eggsandgreens

Well I have to say I’m extremely disappointed with the Gflow greywater filter and diversion system I bought a few months back. The filter blocks up all the time, which means manual cleaning with a high pressure hose. They also recommend filling it full of bleach once a month to clean out the internals - that’s going to do the plants a shit load of good. One week I just didn’t get time to clean it which of course was one of those weeks of 40 degree heat every day.  This caused our heathy, fruit filled fig tree to drop all its leaves and almost pack it in as it didn’t get any water. Another kick in the back from this poorly designed product which I originally had to pump full of silicon to get it to actually hold water without leaking. Enough was enough, I went down to the local landscape supplier, nursery and hardware store, spent about $60 and made my own. I never have to clean the filter, it doesn’t leak, it cost me around $500 less and it wins hands down for looks. It uses native South Australian reeds and rushes to oxygenate the water. This creates it’s own micro ecosystem and removes more pathogens than the old system did. I was able to connect it up to the current supply line and distribute the water just like I had with the bullshit Gflow.

Okay, okay, I haven’t blogged for a good 3 months now. So much has happened, yet so little blogging. Anyway to get me back on track here’s a photo of our dear little lebanese eggplants which have finally come to bear. I took these guys to our annual trip to Kangaroo Island and made a killer curry; whilst the last batch I marinated to take to a friends barbeque. I promise to blog more now - motivated by trouser’s (who has disappeared from the blog world) last sarcastic comments.

 

At last some of our potatoes are ready. I planted a whole heap of different varieties, so i’m not sure which ones these are. They look like they might be Pontiac or Desiree, maybe someone can tell me… I think rosemary and potato pizzas are on the cards.

 

Last Friday our dear little Milla Alice was born. Ouch. Now we are four.

 I planted this Macadamia tree for her. It’s a Australian native called ‘Beaumont’. Im sure my brother would be proud.

My anemometer in action.



Here’s another geeky graph. Wind Speed & Air Pressure from October through Demeber (present). The batteries in the remote display went dead and I didn’t realize until almost 2 weeks later. Hence the graph drop off between the 19th November to 2nd December. Now I’ve got it hooked up to power so I shouldn’t loose any more data. Click the picture for a larger view.

After some late nights of researching, I think I’ve found a simple, efficient and cost effective greywater treatment system. It’s called Gflow. However it is a compromise still though, as it doesn’t filter out all of the possible nasty’s which means you can’t use it to water the veggie patch, but you can use it to water fruit trees and ornimentals. Plus this only cost $450 compared to $2.5-10k for a full blown treatment system that does all your greywater - but those suckers require power, regular expensive maintenace and are all in all quite expensive and energy hungry to run. This one also only hooks up to your washing machine or evaporative air conditioner, although i think its because it’s using the inbuilt pump of these devices to generate pressure & flow.



Here are some pics of the drip layout which is tapped into the main supply line (20mm poly pipe).





Now i just need to cover the area in 100mm of mulch and we should be cooking with washing water :). By the way I am still not 100% happy with the product as the main 3 outlets leak and required to heafty plumbers tape and now I am thinking I may have to buy some rubber seals for it.  You’d think if they are designing and selling a water holding device they might test it to make sure it does actualy hold water without leaking… sadly not… 

Two weekend’s ago Asha and I planted some sweet corn, zucchinis and watermelon seedlings.  I’ve been really slack at posting over the last few weeks - here’s a pic anyway. More photos of the corn and zucchinis to come.

 

I planted some lebanese eggplants about a month ago after setting up a semi make-shift new veggie patch. They struggled for ages and again I think there was way too much manure in the garden, but the site was a old rubble heap so some serious organic matter was definately needed. Any-whooooo they are now finally happy and are growing bigger by the minute.

 

Our first harvest of baby carrots. We pulled them up yesterday, gave half to Nonna for her 60th birthday and will roast the rest with some potatoes, rosmary and garlic. Yum!



 

We picked some of our broad beans today. Love broad beans. We are having BBC and rice for tea. Yum …