Low Energy Garden Maintenance

The following images shows two ways we regularly maintain the orchard and garden at Die Manchmal Gruene Weide.

Plum and Apple Trees in Orchard

Above you can see the lower half of the orchard where we planted and maintain two apple trees, two European Plum Trees, one North-American-Native Mexican Plum tree, which produces rosa-green tinged soft, mildly sweet plums. There is more room below here in which we plan to plant pear trees next year.

Peach Trees and Blackberry bushes (to right)

Above we planted six (of which one died from deer eating it to death) peach trees. I named the healthy one in the lower right corner, "Inge's Peach Tree" because when I trimmed the other peach trees she insisted I not trim at least one tree and thus this tree remains untouched by any cutting implements. It is also the healthiest peach tree which Inge repeatedly reminds me that its healthy state directly results from its untrimmed state. 

Special Deep Cycle Truck Battery powers water pump for orchard watering.

First order of business after feeding and watering Herbie the donkey was to water the garden. I purchased a 12V battery powered pump a few months ago and used my truck battery to pump water for the orchard as you can see in truck picture below.  Originally I left the truck running, wasting gas. The battery didn't last long under the strain of using the pump, so I replaced the dead battery with a special deep cycle/cold crank dual purpose battery. Now I can water the garden with the battery alone (no truck running) and all our water barrels (only two of five brought and used today) for over an hour and the truck still cranks and charges the battery. I have all the supplies I need to build a solar powered battery charger but I haven't wired it up yet. Future project.

Water measuring containers for pump test today.

Today I decided to measure how long it takes to pump the well empty and measure how much water returns after 10 minutes of rest. It has not rained much this winter, far below average, so the water table is very low. I pumped the well empty after only about 62 gallons (235 liters) which just filled up the water trough. Last year I emptied it pumping about 80 gallons (302 liters). I waited 10 minutes and pumped it dry again which only took 1 minute and only pumped 2.5 gallons (9.5 liters). That gives a recharge rate of 1/4 gallon per minute - very very slow. When we had abundant rain I had roughly measured a recharge rate of about 4 gallons per minute so it appears the drought also affects the recharge rate as well, which makes sense.

After 10 minutes pumped well empty on 2.5 gallons water - not a strong refresh rate!

Overgrown Garden area and low power tool - a Sythe!

 We planted few vegetables this year because we plan to travel to Germany this summer and we don't have all the water we need to effectively care for the garden. We grow Asparagus, Green Beans, Jalapeno peppers, and lots of garlic this year. Above the non-planted area has become overgrown so I pulled out the scythe to trim out the garden. Two pictures showing before and one after scything images follow. Hot sweaty work but the tool works quite well. A mower is far more efficient at cutting to a uniform height, but there is a great deal of satisfaction in demonstrating that in a world of very high fuel prices, I have the wherewithal to maintain the garden without needing fuel.

Another view of Greenbeans and overgrown area we didn't plant this year.

Garden after sweaty scything session.