Rick Stelter

maphokeng metseeme wrote:Good day Permies,


How do you rehabilitate mine dumps for permaculture/ organic farming with all the metals with decaying copper and lead in the water?  Much appreciated.

Maphokeng
Johannesburg
South Africa

I live in Colorado. And have lived in Kentucky. ,ost of the problems with mine waste and wastewater is that it is highly acidic, dissolving heavy metals and being to acidic to allow much life processes. Lowering acidity will ;power the amount of metals and toxins present.
Limestone lined ponds fa, s and streambeds can help. But retention times are critical. Adding bio-chat, compost or just plant waste can help but it will take years and lots of experimenting.
There's no simple solution, and usually the scale of damage is huge and there's no handbook or procedures to follow. Experimentation, patience and time are required. Keep sharing your results and mostly, keep on trying!

Hugo Morvan wrote:Having to deal with the risk of wildfires for the first time this year is quite energy intensive.
I still want to grow vines up the walls, but clear them yearly so no deadwood build up can set ablaze the rafters and roof in that way. It will keep the vines lower as well having to start anew. So i am asking people which vines would flourish under such a regime. And which ones do not mind the heat and drought without catching fire..

Another thing is the build up of dried plants at the wall level. Should i grow plants, should i just gravel it over... Quite borring. Or should i start a rock garden there? What are people's experiences with that. I know government regulations ask me to gravel and cement all around the house  but i couldn't imagine anything worse to do to the place, so what are the options? Am i maybe thinking in completely the wrong direction?

I still want to keep woody debris and compost that away from the house, how do people do that in a quick way.

Maybe there is already a lot of information out there to find in websites and so on.
Try hops, grapevines, pruned back every year to just 4 arms with maybe 4-10 buds. Woodbine vines don't accumulate much woody material. ,moonflower or morny glory are short lived, but could be replanted annually.

Jackson Bradley wrote:That vent boot was done correctly. The seal around the pipe could have leaked or wind driven rain could have blown up under the shingles over the boot flashing. I'd get a tube of asphalt crack sealer and run a bead at the edge of the shingles over the metal boot flashing and also cover the 2 nails visible on the boot. Unless the seal around the vent PVC failed, I am not entirely sure that is your culprit.

I can't quite see the PVC boot on the vent pipe, it's quite common that it is pushed down and forms a cup next to the pipe, not a problem until the plastic ages and a pinhole develops... I noticed that there's no wtor, collar on the pipe, you can get on from a hardware store and slip it over the pipe above the vent collar.

Rob Evers wrote:I will have to check on that.  Thanks.  What size do you all think would be good.  I was thinking of doing 16x40

I think that is an excellent size. Not too small, which leads to tempature control problems, and not so large as to be too much to take care of in a reasonable amount of time.
You also may want to consider thermal mass to moderate temps as well.

S Bengi wrote:Heater:
Plants like the extra CO2, so I would place the heater inside the greenhouse vs outside. The radiant PEX pipe heating sounds like a wonderful idea to warm the soil vs just the air.

Insulation:
I recommend insulating the floor and walls that are in contact with the soil. This would be with regular EPS foamboard, same as the ones used in houses.

Glass/Roof Insulation:
Normally the "glass" is not insulated. You could get a double pane/layer "glass", polycarbonate sheet or inflated poly-film. they do have some roll down "blanket" mats for a few Chinese style greenhouse but then you have roll them down and roll them up, and remove snow. Yes remove the snow, which to me just sounds like a type of punishment.


Have you considered a Beadwall system?  Google it and Zomeworks.and  It's somewhat technical, but the airport in Aspen, Colorado had one.  It was fascinating to watch. 6 inches of beads is abour R-15..