MidwestSolarpunk

I hear you. In just the last month we’ve had a run of bad luck: tree branch tearing down our service line (some siding repair $$ + tree needs trimmed & cabled $$$$), failed water heater (upgraded to heat pump $$$$), and overwhelmed sump pump causing slight basement flooding ($$$ DIY plus a lot of headache). We’d hoped to progress with our plans more this year but it’s just not in the cards.

However, something I’ll say that saves a lot of money is propagation instead of buying new plants. Get cuttings from friends and neighbors, some rooting hormone, and just make new plants. Even adding a few to your yard can make a big difference for the pollinators!

🤘

I will come back and share my findings if/when it happens.

Could make everything within ~3ft of the road non-edible natives, either companion plants for the food or native cultivars to help pollinators (which in turn, will help the edibles closer to the house). So there’s still a way to make this work!

My understanding is that they get into the soil and can then get into the plants. Then into your body.

Well good on you for making it happen! Not sure where you are or the weather, but issues in storms/heavy wind? That’d be my concern here in the Midwest US (we get a few nasty squalls a year).

Hopefully a little ground-mount plug-in option will be available soon, if my state can bother to pass a bill allowing plug-in solar. Even two extra kW would be nice to have, and it’s DIY by design. I talked about it in another comment in this thread, but I’m hoping to put them over my raised garden beds, make more use of verticality but also diffused light is apparently really good for plants (a little at-home agrivoltaics).

Do you have any experience with plug-in + roof mounted solar on the same home? I’m told it’s technically possible, just not common.

Damn, guess I never looked that closely at the itemized parts for my install (if there even was one). Any idea why it’s so expensive? You know of any good alternatives?

The pros did a good job on mine, new roof and no sign of leaks yet. Of course, I’m not a pro, so maybe I do need to look for other options.

Oh I’m already in, on both platforms! I’m slowly but surely converting my grassy hellscape, it’s only like a fifth of an acre but I’m trying to go the permaculture/food forest route. A little more ornamental in the front than the back, but it’s come a long way since I started.

Front yard: planted a native tree, expanded an existing bed with 20+ natives and berry bushes, added two large mulch beds with native plants and large ornamental rocks. Gutter-fed rain barrel, statically watering our busiest bed with a soaker hose. Plan to add a rain garden to capture some runoff from a drainage trench running down the side of the yard, plus a hang out spot with seating and a fire pit, ringed in plants.

Side yard: my “rewilding” project, a narrow corridor between my carport and fence. I’ve boxed it off and sewn it with native seeds and other ornamental varieties, sunflowers took off the most this year but I’m going to keep chucking things at it until it’s basically an impassibly tall prairie. Two more rain barrels here, one with a soaker hose that runs through and the other that I use to fill watering cans.

Back yard: built a wooden platform patio, two large-ish raised beds, two apple trees (they’ve been having a rough go of it), and two greenhouses (a small one that’s more of a staging area for seeds before they go into the large beds, and a bigger one where I hope to grow some hardier plants year round). The greenhouse also lets me capture yet more water. I have three more in-ground no till beds planned, maybe next year. I had some sun diffusion shades up that my plants seemed to love, but a tree branch took the larger of the two out during a storm a couple weeks ago, so I’ll have to replace that next year. If plug-in solar gets passed in my state, I might install some panels over my beds to get a little agrivoltaic action going. Not really related to the concept, but also hoping to squeeze in a hot tub in one corner. 😅

Surely the rail mounting system they all seem to use is available somewhere, right? I haven’t looked into it yet but I was basically just going to copy the pros’ homework.

None seem to be perfect, but my Enphase system is connected via Ethernet (it still has a SIM for backup) and can be accessed locally if the internet is down entirely. Still, it’s not without its issues. Just yesterday I was reading about someone’s backup battery on the fritz because of a bad update. Your dad’s can’t connect to his Wi-Fi or anything? Is the SIM just good indefinitely?

Full local (with the option to connect for periodic firmware updates, because there are always bugs to fix and improvements to be made) would be great… but we can take the solarpunk to another level if we learn how to gut the firm and soft in these things, replace it all with self-made/open source alternatives, and flip the bird to the corps who barely want to upkeep their existing systems since there’s no money in it.

New here and also enjoying it! Hope it continues to grow and be more active with time.

Out of curiosity, what company made his system? I assume he had to get new inverters too? Did he do the work himself?

I’m thinking about expanding mine in a couple of years, but will have to jump through hoops both with Enphase (who made my system) but also with my utility (they have to permit any changes). But thinking about doing it DIY.

That’s awesome! I’ll have to look and see if there are any varieties that will grow where I live, I’d love to get into home brewing at some point.

RE: greenhouse. I put down a couple layers of cardboard, then a snap-together floor. I figured it was better than nothing in terms of insulation, and I intend to mainly keep plant containers elevated so there’s a cushion of air between them and the ground. So the ultimate test will be if the air temperature can stay above freezing with only the sparse sunlight and the thermal mass of the plants themselves.

I’ve also been meaning to set up some sort of indoor operation like what you’re describing, I imagine it could be helpful for starting seeds in the spring before last frost! In terms of yard space, if you’re not moving anytime soon, have you tried doing anything with vertical setups? I’ve seem some cool designs online with trellises, shelf-style containers, etc.

That’s awesome, you’ve got a lot of variety! Do you plan to make beer with the hops, or is there another use I’m not aware of?

We got a good deal on a small (6x8’) greenhouse, I’m hoping to try to grow something things over winter too. Winters in the Midwest have become much milder, with isolated deep freeze/snow events. Interested to see if it can keep its temperature above freezing, worried about the nights though.

I forget the name of our variety but we got a bit of a late start this year so I chose a fast growing option. We have space to do more but it feels difficult to go from 0 to 100% garden with no experience. Hoping to keep ramping up year over year until we basically have no lawn and a full food forest.

San Marzano are great! Are you growing anything besides tomatoes? We have handful of peppers. Hoped to do watermelons but they didn’t take off for some reason.

Also our tomato plants are popping off, new to gardening (first year getting anything usable out of it) and I’m DELIGHTED. Had some on a grilled egg and cheese sandwich with mayo for lunch today, it was edible art.

Anyone taking any solarpunk actions this month?

We’re excited to be getting a battery for our solar system installed, and just today I’ve made new connections through my community time bank (I’m going to be officiating a non-traditional wedding, and possibly getting a much-needed haircut).

I didn’t know this about the servers, makes me even more glad to have joined just this weekend!