How about this?

Liz,so far as the stack consists of three containers,it's OK. If you want to stack up more,you might need to put a prop in the center.

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These piles of cube containers,Darius,have the advantage
of displaying flowers in the huge mass without exposing the containers themselves,thus eye-catching.
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Kell, those holes are cut by what is know here as a �ghole-saw".It comprises several detachable saws of different sizes.You attach the right size one to the drill.
Shown below is what I have,though they are rusty now.
I also love carpentry and have made sheds ,trellises pergolas ,containers,etc.in my garden all by myself.

Sounds like I need you Tomtom in my garden! Bring your saw! LOL thanks for the info.

Your flower displays are so beautiful, TT

How about some pics of the pergola?
Thanks
tlc

Every day, I look at more pages on your web site, and love it more every day! You certainly are creative and have a wonderful green thumb. It's truly an inspiration!

Kell,
I do wish I could fly to you with my saw.
but I'll get frisked and refused departure.

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Hello TwinLakesCef,
Thank you for your kind words.
I hope I'll meet you at some other topic.

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Darius, your kind words are always encouraging.
Thank you.

I want to thank you again for your beautiful site. I spent an hour on Monday showing my mom (87 years) all the images on your site. She was an amazing gardener herself for most of her life. Now she just tells me what to do since her energy level is quite low. She was so intrigued by everything she saw of your garden and said she could feel the love you have for the plants. Thankyou.

Jagonjune,
Nothing pleases me more than what your mother,the doyenne of gardening ,said ---she can feel the love I have for plants.Please tell your mother I greatly appreciate her words.
My late mother loved gardening,too.
There certainly are the gardening genes .
Thank you.

It's 2 containers or more with one being elevated?? Sure is lovely! This pic is actually 2 window boxes, one above the other. Makes a great abundant effect.

I just scrolled back & read the many, many respones & saw the many pics of your fabulous containers. They are simply gorgeous & wonderful to look at! I hope you do some work at a garden centre & get paid well because your containers are stunning & as professional & beautiful as any I've ever seen at garden centres that cost a ton to purchase! You'd be a real asset in that line of work!

This message was edited Thursday, Jul 17th 1:18 PM

This message was edited Thursday, Jul 17th 1:59 PM

Tomtom could you pls tell me the diameter of the holes in your planters. They look to be 3-4". Boy you sure have motivated a lot of people.

I was so impressed with your site that I sent it to a new friend of mine, Yumiko, who comes from Tokyo.
I think quite a few of us will be trying the Tomtom method of container gardening.

We will all be Tomtom Gardeners before TomTom gardening becomes cool!

Wow,am I glad to hear I've motivated you,Broots!
The holes in the containersare 6.5cm across.

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It's so nice of you,Liz�Ato have sent my url to Yumiko.

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Thank you Anastatia, for your encouraging comment!
I'll get myself busy to keep deserving it .

Thank you,SS,for your words.
Your container looks lush and bearutiful.
We seem to share a basic idea of container desplaying ,don't we?
A container may be beautiful,but if we can successfully make their combinations they'll turn out all the more beautiful,making a greater effect.
I'll try to find out more possibilities of container displaying.

Here is a sample of such a combinaion.



This message was edited Friday, Jul 18th 6:12 PM

Wow! Those are the most beautiful containers that I have ever seen. I could spend all day looking at your web site. Thanks for posting these photos.
Bill

Thank you�AEtexbill,for your encouraging words.

TT

Just beautiful Tomtom & my favorite color too. What are the plants in that container?? Do I see some white tulips, purple alium, mauve creeping phlox to name a few?? That combo of mauves & white is so restful & romantic!!

Sunshine Sue,

You and I apparently share our taste in color.
I often use pinks , mauves and whites in spring as they look beautiful then.

The plants of this pic are not in one container;
They are on display in several containers gathered.
Separate plants seem to grow all the more natural in separate containers.

Yes, you see tulips, alliums ,violas, sweet alyssums and
silenes there.

Hi Tomtom.....My front garden, the one I show the world (hehe) is nothing but pink/rose, purples, mauves, white & a bit of yellow for it's color scheme from the perennials to plants in all the pots, so indeed we share a love of that look. It's a romantic, Victorian kind of look & very pretty & soft. Next year I'm going to switch my back garden to strictly those same colors, I like it so much. I already have the bones of that as most of the perennials are those colors anyway. Although I can appreciate many types of gardens & many flower colors & combos, I'm drawn to pink, mauves/purples & white in a garden more than anything I think. It's hard for me to walk past a purple flower/plant at the garden centre & not want to buy it!!
Yes Tom....I knew that had to be more than one container. I'd be disappointed in you if it wasn't!! lol You're way too creative to use just one! Happy gardenig

Hi, Tomtom
I am absolutely amazed by the beauty of your garden!!!!!
Thank you very much for sharing.
Lucia

Absolutely Gorgeous!!

