Christian van der Stap

Thanks for the advice! I can continue with the plans.

In an attempt to present the idea more clearly, here is a picture of what I meant.

Hello,

I will be building raised beds in my garden soon. The pathways will have a thick layer of would chips on top of old cobblestones.

The borders I want to create with the concrete tiles (hurts-your-back size) as they are already in the yard and chucking them would be a waste and expensive.
Using these will create a rather deep barrier, which might impede the moisture exchange between path and bed. I could put in a bit more effort
(which I really don't mind) and make sure that the tiles are shaped like a square arc such that the water can pass, which might flush the soil into the path.

Are there other things to consider? Currently I am leaning towards the square arc.

I want to start creating my own compost in the backyard. For this I did research online but there are a couple of things that are not clear to me:

- Hot compost requires about 1m3 of materials a part (sources tell me about 30% of the volume) should be green. How can I "bank" enough greens to get that volume without it becoming a real mess? I saw one account of freezing the scraps but that feels like a total waste of energy.
- Why is dairy, meat and manure of meat eaters not allowed on a hot compost pile in some sources while other tell me "everything that has lived" is fine ? Since I do have a ferret pet and his litter is basically recycled newspaper it would be a great source of both carbon and nitrogen, but it is a carnivore.
- Can I create a pile on a paved surface ?
- Is the 1/3 green 2/3 brown mix a good measure of thumb to start out with ?

Cody DeBaun wrote:I would recommend a first flush diverter- they push the need to drain and clean a clogged IBC tote outlet back substantially, and can be quite simple and cheap.

like this one: pipe and bucket simple machine:

That is a nice design, however I would use a floating ball type because then the pipe can stay closed. When the IBC is full, the water will back fill to the gutter and flow towards the next pipe down to the sewers.

Steven Kovacs

Thanks for replying!

Where are you located?
51.61N, 5.29E

What do you mean when you say "to support them"?
Support them by growing beneficial plants near them

North of the fence might actually be a good location for pawpaws from what I've read - they supposedly need protection from direct sun while young, but can handle full sun once they get older (and thus maybe taller than the fence in your situation).
I would like to prevent any extra shade coming in as there is only 2m70cm of space behind the fence for a big part (see picture). Once the door on the side gets removed it will create a nice warm micro climate, will see what I can do with that (tomatoes?)

Morfydd St. Clair wrote:
I'd urge you to put at least a rain barrel in between your gutter and your soaking systems.  When it's raining, you don't need to add more water at the exact same time - you probably need it a couple of days later.  I'd be concerned about erosion or damage to young plants with a simultaneous double watering.  So I'd recommend blocking gutter runoff from the garden into storage, when it's full redirecting it *away* from the garden, and releasing it to the garden on dry days.

If my assumption is wrong, then you could just unblock the connection.  A rain barrel runs about $100 (some cities will provide subsidies, at least in the US) which is annoying if unneeded but probably small on the scale of a "water soaking system".

Best regards!

Thanks for inspiring me to rethink this. I managed to find a spot for an IBC to store water, I just need to add a downspout which runs from the main roof gutter to the IBC passing the flat roof. Here is the plan I have for doing to water works in the garden, the ditches will likely get a drainage pipe in them to spread the water quicker.

Current:


Planned:


I still need to figure out if I will need a first flush diverter or not, it seems that I can get away with not having one as I will only use the water for irrigation.

Tyler Ludens wrote:I believe that is called "open shade."

Thanks! after googling that term it is an exact match.

Mike Jay wrote:I think it depends on a few things...

- How tall are the fruit trees when you plant them (can they get sun if they can see over the fence)?
- How far from the fence would you plant them?  Right on the N side of the fence will be in the shade most of the time but 2 feet away should be more sunny.
- How is the morning and evening sun?  In the middle of the summer (Northern Hemisphere) the sun rises in the NE and sets in the NW so you may get some direct sun early and late.

My guess is that if you plant 4' high trees 1' away from the fence, they will get partial sun.  Once they get a foot or two taller they'd have nearly full sun unless you have other trees/buildings providing shade.  If you espalier them tight to the fence and keep them shorter than the fence, they'd be in full to part shade all the time.

The trees will be on the south side in the sun, I was wondering what to put on the north side to support them hence the shade classification question. The trees will be kept at the same height as the fence to not increase the shade.

Hello All,

I have a long fence almost pointing due south (170 degrees). So the front is getting full sunlight and I want to try and grow espalier fruit trees against it. The back side has no direct sun but otherwise no obstructions and lots of indirect light (picture taken on a full overcast day jan 01)


Does anyone know what the shade classification of the back side of the fence is ?

Thanks everyone,

It seems that it comes down to "It depends". I did some more research and it seems that on average I should have >1mm of rain every 2.5 days. What I will do is create the water soaking systems first and redirect the downspouts into them, I will add the storage later if need be.