Mini Greenhouse Tables

The blog has been quiet lately while I've been working on a project to grow fresh greens (lettuce, spinach, arugula, etc). The problems I'm trying to overcome are slugs and turkeys. Slugs not only eat holes in the leaves, but contaminate them with slime. We have rat-lung disease in this island, and slug slime can pass the parasite. And of course, turkeys can eat the entire crop in less than a hour. 

For the slugs, I've tried hand picking, using ducks, using traps, and spreading around slug bait. While all these help keep the numbers down, I still get slugs. But when it comes to safely eating fresh greens, I need to have zero slugs. So far the only zero slug environment has been achieved via protected hydroponics. I don't have a hydroponic system at the moment, but I might go back to a small one in the future, or maybe an aquaponic system. Right now I don't have the time to devote to it. Aaaaah, a future project! 

I figure I need to create something the slugs have a hard time accessing, or is easy to exclude them in some way. Plus a way to also confound the turkeys at the same time. What I'm building for my fresh greens could also be used for other crops. But I'm going to start out with lettuce, spinach, arugula, and other fresh greens. You know....the stuff that gets eaten raw. 

Ok......take wood pallets, some repurposed 2x4s, salvaged 1/2" plastic pipe, a worn out garden hose, and a donated roll of poly plastic sheeting. I have old paint (every color mixed together... it comes out a funky rosy grey) on hand for projects like this. I sprung for a new box of nails and a box of screws. Yes, you could use new stuff, but I'm opting to re-use when I can...low input/low impact farming. But in the end I wound up buying a few more pipes and a roll of plastic sheeting to finish off the last of the tables. 

I used 24" long pieces of 2x4s to put legs onto the wood pallets. Much of the time the tables were stable enough, but for the shaky ones I added bracing. 

Next I painted them. Just because it will look better in the end if they are all the same color. 

Took the pipe and cut it into 10' lengths. I could have used longer or shorter lengths, but the pieces I had lent themselves well to 10'. Drilled holes in the ends for the nails as they got nailed to the pallets. They're fairly shaky, so I attached a top rail (with screws) to connect the two hoops together. Then bracing was added (guava saplings cut to length) and screwed into place. Now the hoops were pretty stable. 

Attaching the poly plastic sheeting was a challenge. It was just difficult to work with with the lovely dang tropical breezes. It took a lot of patience and a bit of cussing. Short pieces of the old garden hose holds the plastic to the hoop. Just slice the hose so that it opened up and wrapped snugly to the pipe hoop. All that's needed is one screw to hold it in place. 

A short piece of scrap wood nailed over the plastic holds it to the pallet. 

That's basically it. I leveled up the table by propping a rock or piece of wood scrap under the legs. 

What's under the tables? Depending upon the spot, either worn out tarps or/and well used drop cloths. I have access to old linens which are handed out to people who need them, but some are too worn or stained for people to want. These get added to my drop cloth collection. 

So far I have 16 of these built. Perhaps I'll add a few more. We'll see. 

Next I'll show you what I'm growing in these mini greenhouses and how I'm doing it. 

 

Turkey Intelligence?

Who ever said that turkeys are a wiley game bird? From what I've seen back in NJ (with wild turkeys) and what I've witnessed here (with feral Rio Grande), this species is lucky it's not extinct. They might be alert for predators, but they surely lack on problem solving intelligence. 

Case......I was weeding to gardens along the front of the property, then mowed the grass along the road for grass clippings to spread over those freshly cleaned up garden beds. The entire job took me about 1 1/2 hours. All that time a small band of turkeys were trying to get from my neighbor's front pasture into my front pasture. 

There's a 42" wire stock fence along the property line. The birds found the fence to be a formidable barrier. 

Not just a hinderance or an annoyance to be flown over or walked around, but instead it was a complete blockage. Those birds fussed along that fence for the entire 1 1/2 hours. 

They stood exactly in that same spot along the fence. They didn't even try walking further up or down the fence line. Periodically one bird or another would try to walk through the fence. They'd poke their head and neck through and try to push the rest of themselves through the opening too small for them to fit. 

Incredibly I watched this the entire time I was working. Nothing ever changed. I wondered just how long these birds were going to be stuck there. 

Geez Louise.....witless birds. When I finally finished and was ready to put the lawnmower away, I decided to move things along for those stuck turkeys. I took a short run towards them in a mock attack. As a unit they promptly flew over the fence. Mission accomplished !

Turkeys

Feral turkeys. Not truely wild ones in Hawaii, but feral. They came from domestic stock, not wild populations. How'd they get to an island in the middle of the pacific? Well...a long, long time ago in a land far, far away......stop. Wrong beginning. Reboot...........

Many years ago domestic turkeys were imported for releasing here. Reason....to provide a food source for locals and as a game bird for hunting businesses. Importation occurred numerous times, starting in the late 1800's, with the most recent large release being in the 1940's (I'm told, but  I wasn't around then) Additional intentional releases took place up until 1960's.  Rio Grandes are the predominate type currently thriving. Those that set up life on Big Island were highly successful. But there were several other turkey breeds introduced over the decades. I would guess the various strains interbred, but what is now running around my area of the islands is of the Rio Grande ilk. They all have the buffy-tan band on their tail feathers, a decidedly Rio Grande trait. 

Regardless of which breed or strain of turkey I have running around here, they are a pain in the neck for gardeners. And while I admire their slug eating capabilities, I wish that they'd leave the veggies alone. Come on guys, why are onion leaves so appealing? And carrot tops? Geez. Did you know that a turkey can peck out each individual pea from a pod whole leaving the pod intact on the plant? When turkeys invade a garden, I don't get even one pea, not one! 

But there's a  plus side to turkeys......good eating. Yes, older birds are tough and stringy. They need to be used to make stock, or else ground up and pressure cooked. But get them young and they can be just as tasty and tender as store bought, but much more flavorful. 

Right now I have five turkeys wanting to set up house keeping in the main garden areas. Two momma hens and three youngsters. 

This morning the group greeted me as I stepped out my front door. Geez Louise, they are begging for grain right along with the young chickens! The word is out that there's a free buffet up at the house.