North Texas Vegetable Gardeners Forum
General => Show Us Your Garden => Topic started by: Brian Gallimore on February 05, 2012, 09:14:13 PM
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Linda posted this on the facebook group page (https://www.facebook.com/groups/58399429851/) ---I am reposting it here so people see it forever!
This was in 2010 the first year using our pool garden.
I thought about making a blog about it so that others with a pool they want to get rid of, would see this is other option. Most pools are put in a sunny spot and most have walkways around them, perfect garden material. Its just getting the dirt. I'm lucky that we have large equipment to haul it in and places to get it. The pool was 30,000 gallons, so it took a lot of dirt to fill it in. Then, it started raining. For a while it was kind of dangerous, like quicksand. I never stepped off into it when it was real wet, but i could tell you'd sink pretty deep. It took a bit for it to settle and we kept adding. Now its stable. I plant things i pick daily at the edge, that way i can walk out barefoot or in house shoes if i want and not get dirty. My herb area is where the steps are, very easy to get to for a hand full of basil, parsley etc. All in all, its worked out great.
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Since we turned our pool into a garden, it left us with a pool house that housed pumps and filters. We sold all the equipment, took down the metal walls. I found someone on craigslist who had taken down a structure and were selling some used polycarbonite, double walled, for a terrific price and just the right amount too. We used a sliding glass door from my parents house after a remodel. The black barrels are our heaters, they are filled with water and retain heat during the night. Unless we get a week of cloudy freezing weather, these barrels keep the room above freezing all winter. We have 11, and they hold up the work tables that we made to short to begin with, they are perfect on the barrels.
most everything in there is salvaged from somewhere, even the wood used in the table, to the gravel on the floor. We have windows we took out of an old house in there also. I hated this building when it was the pool house, skunks loved going in there. I'm terrified of skunks, not because i'm afraid they bite, but i know if i got sprayed it would kill me
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Does the water get funky? Mosquitoes? Do you change it out? If so, how do you drain the barrells?
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Does the water get funky? Mosquitoes? Do you change it out? If so, how do you drain the barrells?
I think she filled the whole pool up with soil, so there isn't any standing water most of the time.
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Does the water get funky? Mosquitoes? Do you change it out? If so, how do you drain the barrells?
I think she filled the whole pool up with soil, so there isn't any standing water most of the time.
Sorry, was unclear. I meant the barrels.
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Since we had a pool, i had other things i used and one was a solar bubble cover. I cut them to fit over the water. I didnt put the tops on the barrels because it would make it hard to keep them full since they hold up my tables. So far, we've had no problems with mosquitoes. By fall, the water had dropped down to about 1/3rd down. I refilled them, cut new covers and all is good. I had planned on emptying them during the summer because i really thought they would be a mosquito problem, but it got to hot to even go in there so the water stayed. There was a bit of algae clumps but nothing smelly or gross. Its still in the experimental stage as far as how i keep water in them, but they were a success at holding heat and keeping the greenhouse warm on cold nights. Last year the only time i had to use heat was when we got covered in a foot of snow and had no sun for days. I'm guessing that as long as we dont have that again this year i will not have to get out my heaters at all. The room is 12x16, covered in double walled polycarbonite on 3 sides and roof, north side is still metal which isnt insulated yet and i suspect that i'll hold in more heat once that wall has insulation. The floor is reclaimed rock from a creek bed where water washed rock off the road. My main plan with the greenhouse was to house my hanging baskets over the winter. But i now have so much fun starting seeds and growing things, i need a bigger greenhouse now.
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The water-filled barrels as heaters - what a great idea.