SunshineSue,

I think I rather like pastel colors. They relax me, and I usually use these colors in spring like the pic shown below.

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Hi, Lucia. Thank you very much for enjoying my pics.
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Thank you for your kind words,CC.I do appreciate them.


This message was edited Tuesday, Jul 22nd 8:25 AM

Gorgeous Tomtom as all your pics are! Love the Wisteria in the background.

I love your Wisteria tree-it makes mine look pitful.
Any tips on how you pruned your's?
How old is it?

TomTom, your website has inspired me!! Thank you for sharing with us, It's obvious that your plants are well loved. I enjoyed the pictures even if I couldn't read the text!

Thank you SS,

I love the wisteria,too.

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My wisteria is 23yrs old,cc.
A friend of mine gave me the young�@plant 30cm in height.
I grew it like an ordinary tree without a trellis or pergola.
I prune the overgrown vines by summer lest they should get twined,and place organic fertilizer underground near the roots in winter.
There is nothing more I do for the tree.
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Hello,Carena.I appreciate your encouraging words.
In case the pictures show that my plants are well loved as you kindly mentioned,It is a great pleasure to me.
Thank you so much.


This message was edited Saturday, Jul 26th 3:57 AM

Tomtom, the pictures on your website are just wonderful. The detail on everything growing is so inspiring. Thank you for sharing the photos.

Thank you,Kathy-T,for your words.
It's a great pleasure if my pictures are of some use to you.

TomTom, just got on this thread. Loved your plantings. They are so colorful. I do think that Osaka is probably not as dry and hot as my area. I live in desert area of WA, for the past about 2 weeks the temp daytime has ranged from low or 88 to high of 104 F. Does cool off at night. We have had no rain since June 1. I am irrigating constantly around my garden and pots and it is very difficult to keep things as damp as they need. i am afraid the hanging-stacking pots even with the water bottle installed would be difficult here. yours are beautiful. Donna

Hello rutholive.
Thank you for your comment. Apparently your area is drier than mine. In Osaka we had rain practically every day from June till the middle of July this year,and a large number of plants were damaged.
I only wish we could have gone fifty -fifty on the rain.

In summer our daytime temperature is usually over 90F and even at night the temp hardly comes down 80.
So I seldom produce cubic containers in summer.Almost all plants except tropical ones,find Osakan summer quite disagreeable ,it seems.

TT


This message was edited Monday, Jul 28th 5:02 PM

Another idea in container garden I have seen used here is P V C pipe. Cap the bottom (drill holes in it for drainage) and use a hole saw to cut holes in the side. Be sure and glue the cap to the bottom. Take a panty hose stuff it down with potting soil ( the panty hose was enough to hold the soil in place until the roots took hold if planting seeds). You can cap the top too if you like, but have to remove it to water, so dont glue the top. Drill holes in the top of the pipe to run a sturdy hanger and you have a hanging container.
The size depends on the size pipe you use and the length you cut it.....I'm sure there is a way to figure out a base and you can have them standing too.... any ideas on a base????....... :o)

Welcome,WW! I'm another newcomer to DG and pleased to hear from you.
I've never had PVC pipes used, but pipe containers'll surely make a great display if they're done well.
Your idea remainds me of hanging-porch.
When you stand them the right length would be less than 50cm since the plants near the bottom are likely to grow less vigorously on accout of the weitht of the soil.

I'm intrigued with your idea of reusing pantyhoses to hold the soil.Someday I'll have a try.
Thank you for sharing the stimulating idea.

TT

Tomtom, Glad you liked the idea. I'm going to make me some of these as well as try your idea. I think your flowers are just stunning and it has inspired me to do more container gardening and to look into new ideas. Keep up the good work and enjoy your lovely garden. ...thanks for posting such wonderful photos so we can enjoy your garden too... :o)

Hello,container lovers.

Just stop and take a look at an autumn version of the stack.
In it you can find Oxalis bowiei and Oxalis regnellii 'Triangularis' .
They are planted at the beginning of this September.

Tomtom, you never cease to amaze me. What a beautiful conversion.

I have started some of my containers for spring based on your ideas. It will be intresting to see how they turn out.
I am using simple storage crates (picked up for a couple of bucks at the dollar store) and will fill them with potting soil and stack them. Have not decided what goes in them yet, but have plenty of time.
I am taking photos as it goes along and will post them all when the time comes and they are in bloom.....
Thanks for the insperation...your oxalis is just beautiful..and something I have alot of.
Dee

WW, nice to hear from you that your stacking plans is well under way.
Looking very much forward to viewing your photos when the time comes.
Wishing you every success !!

