Starling's harebrained stonewall raised bed from old bathtubs and spalls idea thread

[SusieG]

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Who needs F-c-book?

[Lumpy]

Your metal work looks like it could be (and this is a huge guess as I'm still trying to get over the image of bread crumbs, hills and geese) a bit of the tack needed to have at the back of the oss! for when its pulling a cart?

[Starling]

Your metal work looks like it could be (and this is a huge guess as I'm still trying to get over the image of bread crumbs, hills and geese) a bit of the tack needed to have at the back of the oss! for when its pulling a cart?

lol I'm sorry mate, I was shattered after the exercise and was clearly in poor form when I wrote that. No more skulldragging bathtubs for me.I've been very sick the last few days and haven't done any more work on the thing, have been running a pretty bad fever. My guess is that I'll be agonizingly short on spalls, maybe 5 or six shy of getting it done. Cest la vie. I might be able to half inch a few extras from somewhere.

You could be right about the metal thingy, I'll take it into uni next week and get a definitive answer.

[Bill HH]

Well I too thought shackles but there is no mechanisn to open the rings, like a hinge and a lock. I suppose they could be forged in place by a blacksmith but I would expect to find a body with them if that was the case.

Horses used for pulling implements and trailers had a huge range of metal tackle to connect shafts and collars so if not a bit it could be some kind of link. What about aboriginal ear rings?

[Starling]

Well I too thought shackles but there is no mechanisn to open the rings, like a hinge and a lock. I suppose they could be forged in place by a blacksmith but I would expect to find a body with them if that was the case.

Horses used for pulling implements and trailers had a huge range of metal tackle to connect shafts and collars so if not a bit it could be some kind of link. What about aboriginal ear rings?

Was hoping to take it in this week Bill but it's not looking promising. Way, way too sick. No point going out and mingling with the rest of humanity as I'll simply be a harbinger of disease.

[Nicos]

I hope you washed your hands before typing that message Starling???

Hope you feel better soon.

[Starling]

I hope you washed your hands before typing that message Starling???

Hope you feel better soon.

Thanks Nico, a bit better today. Might be good to get back to it tomorrow, life willing.

[Starling]

Back To Work

Alright, so the good news is two tubs are now set in the ground, and the hard work is over. The bad news is that I don't have nearly enough spalls, so there goes the budget. Meh. What are you gonna do?


Have sanded back the porcelain and begun fixing the stones place. One tub has been filled--actually lot more area inside than I had expected, and I only really became aware of this when I started filling it. The mix is sand, different grades of gravel, pine fines, chicken manure, pearlite, vermiculite, and compost. Mulched with pine chips, which gets more attractive over time as it darkens.

I've planted a wai chee Lychee in this tub. It's a reliable producer in the subtropics, and is a 'chicken's beak' variety meaning it has a small seed. It's been needing a good home for some time and has some solar damage owing to being left in a very hot spot on a very hot day last summer, but it will bounce back ok. Lychees are a beautiful evergreen trees an quite ornamental. I'm guessing this one will be good to grow to 3M or so in a container this size.

[Starling]

In for a penny, in for a pound

Well, I said I was over the digging side of things, which was a bit premature. I decided that if I'm going to have to spend more money on spalls, I might as well extend the bed.

I had an old refrigerator in the shed which I've been using to keep oil in etc, but really needed to get rid of it. Onward.

So I pulled the door off, puled out the shelving, dug a gigantic trench and set the thing in the ground too. 360 liters--which is quite a good volume. I'll plant a mango tree in this one; it's a realistic sized container for a mango as they need a lot of root area if they are going to produce a decent crop. I've chosen a variety called nam doc mai, which is a long, thai mango. They are sold on 'dwarf' roostocks here in Aus, but believe me when I tell you this--there is no such thing as a dwarf mango. A dwarf mango is still a f'ing HUGE tree. Very invasive root systems also...they can make very short work of plumbing.


And this is the kind of clay I have to deal with. You couldn't grow a weed in this. Side note: want a pair of indestructible boots? Ariat ropers. Had these for years and have taken incredible abuse, still going strong. I think thyey were about 150$ AUD like 5 years ago.




Here's the fridge. If you ever want to use a fridge as a planter or whatnot, be aware that the oil inside the cooling tubes is carcinogenic. The gas is inert and non toxic. I found this out before I started ripping into the thing, I called a second hand fridge dealer and repair man. So don't get the oil on your skin!




