Quote:
Originally Posted by David
Shawn,
I seriously think that with the amount of plants and plantlets you have, you can actually start a nursery and earn some money from it.
Question: The blue frames that made up the frame for the roof of your shadehouse... What material is that? Is that metal or palstic?
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Hi David,
Well, we'll see! For now I'm happy trading with people, passing the more common species on to nurseries/garden shops and friends (like the lady in the post office that now calls me the minute my packages arrive on the island!) to get them 'infected' and using them in my landscape jobs.
The blue frames are actually just 1/2" PVC pipes! On larger structures I'd use 3/4" pipes and really big ones I use 1" metal pipe but it has to be specially 'bent'. But this is so small that the 1/2" is fine. The first 'trick' is to make sure that the steel rebar is secure at the base (mine are 50 cm into the ground and then encased in concrete) and that they are at least 50 cm (mine are 75 cm.) above the ground so that when you slide the PVC onto them it really can't come off or move. The second trick is to tie them all together by taking another pipe and drilling holes all the way through, then using small drilled 'pilot' holes screwing each arch to the perlin (like beams) so that the structure becomes like a single unit rather than a bunch of floppy arches.
Upon starting to fill it up with water to test it out I realized I built in too much slope in the floor! The pots at the low end are in 2" of water when the high end is just starting to get wet...oh well, I know what I'll be doing this Saturday! Just glad I didn't fill it with any more plants yet.
