Growing Dome 4

Well, it's Thanksgiving week and the locals have helped me get the dirt inside the growing beds.  We've used used a full dump truck load and we're a little over half filled.  We started with the 2 inner  beds, and then from the entry door worked the outer main bed.  We have half of that to go and then the final outer bed to the left of the door as you come in.  We added top soil and compost/manure to the  beds and mixed it all together.  We put some tuilip bulbs that were on sale in the dirt, so the first things are growing in the beds.  We have trays of Lettuce and Onions getting ready to go the first week  in December.  

This Dome is hard to capture on film, so this is the 3=D pasted together view.  You can't see the 14 foot long bed just to the left as you enter, but you can get to the potting table to start.  Then we have  the 3,000 gallon water tank with some poles we had used in the past that had a shade tarp for camping.  We'll hang some plants on the poles or put the tarp on in the summer.  Next is a sitting area and the  2 main inner beds.  There are some hanging plants on another set of poles we used in the past for a solar shower.  

The next project was ,to create an automatic watering system using the solar powered pump that I ordered with the tank.  We put in a in-line 30 PSI pressure valve, ran a hose to a 4 hose junction, then ran hose  to 5 water areas.(one hose line is split into 2 areas with a 2 way valve)  In inner bed one, we tested the system with a soaker hose and it seemed to work pretty well.  The sun turned on the pump at about  10 AM and ran till 2PM.  Here is a picture of the junction hose bib.  This way we can split off and control areas that need water.

It looks kind of funky, but this is just in the testing mode.  We're trying to automate everything using solar power.  We monitor water temperature inside the tank as well as the inside dome  temperature-- and that is transmitted wireless to the main house.

Here is the small test soaker hose. The pump looks like it can do the job with clear skies and direct sunlight. 

This is a view looking toward the door.  You can see the final growing bed between the water tank and the door.