, spring onions, and celery seedlings which should all grow like crazy, now that I can irrigate straight to the root zone.  I then showed Ben how it all worked by turning on one of the 100L water butts and turning off all beds except for the newly planted one.  He was absolutely fascinated and wanted me to check every single dripper to make sure that our plants were getting watered.  It was all working as designed, with both of us being quite thrilled to see it all working.  I then poured about 2 litres of worm wee into the water butt we were using so that the plants would not suffer from transplant shock.  The beauty of using these small water butts is that you can add organic liquid fertiliser or soil conditioner and you will not contaminate all of the other water tanks/butts.  Also, by using the 100L water butt, you can water 2 beds at once and just let it all drain overnight until empty.  That way, you will not forget to turn off the tap if using your main tank. 

Over the course of an hour and a half, the Drip Eze bed only used 50L, which I thought was good, as each of the seedlings were well watered in.  I then turned that bed off, and let the remaining 50L water all the fruit trees and the rhubarb and loganberry bush.  In the morning as I leave for work, I will turn off all the taps and re-fill the empty butt from the main tank in case it rains during the day.  I don’t want any water going down the storm water drain now that I have created this marvellous drip irrigation system.

I have quite a few bits left over, and once the red onions have been pulled, I will run two more tertiary lines down bed one, and plant some more tomatoes.  That should be just before Christmas, so I better keep the seedlings I have growing well cared for until then.  Also, once the rainbow chard sets seed, I will be pulling them and planting some more types of berries, and have designed the irrigation system in bed 5 to cater for this. 

All in all, the entire system of Drip Eze line, Moss Inline drips, T’s, elbows, ratchet clamps, taps, filter and end stops cost me about $160 in parts (I still have about $40 worth of bits that I didn’t use), the 2 x 100L water butts were $59 each, with the 200L water butt and stand costing $110.  All 19mm and 13mm pipe was free because as I mentioned before, I used poly pipe from an old system.  I still have about 5 metres spare just in case I need to connect up the new tank that we are saving up for.  It was great fun, and I have an overwhelming sense of accomplishment by doing it all myself.  Once I put my mind to it, there is nothing I can’t achieve!

Next weekends project is to fence off some of the chicken run so that we can use the path again without having to sweep it every day, and to be able to use the garden bed in that area with out the chooks eating everything in sight.  I am going to put drip irrigation in that bed is well by extending the line on that side of the house!

Peak Oil in the Media

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I have just finished a photo shoot with the local paper, with the story being about the looming oil crisis and how our town has been listed in a report as the #1 affected community by rising oil prices in Victoria.

This is the rub.  We have no industry to speak of, we are totally dependent on transportation for food, with no major food production close by except for Bacchus Marsh which is about 15km away, our bus routes around town are minimal, and the entire town is just one big suburb that you have to drive everywhere to do anything.  We have a railway station and a rail link to the city, but no rail freight facilities.  This community will be heavily hit when the supply of cheap oil is over taken by demand again due to the low socio-economic demographic.  This is one of the two reasons I founded the Melton Sustainable Living Group, the other being climate change.

Anyway, enough about the town.  I had the Honda Civic Hybrid out on the street, being photgraphed doing my best Blue Steel.  Ben even had a few shots with me.  I had to keep moving the car off of the street everytime someone wanted to go past as the photographer wanted a shot of the car and I at an angle across the entire street.  I am glad it was a quiet morning.  I was interviewed on Thursday over the phone, so when it hits the press, I post up the link.  The interview was basically about the benefits of travelling to the city by rail compared to driving in an average family car.  Here is a comparison of various modes of transport which includes emissions from public transport in Victoria so you can what I mean (I believe the three car modes indicate taxis);


Transport mode
Energy use
(MJ per
passenger-km)
Emissions
(g CO2-e per
passenger-km)

Petrol Car
3.7
286

LPG/CNG Car
3.7
256

Ethanol (E10) Car
3.7
253

Electric Tram
0.15
52

Diesel Bus
0.28
22

Ethanol (E10) Bus
0.28
19

Natural Gas Bus
0.28
18

Electric Train
0.04
14

Diesel Train (V/Line
0.1
8

250cc Motorcycle
1.6
124

1000cc Motorcycle
2.3
178

So, basically the V/Line train that I catch is not only the most environmentally friendly way to get to the city, it is also much cheaper than the fuel and the total running costs of a car (even a hybrid).  Once you add in the yearly cost for vehicle insurance, registration, maintenance and licence renewal, public transport wins hands down cost wise.  Seeing a daily train ticket is only $10.60 (full fair, zone 1 & 2) for all buses, trams and trains you want to use, I figure it would cost me about $4 in fuel and at least $13 in parking fees if I drove.  That is a $7 dollar direct saving per day, even when you don’t take the indirect cost of running a car into account. 