Well, here's the thing set in the ground. It's not perfectly level with the tubs, its out a few mil, but this shouldn't be noticable after laying the stones and mulching.




And here's where I'm at so far. The two new additions are a giant Siam carambola, and an Ice -Cream Bean tree. This area is turning into a bit of a hospice. All the trees planted so far have taken a beating and are in need of homes. I love carambola (star fruit) the most refreshing of fruits IMO. Beautiful. Ice cream bean should be renamed fairy floss bean....tastes exactly like fairy floss.

[Nicos]

Looking good!
Well done with all the hard work!

One question.....

Did you drill a hole for drainage in the fridge?
Or did you block the bath drainage holes to keep the roots contained?
I don't quite understand the watering/ drainage system you have in place for the baths and now the fridge.

[Starling]

Looking good!
Well done with all the hard work!

One question.....

Did you drill a hole for drainage in the fridge?
Or did you block the bath drainage holes to keep the roots contained?
I don't quite understand the watering/ drainage system you have in place for the baths and now the fridge.

Thanks nicos. The upside is I have a body like spiderman after all this, haha! I suppose there has to be some immediate payoff for my better half...she'd not exactly thrilled with my fruit tree habit

On the point of drainage, I'm kind of taking a punt. My bet is that I just don't get enough rain, even in summer, for this to be a problem. Sometimes there are incredible torrential events, but in those times, drainage or not, the plants will be sitting in water. Really no viable contingency plan for 300 plus ml of rain in several hours. I expect the water would simply pour over the sides in a situation like that, and the rest would either be absorbed/evoporate pretty quickly. In summer I won't see a day under 34 degrees unless there is rain--you'd be amazed at how quickly water dissipates from soil in those conditions. Any fruit trees not in pots need to be watered, quite heavily, pretty much every day.

All of the plants I've put in situ so far can handle wet feet--the only iffy one being the mango which has yet to go in. Mangoes are prone to root rot--which is very weird, considering they come from monsoonal India. Go figure.

I'm pretty sure I'll get away with it. The vermiculite, coir and peat moss sucks up and holds quite a bit of water and expands. Actually works against root rot whilst holding water.

If you wanted to create drainage, you'd have to line the bottom with gravel, and run a hose of some description from the draiange hole of the tub (if fridge, you'd have to bore one out) out the side of the hole on a decline. This wouldn't be so hard to do and the water could be diverted to another area of the garden. Alternatively, the stones could just be stacked around the standing tub (unburied) and holes drilled in the side. I did consider doing this, but ultimately decided it wasn't necessary. In a high rainfall area it might be. I did a little test with one of the tubs recently, stood there hosing, and hosing, and hosing the thing then had a dig around in the soil. My conclusion was that I'd need a LOT of rain to turn one into a well....I doubt I'll get there very often.

oh--here are pictures of starfruit (carambola) and ice cream bean. In south America, the seeds of the Inga are eaten like legumes after the fruit has been eaten.

[bearded bloke]

Here's the fridge. If you ever want to use a fridge as a planter or whatnot, be aware that the oil inside the cooling tubes is carcinogenic. The gas is inert and non toxic. I found this out before I started ripping into the thing, I called a second hand fridge dealer and repair man. So don't get the oil on your skin!

In the UK there is a law that say's friges & freezers must be degassed by a qualified engineer using the proper equipment, same also applies to air conditioning.

A little light reading ........ http://www.wastebook.org/refrig.htm

[Starling]

In the UK there is a law that say's friges & freezers must be degassed by a qualified engineer using the proper equipment, same also applies to air conditioning.

A little light reading ........ Refrigeration equipment

lol because of CFC's from gutting old fridges really makes a difference to anthropogenic warming given that we all drive cars, take planes and buses, and have shoes with soles made of SF6 which has a warming potential over 20,000 times that of co2, right? What is the warming cost of actual having someone drive out and perform this task? Absurd. An ethical trap.

I do not abide, nor recognize, Nanny laws. We're meant to recycle fridges here too and have them professionally degassed. That's not something I'll ever be up for.There's just no way I'll ever fork out money for that, ever--irregardless of what is stipulated by the pertaining legislation. It's just money grabbing, infantile pedantry. A glorified form of stamp duty.

Think for yourself, and question authority.

[veggiechicken]

I thought you were in the legal business? I would have expected you to uphold the law, not break it when it suits you

[bearded bloke]

Thanks for that VC, it's far more polite than I would have been, I shall compose my thoughts & post them later this afternoon