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Spicy Chickens cheap grow boxes, anyone can do it. ;-) post 30 forward

Spicy Chickens Round Circle PVC Beds: The Making Of
 
 
I have many requests through the years asking me, how what why.
 
In 2006 I won a local eBay auction for more than a thousand PVC tubes for only $20 :dance: 
 
Originally planning to use them as fence post for our livestock, we just eat the critters instead. ;-)
 
Now what to do with these pipes. Hmmmm
 
Gardening is great except the part of bending over and picking the weeds plus the fact that we live in such a low lying area that if we do not raise our beds, torrential rain will turn our gardens into a mud pits and rot the roots. ( lesson learned here the first year)
 
So one spring as I was contemplating the raised bed constructed of just hilled dirt, this idea popped in and the rest is history.

 
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First: The pips are 3 inches in diameter, 6 foot long and roughly schedule 40, they are not perfect like you would buy for plumbing because they were made as center tubes for large rolls of paper from the mill.
 
Now I don't have any pics of me driving them into the ground, but I just cut them in half square and sledge hammered them in, cutting a 45 degree angle made the leading edge wander as you drove them in.
 
There are roughly 78 per circle, driven into the ground about a foot. I’m here to tell you that is a lot of swings. Lol at only 50 hits each, 20 circles is 78,000 hits.
 
To make the circle, I cut a 6 foot 2x6 and drilled a 1 inch hole in the center. A 7/8 inch steel stake about 2 foot long was driven through the hole into the ground so the 2x6 would spin. Than standing on the board the pipes were placed at the end and driven in, spin the board a little and drive another etc. till the circle was made.

 
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Now to cut the tops: I ripped 1/2 OSB about 16 inches wide, cut the proper angles to make an octagon with the flat sides being just over 6 foot, than staggered the joints and glued and screwed together, jigsaw worked great for cutting the outside exactly 6 foot  round.
 
A 24 foot ratchet strap was loosely tightened around the upper area of pipes holding the OSB circle in place but allowing me move it up and down, using a level I made it plum and tightened the ratchet strap, using a sawzall cutting the pipes off flush with the OSB.
 
For fastening them together I  screwed in drywall screws from both directions in the open end tops and released the clamps. For the first 2 years this worked just fine but eventually the pipes started to elongate do to the pressure, so one spring I shoveled the dirt to the center and re- ratchet strapped then banded with electric fence wire but other steel substrates could be used.

 
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When we first started I could get wagon loads of organic compost for $25 each from a farmer a couple miles down the road, but eventually this became unavailable. We filled the bottom half with sand for drainage and the upper half with sifted topsoil. To plant our peppers I would set the root ball on top of the soil and pull dirt up around it as you can see in the pic, then fill around them with 4 to 5 inches of weed seed free compost. 
 
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Need a bump please  ;)
 
 
 
Thanks Mikey!
 
To water the circles we put 2-330 gallon totes on the wagon pulled by the tractor, hooked them in series with a 3/4  inch garden hose and 4 foot wand with ball valve. Watering only took place about every 4 or 5 days so the water in the totes would be nice and warm sitting in the hot sun. ;-) Liquid organic fish emulsion, cal-mag and Epsom salts were mixed in the tanks just before watering  
 
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Since we no longer have [SIZE=18.18181800842285px]access to wagon loads of compost, we now use black plastic mulch.[/SIZE]
 
[SIZE=18.18181800842285px]Here are some pics of how the beds get planted every spring.[/SIZE] 
 
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One more bump please  ;) 
 
Despite being here for a while now I've never come across your projects until the last week or so Jeff.  Really amazing DIY solutions to your specific situation and circumstances, but also good and thorough enough to inform/inspire just about anyone with a hammer and a will to DIY.  I'm thankful you devoted the time to document and post these various projects, the length and details of which are a significant addition to the community.  Bumpity bump kudos indeed Spicy Chicken :D
 
Thank you JJJessee and SmokenFire, Very kind word and my  pleasure.
 
Just wanted to add some end [SIZE=18.18181800842285px]result[/SIZE] pics of the circles taken through the years, if you ever get a chance to do this, go for it!
 
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[SIZE=18.18181800842285px]suppose[/SIZE] that's enough lol 
 
Thanks for stopping by! Cheers - Jeff
 
Very nice Jeff. Glad to see you back posting on here.
 
I take it by your last couple of pics that you only harvest them once at the end of the season? I guess that is all the time you probably have in the short season up north.
 
I know you said you are only doing a small grow this year. Would you only be using these raised beds?
 
sicman said:
do you ever stop with your trolling?   every post you make ends with some kind of problem.  
 
Sorry that you feel that way. I dont really feel like stating an opinion on something is trolling, I feel like you are though.
 
I like the idea and my plan is to replicate it with stacked logs sometime in the future. Then eventually to cut plastic out of growing altogether. Not like its a big secret about UV and plastic and the chemicals released.
 
mx5inpa said:
I like this idea. I just dont like that it's done with plastic.
 
I thought about that to when I made them, if you look at some of the first pics were the plants are hilled with a little bit of  compost around them you can see the liner between the pipes and soil, plus the pipes are not tight enough to retain water, so leaching is washed out not in. no perfect guarantee but overall less subject than growing in buckets or plastic pots. 
 
I would love to have another hundred made from those circle landscape retaining wall blocks, but we can't afford that. At least they are not in the land fill. ;-)
 
Best of luck on your beds. :dance: 
 
Cheers - Jeff 
neoguy said:
Great stuff. What do you do with all you harvest? Do you grow for markets?
 
We eat it all, lol we do not grow for like farmers markets, just not a common enough fruit for the average consumer. Just click on my signature below and that should answer your question.
 
Thanks for stopping by!
 
Cheers, Jeff
 
Jeff H said:
Very nice Jeff. Glad to see you back posting on here.
 
I take it by your last couple of pics that you only harvest them once at the end of the season? I guess that is all the time you probably have in the short season up north.
 
I know you said you are only doing a small grow this year. Would you only be using these raised beds?
 
Jeff, what you see in the pics are what is left after at least 2 pickins if not 3, this is what stripping the plant does, the production can be up to 5 fold with this method but not always.
 
I have 2,468 reaper seeds planted, some are just now popping up, how many will actually germinate is a mystery, but what ever pops up I will plant. each circle bed holds 12 plants x 20 so if that is all that germinates I guess the circles will do, expecting at least 50% though.
 
Thanks for stopping by Jeff!
 
Cheers,
 
We eat it all, lol we do not grow for like farmers markets, just not a common enough fruit for the average consumer. Just click on my signature below and that should answer your question.
 
Thanks for stopping by!
 
Cheers, Jeff
 
 
Jeff, 
 
I did click on your signature. I'm so sorry that you daughter had to go through this, especially at such a young age. She is a beautiful girl and always will be. Tip my hat to you and to your endeavor.
 
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