Well, well, well!!!! All Watered Down Around Here

We recently began installation of a 330-ft deep well. We were very impressed with the drilling team and their expertise. The father/son(s) team is now the third generation of their family to drill wells in our area.
The well itself was drilled, bored wider, cased, and then flushed after a gravel filter was added. The pad and pump were then set and clean-up of the area commenced. This was a time consuming process that took nearly 3 days.
The drilling was done mosty by touch and experience as they described it. They went through three pockets of "water" prior to determining that they were deep enough for clean, safe water. The water is actually sucked from sandy water pockets.
The pictures below show the drilling rig.

Tilapia Fish Ponds

This year we created two fishponds and stocked them with 200 2-inch (5 cm) talipia. We choose talipia because of their protein levels and also that they can easily be utilized as human food or used to create organic animal feed. The food source for the talipia is a grass basket that grows algae, which they in turn eat. We are curious to see how they survive the herons and frogs that surround and live in the ponds.
The ponds themselves are shallow (about 12x25x4 feet)and heated by the sun. Aerators that restock the water and remove gases at the same time draw water from the large pond at the botton of the hill. The water is pumped using solar power from an array of PV panels. The set up is shown below.

Garden Plan

For the past three years, we have attempted gardening without doing much research or planning. We simply picked a spot that was close to the house and got enough sun (10 to 11 hours of full sun) and that we could water. We choose not to use any fertilizer and we papered the ground in between the beds and tried to do no-till gardening. This year, we adapted our plan and used raised beds based on a book by Houston master gardener and organic guru, Bob Randall. You can find lots of great information at Urban Harvest.
We did not strictly follow the plan, but used it as appropriate for our climate and time.

Below are some pictures and the plan that is suggested for planting. We planted 9 beds within a fenced area of about 1,200 sq feet. We have planted the vegetables that are most useful to us and that we enjoy, thus we did not provide ourselves a living diet...we had to supplement with groceries. We bought organic compost (a very expensive option, but we wanted a good base) and have begun 4 compost piles that will supply us with topper soil during the next growing season.



Rather than try to illustrate the complicated rotational plan of the gardens, we chose to list the starting plants in each plot and then note the cropping schedule for each plot throughout the year. It is easier to follow the changes in each bed or plot than to follow the movement of each plant variety from season to season and place to place. We begin with Plot #1 and note the plants for each of the other eight in a list below:

Plot 1
Plant clover in November and let it grow until March.
March- plant squashes (tatume, clababash, luffa) harvest till November

Plot 2
November- plant 30 sq.ft. of snow peas harvest then plant pole peas, petit pais
December to March- harvest English pole peas etc.
March to July- pole, snap, and bush beans
July to November- purple hull peas, zipper cream peas trellis—long beans, baby lima-beans
August- plant bush snap beans

Plot 3
November to February- plant 70 sq.ft. of lettuce, non-cabbage salad greens
November to May- plant 4 globe artichokes
March- Ambrosia, cantaloupes, watermelons—center of bed
September- cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, radishes

Plot 4
December- plant broccoli, cauliflower, radishes
January-February plant beets
May- sweet potatoes

Plot 5
Mid-August to November- plant lettuce & salad greens
April- plant tomatoes, corn, tomatillos (when tomatoes are done, plant squash, lufffa, okra and buckwheat
September- plant carrots, garlic, chives, multiplying onions

Plot 6
November- plant bulb onions, garlic, cilantro
March- plant cantaloupe
August to October- plant beets, chard, green beans

Plot 7
January to February- plant 70 sq. ft. of lettuce
April- 50 sq.ft. of cucumbers
May- plant Southern Peas
July to September- set out 10 to 16 tomato plants down the center of the bed

Plot 8
March- plant green peppers
May- rotate in eggplant
**Here we actually have two rows dividing them into strips interplanted with strawberries.
***We made changes to this above recommended plan as we do not have enough time to do all as suggested.

The most important lessons we learned are that you must have good compost (becuase we didn't want to use artifical fertilizer) and the time to paper and mulch between the beds to prevent weed spreading (we use old hay...straw is recommended because hay may sprout). Planting is only a small portion of the time needed to maintain a garden. At least 10 hours a week should be alloted for a garden our size to pick, weed, and just generally maintain the garden.