While I was still in Los Angeles, we set up an urban farm. I did not have access to water in the parking spots so I made an automated watering system from a water tote, an RV water pump and a solar battery system. I would just fill the tote once a week with my forklift. This was all working pretty well until the landlord threatened to evict me if I didn’t remove it.
After being forced to move my garden indoors, I created a hybrid hydroponic and soil gardening system. I fed the plants with a worm compost tea that I made in the shop. Ultimately, the electricity requirement would’ve been way too high to keep most of the plants live. However, as a proof of concept it worked out pretty well.
After moving out of Los Angeles to our new property in Arizona, we now have 4 acres to work with and a home on the property to live in. Down the road we will be putting in a complete aquaponics greenhouse system and grow some cannabis for research purposes to support our main business, Intelligent Harvest Systems.
The first line of business was to get some fruit trees planted so we can give them time to grow and hopefully provide fruit in a few years. The soil on the property is a mix of sand and clay with a lot of large rocks. Knowing that the rocks will significantly stunt the growth of the trees, I rented an excavator and dug the holes 3 feet in diameter by 3 feet deep and remove most of the rocks.
The native soil is high in minerals, but low in biological life so it needed to be significantly amended. I brought in rock dust, worm castings, 20 yards of top soil, peat moss, mushroom compost and 3 pallets of steer manure. To give the fruit trees the best chance at thriving, I used the Ellen White/Blueprint method of planting. In total, I am planting about 60 fruit trees of every possible variety. 17 of the trees are almonds and are already 3 to 4 inches in diameter. I got these trees as they are pulled out of an almond orchard, and I transplanted them into my yard. It will be interesting to see how well they do, as the root systems suffered a lot of stress from being pulled out of the ground. In hopes of giving them the best opportunity possible I made their holes 4 feet in diameter by 4 feet deep.
Additionally, I’m planting 60 Mondale Pines around the perimeter of the property to act as a wind break.
Stay tunes for more updates.
Additionally, I’m planting 60 Mondale Pines around the perimeter of the property to act as a wind break.
Stay tunes for more updates.
