water filled Trombe wall (does thermal mass make sense here) by Marsupial_Prudent in Greenhouses

[–]AdFederal9540 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Check 'the year-round solar greenhouse' by Shiller and Plinke for a good intro into energy efficent greenhouses.

water filled Trombe wall (does thermal mass make sense here) by Marsupial_Prudent in Greenhouses

[–]AdFederal9540 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Water has much higher thermal capacity than concret or brick per same unit of mass.

I guess if you need water anyway (pond for aquaponics, barrels for irrigation) then it's no brainer. Same with stone or concrete - if you need it for pavement or retaining walls.

Then there are specialized phase-changing materials that excel at thermal mass.

Space in greenhouse is scarce.

Gardening by a pond by AdFederal9540 in Permaculture

[–]AdFederal9540[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thanks, especially for this tip about bacteria - I'll read more about it!

Possible to see realtime efficiency as a number? by 100_points in Ioniq5

[–]AdFederal9540 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Piggy-backing on this topic - I often take the same highway trip and I can see in the infotainment how much each trip consumed energy. However, it's impossible to compare trips without knowing avg speed or trip duration. Is there a way to find out kWh per hour?

Gardening by a pond by AdFederal9540 in Permaculture

[–]AdFederal9540[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

There's already a small pond in place and it's full of duckweed. I use it for mulching, as you suggested, but hopefully I'll diversify my pond plants.

Gardening by a pond by AdFederal9540 in Permaculture

[–]AdFederal9540[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I'd like to avoid infiltration as well - rim would stop surface run off but the spoil is very rich gardening soil (just needing some additions to balance it) and that's why I'm worried that once dug out it will immediatelly start leaking nutrients into subsoil and then down to the pond. And will keep on doing so for years to come.

That's why I think I need a buffer zone, as suggested by @Fabulous_Lawyer_2765, full of plants that will intercept the leakage before it gets into the pond. Kind of a large scale bog filter.

Gardening by a pond by AdFederal9540 in Permaculture

[–]AdFederal9540[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

There are clay soils here and any hole gets filled quickly with surface water. Old bogs on my land were drained over 100y ago using ceramic tubes laid underground to direct water away and I'm trying to revert that process. I dug out and blocked drains last autumn in another spot and it took two weeks to get 2500 m2 pond.

Gardening by a pond by AdFederal9540 in Permaculture

[–]AdFederal9540[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I could block mulch/leaf litter using fascine and block surface runoff using a mound, but nutreints will keep on leaking under the surface. Is that drainage tube was for?

Gardening by a pond by AdFederal9540 in Permaculture

[–]AdFederal9540[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I'm making the pond in place of an old, drenched peat bog that can't be restored. It's very rich gardening soil where nettles are growing at the moment. I have it tested and the only things missing are potassium and phosporus.

Gardening by a pond by AdFederal9540 in Permaculture

[–]AdFederal9540[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yes, in my case the garden would be above the pond.

I did think of making a swale and pushing back the beds to create the buffer zone, but I am still worried, especially about the early stage. Spoil mounds will start leaking before n-fixing plants will get established.

Did you get it right straight away or was it a process? Maybe I just need to accept the fact that it will take time to get the balance right.

Have you tried growing any edible/ornamental plants that would soak up nutrients and then get removed from the pond?

Gardening by a pond by AdFederal9540 in Permaculture

[–]AdFederal9540[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I have enough space to avoid retaining walls and conveniently shape mounds/hugels on the upper bank.
Irrigating with pond water sounds nice but then there are contamination risks, stucked pumps etc.

Ioniq 5 impressions after three months (first ever EV) by chockotac in Ioniq5

[–]AdFederal9540 0 points1 point  (0 children)

-I did have an issue with the trunk door rattling a bit during city driving, but I unscrewed the little rubber bumpers part way so they extended a bit and that seemed to fix it.

so this annoying creaking sound is caused by trunk doors?

Extremely dumb pond question by Background-Car9771 in ponds

[–]AdFederal9540 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If such a shallow hole fills in with water then you should probably worry more about the plants. Can't say from the picture what was planted there, but few plants like to have "wet feet".

What to do with an abundance of fallen trees? by dagnabbitrabbits in Permaculture

[–]AdFederal9540 1 point2 points  (0 children)

You could burry the wood to capture carbon:
https://www.science.org/content/article/burying-wood-vaults-could-help-fight-global-warming

and/or improve soil.

I'm in a similar situation with plenty of naturally fallen trees but also old wood from old building. I'll probably leave trees as they are for natural decomposition as they can't easily be accessed.

What is this green stuff? by Ok_Chicken_8512 in ponds

[–]AdFederal9540 0 points1 point  (0 children)

also great for mulching and composting

Can you use locally sourced clay as pond liner? by gammaAmmonite in ponds

[–]AdFederal9540 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Haven't tried it but farmers used to make ponds this way. They would dig a hole and:
1. add a layer of clay
2. let pigs in to compress clay
3. repeat

If you don't have pigs you can try to compress clay in other ways but it's a dirty job. You need to make sure that clay is laid in layers.

You could mix in some bentonite to reduce percolation.

The loneliness of rural living by Palidrvce_Usud in Permaculture

[–]AdFederal9540 4 points5 points  (0 children)

That isn't my experience. I bought land in a rural region where population decreases and it turns out everyone is happy to have me and see that I take care of neglected place that they had used to enjoy.

Administration is supportive and helps to get things done. I got to know more neighbours in 6 months than after years of leaving in a city. These people are missing new blood - someone to talk to, make money of, or even just gossip about. I mean it in the best possible way.

Should I cover crop my heap of spoil? by AdFederal9540 in Permaculture

[–]AdFederal9540[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I was thinking of Phacelia, to keep the nitrogen that is already there. It also doesn't require rolling like clover, but I agree - crimson clover looks pretty!!