In the garden: An introduction

Hi folks, so I now have a decent sized garden and I decided to put a poly-tunnel in it so I can have a go at growing my own food.

Given that this is my first attempt at this kind of thing I don't have too many hopes for a plentiful bounty but we shall see come harvest time.

I understand that this post is fairly late on in to the growing season and you've missed all the prep that I've done. To summarise I bought some seeds online, so far I'm very happy with the supplier and I'll name them once I've done my first harvest. I bought some compost (4 60lt bags for £10) and some higher grade seed and cutting compost. Planted everything and watered it everyday.

A little bit about my setup:

Lettuce - Little gems growing in a plastic tub that I have sunken into a bench
Mixed salad - Scattered in a tray on the same bench as the lettuce
Tomatoes - different varieties started in seed trays 5 of each, then once the second leaves come through transferred the strongest 3 into buckets that are hanging on a rack
Cucumber and Cucamelon - started in seed trays and transferred to larger plant pots once the second leaves come through
Aubergines - Started in seed trays transferred to hanging buckets
Bell peppers - Started in seed trays transferred to hanging buckets
Habanero and Jalapeno peppers - Planted into ceramic pots from the start.
Peas - Planted outside into a long planter backed with trellis.
Herbs - Basil, Coriander, Marjoram, Lemon balm not having much luck with the lemon balm but the other three are doing okay, sown into small plastic plant pots from the start.

So that's pretty much the setup I'm going with for now, I'm struggling with some courgettes the older leaves are turning yellow, I'll stick it out and see how they do, I only want the courgettes for the flower because courgette flowers are pretty hard to find in the UK but they can be stuffed then dipped in tempura an fried which is what I plan to do with them.

Thanks for reading, any questions or comments please get in touch.

Back to fish tanks next time.

How to make an aquarium - Part 2 making the stand

Right so you've got your glass all cleaned up lets make something to put it on. The stands that you get in a lot of pet shops are foil board or fibre board and are pretty crappy and massively over priced for what they are.

Making a stand is a piece of piss and although I won't give you the exact plan or measurements I can explain what you're going to need to do.

Where does the support need to be?

So looking at this diagram the horizontal rectangle represents the top of your stand that your aquarium is going to sit on the vertical one represents the legs. If you place your aquarium on diagram A all of the stress is on the joint so the nails are screws are taking the full weight of your tank. If you place your aquarium on B the top is fully supported by the legs and that bad boy isn't going anywhere.

First top tip, provide a full support for your aquarium, what I mean by this is don't just build a frame for the tank to sit on

See how in A we only support the perimeter of the aquarium but in B we support the whole bottom of the tank, this probably isn't necessary but I like the added security that the bottom of my tank isn't going to bust out onto my electronics and gizmos under my tank. I always provide a styrene or foam-board layer between the aquarium and stand to correct any small unevenness that could put extra stress on the silicone joints.

What you should have now looks kind of like a table but those legs need bracing to give the stand some rigidity

By joining the legs up you make everything a little bit more stable. If you want to clad the stand then this will provide even more support, I recommend using screws for your connections and wherever possible use 2 per joint for example:

By using 2 screws or nails you stop the wood spinning around one point this again will add stability.

your new stand is only fit for purpose if you feel comfortable sitting on it, now I am a big dude and weigh a lot more than my nano tanks and my stands do not budge an inch. If it's rocking you're doing it wrong.

Tool list for this build:
- Jigsaw
- Selection of files
- Rotary tool with drill attachment and sanding attachment
- Screwdriver


To see my stand check out the video below.