As I do live in a town where I needed a car, I chose the most fuel efficient one I could lease at the time.  After 3 years I now own it, and my cost are even lower because I have ceased to drive it to work, catching the train instead.  Yes, I still have to use petrol, but I have found that I only use 40L in two months.  Now that has to be good.  I walk where I can, and will be riding more when my back heals fully from this latest relapse that occured in August.  I am nearly ready to get back on the bike!

To end the post I thought I would include some Hybrid fun by the way of a video by Casual Mafia. I love this clip. 

Here is to travelling green and using less fossil fuels, mainly because soon we just will not be able to afford to!

Gavin

It Used to Rain Like This Once….

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Twice in a week now.  Heavy rain. 

This is unusual for our area, well it is unusual due to the fact that it is out of character for climate patterns of the last 14 years.  Back in the good old days, it used to rain often during spring and winter in southern Victoria for days and weeks on end, and it was a lush, green place.  I can even remember when the slogans on the Victorian vehicle number plates use to say “Victoria – The Garden State”.  Who would have though that all those vehicles helped put us in the mess we are in now.  It is no longer the garden state in most parts, that is for certain.

It is sad to think that my son Ben who is now 10 years old, has never really seen rain by the bucket load, day after day for weeks on end.  Very sad indeed and set to continue, unless of course we reduce carbon emissions to below 350ppm and stabilise the climactic patterns back to what they were. They may not return to exactly what it used to be like, but at least it will be predictable and we will be able to adapt, as will all other species on the planet.

When I first visited Melbourne in the late ’70’s, the running joke was that the city ‘had four seasons in one day’ and you used to carry an umbrella and light jacket around everywhere just in case.  I can visualise all of my Melbourne readers nodding their collective heads in agreement!  That is what it was like, and the city’s water supply was never considered to be under threat.  Instead, because of our own short sighted actions, we have changed this once productive and beautiful state into a desert where it rains sporadically in heavy, infrequent down pours.

I wonder, when I look back, for the reasons that we didn’t act sooner?  Is it that we truly are living in “The Age of Stupid“, and that our moral and ethical collective compass have been completely skewed?  We are obsessed with growth at all costs, and it won’t be until the last old growth forest is felled (which is probably why it doesn’t rain as much), or the Murray-Darling Basin becomes a dustbowl, or the last fish is caught in the ocean, will we stop what we are doing.  It won’t be because we have all had a green epiphany, it will be because we are physically forced to, and many will go hungry due to famine.

A sustainable lifestyle will be dictated to us, not by governments (if they even exist in the future), but by the planet Earth, which is the ultimate visible force in our lives and provides us with this wonderful place to live on.  This bleak future will only change if we decide quickly to change ourselves and we choose to begin to stop trashing the air, soil, and water.  We need to make amends to the environmental damage we have and are still causing.  I live the lifestyle that I do because I can see many possible futures, which do not all smell like roses, but will be hard times if we don’t have the right skill sets to carry us through.  So, I help teach others directly via presentations to local groups, by acting in a planet positive way, leading by example and hope that others will take the initiative to act before it all becomes too late to start.

How ironic that my rain post turned into a rant about climate change, but it is quite obvious to me that the two subjects are connected, as we are all connected to it.  Even more ironic is that the rain has stopped my irrigation project in its tracks, but it means that I don’t have to water the garden this week! 

All food for thought, as is this quote;

“Advice is what we ask for when we already know the answer but wish we didn’t.”
Erica Jong (American writer and feminist, 1942)

I would rewrite the quote like this for better context about the subject of climate change;

“Truth is what we ask for when we already know the answer but wish we didn’t, and are fearful of acting upon the change that is necessary.”
Gavin, (Environmental Activist, 2009)