TT


This message was edited Oct 13, 2003 4:10 PM

Tomtom.. I have been looking at your beautiful flowers. How do U keep them looking so nice? What fertilizer do U use & how often? What soil do U use in pots? Mine always just get leggy or die. How do U handle the insect problems? There are so many bugs here. How I'd love to have mine look 1/2 as good as yours. Do U ever go on vacation & what happens to them if U do? You must deadhead every day. I am in awe of your pots.

My daughter in Virginia can do it but somehow I fail. She uses the best soil there is but I can't afford that. I tried to plant some seeds this summer but they didn't do well at all The bugs enjoyed the nice tender leaves on most of them :(
We just put up a hoophouse (hothouse) & I hope to plant quite a few seeds late winter.

Hello,Sugar_fl!
I'm so glad to hear you've been looking at my flowers .
It's highly encouraging, thank you.

I post only those that were done well and there are quite a few that do not satisfy me.
I have been trying to make my gardening as economical as possible. So I reuse the soil except when I sow seeds.
I reuse it by mixing such as leaf-soil,loam, vermiculite and so on.
Most plants love the sun and I take care of placing them in the sun.

I use organic fertilizer when I plant them, and later give them chemical one about once a month.
Liquid fertilizer not only costs more but it also requires more time and attention,so I usually use it only for making seedlings.
The bugs are my headaches, too.
I use store-bought insecticide sprayers for flies and mosquitoes. They are also useful for most of the garden foes.
To get rid of slugs I use special mix.

As this reveals ,my gardening is far from rigorous, I'm afraid. What amazes me most is that plants do flower beautifully in spite of all this .

Thank you again, TT

Well Tomtom your hard work pays off. Can U give me some idea of the brands U use like in liquid vertilizer? What insecticide sprayers do do U use. By organic do U mean compost?

I don't understand what U mean by this, (cost I understand *grin*) "Liquid fertilizer not only costs more but it also requires more time and attention, so I usually use it only for making seedlings."

It rained a lot here this summer & I learned that too much water is a bad as too little. The lantana went wild & I'm gonna have to cut it back next year to keep it under control better.
Do U have any luck planting seeds in the summer? I'm sure weather & other things are different there.
Can U tell I admire your work? :^)

Segar-fl,the liquid fertilizer I use is �gHyponex,"which you probably know, and its Japanese version.
The insecticide is what you can buy at supermarkets and drugstores.It is for indoor use, not for gardening .Quite a few people seem to think that the indoor one does not work well for gardening, but I've been using it for more than twenty years without any problem.It works quite well to kill bugs and worms hidden behind the leaves and elsewhere.
Just have a try,I insist.

>"Liquid fertilizer not only costs more but it also requires more time and attention, so I usually use it only for making seedlings."

Let me explain more. As you know, to keep flowering in containers you have to keep giving enough fertilizer.
I take care of so many containers that I 'll go bankrupt if I depend solely on liquid fertilizer, and I 'll
be unable to take time out to enjoy DG. So,to maintain the plants in containers I prefer solid chemical fertilizer, which is less expensive and is effective a lot longer.

It is very difficult to keep plants flowering in summer here,because of the muggy climate.
This summer Dolichos,Dwarf Thitonia and Agastache flowered strikingly .
Usually Petunnia,Zinnia linealis, African marigold, Celosia,etc.are enjoyable as annuals in my summer garden.

Shown below is the photo of:
liquid fertilizer(top left),bug-killer sprayer(top right),
organic feritlizer(bottom left)and two kinds of solid chemical fertilizer(bottom middle,and bottom right).

ps. The organic fertilizer I use is composed of oil cake, bone manure,etc. Its N:P:K ratio is 5:5:5. It works extremely well for the plants in their infancy.


This message was edited Oct 14, 2003 11:12 PM

TT.. I used the blue stuff U put in water. It was WalMart brand of miracle grow & bloom busters. I'd have to go look to see the strength though. I mixed it in a watering can & poured it on. I'd like to use a hose sprayer. My Zinnia always get mildew. I'm about ready to give up on them. I don't have the fancy plants U do. The summers here are pretty hot & some plants just don't do good.. for me at least.
My plants get leggie. Maybe I don't use enough fertilizer on them. How do U apply the organic & chemical fertilizers? I don't see how U get to the soil to spread it. I see the organic N:P:K ratio is 5:5:5.. what is the chemical? I like the idea of only having to fertilize once a month.
I love cannas but if they don't do better next year they are gone. This is my 1st year with them & the worms made a mess of them. I may not even give them another year that's how bad they were.
I'm sure gonna look back at this next spring. We just got a greenhouse put up so hoping to have lots of plants to play with. There is no way to cool it other than a window & door to open (maybe a fan too) so not sure how much luck I'll have planting seeds anywhere after it gets hot.
I'm off to look at your site & drool over your plants *Smile*