Selim Ben Abdallah

Hi all, we've built our first ever rainwater collection system using two IBC tanks and now we need to connect it to our drip irrigation system in the garden. The challenge here is that the house is downhill from the garden, so we need to pump up (about 10 feet) to reach it and cannot rely on gravity.

Our plan is to buy a small transfer pump to meet our needs (which we calculate to be around 2.5 GPM and 30-35 PSI). We calculate our numbers based on getting the water up the 10' climb, and across about 130' of horizontal piping, using a 1" pipe.

This is new to us, so I'm hoping someone on here with experience in pumps can help answer a few questions, namely:

1. Do you have any recommendations of pumps that meet our requirements or brands that we should look for? Or any brands/pumps we should avoid?

2. We're planning to connect our pump to smart outlet so we can turn it on and off more easily over wifi, by simply turning the power to it on and off. Does anyone with experience with pumps know if that's a good idea or a possibly bad one? I'm not sure if pumps were designed to be turned on and off that way.

3. Because our totes are covered in black sheeting, we can't see when they're low/empty. Should we be concerned about what happens if the pump turns on when the tank is empty? Can that break the pump?

4. Any recommendations for a way to keep track of how much water the pump is actually pumping when it's on? Our system is normally connected to LinkTaps that have a water flow meter that tell us how many gallons are moving through it each pumping. Anything that might help us to do that with a pump?

Sorry for all the questions! We just wanna avoid investing in something that's not right for the job we have and/or breaking a perfectly good pump because we planned wrongly or bought the wrong one.

Thank you!!

Hi,
I’m building an insect hotel that include a shelter for ladybugs. Would it count as a ladybug house to complete this BB?

Hi,

We started a permaculture vegetable garden last year and I’ve been composting with this method for few month because I think it’s the best way to do it (fast, easy, bring fertility and life activity back).

Unfortunately we have a lot of rats in our backyard and they dig the mulch for the food scrap, witch is fine. But because I don’t wanna attract them in the garden, I changed my strategy.

Now I layer a pile composed of straws, wood chips, comfrey, whatever I’m chopping and trimming and I add the food scrap and coffee ground. Then I shred/mix the pile with the lawn mower and drop it as mulch. So the food scrap is shredded and incorporated to the mulch.


Though, for the purpose of this BB I removed the mulch in a spot one of my beds, I dropped about 1.5 gallon of food scrap and I covered it back with the mulch.


My other ways to use the food scrap is to feed the worm factory then cover the food with shredded paper, and to feed the worm towers of my 2 wicking beds by lifting the straw on top, dropping the food and putting back the straws.

I hope this could be enough to validate this badge.

Urinating next to the comfrey after chopping it down to help the regrowth

Hi,
I have a permaculture vegetable garden on about 700 square feet.

Ive been chopping and dropping regularly from the beginning to keep a good layer of mulch everywhere.
For the purpose of this BB, I took a pictures of plants in front of the house that we needed to trim and drop them in the biodiversity zone.

I have also a fertile zone with 160 square feet full of comfrey that I Chop (shred) and Drop once every 4 to 5 weeks.

And finally, the hill in the back of the house has been chopped by the city to prevent fire and waiting for the sheep to come eat the dried chopped straw and plants. I harvest time to time some to drop in in my garden.

Slugs likes to eat greens in decomposition first. That’s why they get attracted by compost. If they have no green in decomposition, they will eat the weakest plant (transplant, young plant, stressed plant, etc...). So just add some of the food scrap food to your mulch and they will eat it first.
Slugs are vital for a healthy garden. They help to bring back fertility by digesting the food scrap and they attract beneficial predators. Their mucus is rich in nitrogen. They eat fungi but they don’t digest the spores, instead their digestion activates the spores witch means they helps to spread the mycelium.
Work with them and they’ll become an asset

Hi everybody!
Happy to find this online community, and being able to exchange general knowledge and kindness.

I just moved to SF Bay and I am also looking to meet people in real and exchange seeds and specific knowledge about my new context. Does anyone of you knows the permaculture groups and community around me?

Thanks to everybody and I’m excited to continue this journey with you all!