I keep about 700 pots going so that I can grow lots of weird stuff!
Texas RU Aftermath... What was this plant again???
I want to come down and have the grand tour - looks like one great place!
Yes Debbie, I would like some. I am growing some elephant garlic that Josephine gave me last year. I hope they turn out half as good as hers does. Heirloom garlic sounds great!
As far as a tour goes If we hold a fall RU, and I can manage to clean up my yard, I would be happy to show folks around. The best time to visit though is Easter or the weekend before. That is when the Iris are usually in full bloom.
-Bob
I use cattle or hog panel bent into an arch for climbing veggies.
Bob, you have a very interesting place, just like yourself.
Thank you again for the Iris, I hope I will bring them to beautiful bloom.
Josephine.
Love the chair for sitting and looking! Do you drip irrigate those pots? I know down here, seems I have to water pots everyday in summer and that's bigger ones than you have...most of mine are terra cotta though and I'm sure they dry out much quicker!
Debbie
That is definately a whole heap of pots there Bob!!
I do use drip irrigation on automatic timers. It save a lot of time and money as well as keeping plants alive. With a timer I can water several times a day if needed. I tie a piece of cloth at the drip emitters so the water actually drips into the pot and not run down the line. I use cheap polyester as it hold up well and doesn't seem to go rotty.
-Bob
Last Spring I hammered a 1' long piece of willow behind and between each pot. 2/3rds of them became willow trees.
Some of the willows grew 16' the first year. This fall I plan to cross them and tie them in a lattice. Some time next year I will join them into an arch over the path. The partial shade in summer and the open light in winter make for a good garden in this area.
-Bob
Just curious, no particular reason, with all that land...why not plant in the dirt?
In the next to the last photo you will see a pond on the right. Yes I am lucky enough to be able do dig a hole and have it hold water. The Problem is that with this fine quality clay, even if you add sand 3 to one, anything but a marginal, grass, well adapted or freeking lucky plant, will die if it rains for a week. Even raised ground will often hold too much moisture. I do have a lot of plants growing in ponds and bogs, And I have a nice conventional garden that is slowly expanding via compost. Another reason for the pots is disease isolation. I have several nice collections of plants that I would rather not loose to imported disease or pests. To keep collecting I find it is best to isolate plants for a while. Additionally Pots let me experiment with companion plant combinations that otherwise would not work. A lot of companion plant data just plain makes no sense or very little without seperate pots. Rosemary is reported to be a great companion plant to a lot of things that require a lot more water than rosemary could survive. Potting lets me raise rosemary next to a normal plant. Potting also lets me make experiments that only kill one or two plants instead of a whole garden. This picture is of a garden I made out of an old pond, but I hurt my back and have not had the ability to work it over this year. I am getting better and the doctor thinks that by the end of summer I may be back to norble.
-Bob
You are lucky in some ways Bob as I am high and dry with fine clay. I have to water continuously in the summer heat. Little by little I am going to start doing it your way with emitters.
Bob, I had emitters for awhile to water some of my roses, but they weren't drip emitters. They sprayed above ground and half the time when I would hook up the hose to the line and turn on the water, the emitters would pop off. I guess because the water is hard and the build-up in the holes wouldn't let the water out. Now when I pull weeds in that bed, I still find those little black emitters. I rarely found them if the popped off. So I gave up on that idea. I've tried soaker hoses too and they seemed to get clogged the same way.
Mary Lee, I too have had bad experiences with drip irrigation. I now am quite happy with it, but I am still cautious. I normally set my system to water in the morning so I can inspect at lunch time and save plants if there is a problem. I use digital timers with readouts so I can see if they have gone berserk, and I keep spares just in case. In the peak of summer I may have the irrigation turn on three times a day. So while I really like my drip system, I don't trust it. Rodents can knaw through drip line, raccoons can knock over or crimp hoses and timers can freeze up or reset. Often the most sensitive plants we grow are quite valuable to us, so when irrigation fails and complacency has set in, it hurts. Still, when I have to water manually it takes an hour and a half, and inspection only takes 15 minutes, so I keep spare parts just in case.
To prevent clogging, I use a filter on my drip line, and I open the end of the line regularly to clear out the line. The drip emitters I use are either self cleaning or easily cleaned. I buy most of my parts here:
http://www.dripirrigation.com/drip_irrigation.php?cPath=28&sort=2a&page=2
If you feel up to experimenting with drip Irrigation again, I would be happy to let you know what parts have worked for me. There are a lot of drip components and kits for sale out there that I would not take if they were given to me.
Bob
Bob, I bookmarked that site. It was very interesting, but it's too late right now, to comprehend much of it. We came back from Mo today after DD's graduation and we are a bit bleery eyed. I would like to try drip irrigation again if I could find better stuff. What I used before came from Walmart. I would like very much to see you garden, but I doubt that I will be able to make it to the RU in Oct. Oct is a very busy month for us at work. Maybe I can come some other time. Sometimes I just decide to run away from home and go the ARE to soak up some inspiration. I'll let you know if I do that.
This evening I did no work at all in my garden. I just enjoyed it. I enjoyed the flowers and the bees and the fabulous food my DW put together from our garden. I got to eat several perfect strawberries.
I got to smell the ginger mint, fish mint, mountain mint, horse mint, apple mint and chocolate mint today. All of these mints I got from wonderful people at the roundup.
What I love about gardening, is the extreme range of experience. In a simple patch of earth you can grow food, flowers and patience. You can bring science to it and learn faith. You can bring faith to it and learn science. You can share plants, food, ideas, beauty, inspiration and labor. Gardening can be an act of faith, balance, love and patience. A garden constantly challenges us with pests and weather and even blight. We have to keep learning just to stay even with it sometimes. Gardening is a puzzle that blooms and gives. My garden challenges me to use all of my talents. Research and Enlightenment go hand in hand in my garden. I must remember to always take time to smell the mountain mint, it is a wonderful and complex aroma.
Bob
Bob, that's a wonderful thing you wrote. Just what I needed to read right now.:)
Inspiring thoughts, Bob! To just look, but not pull a weed.... Hmmmm... I wonder if I could get my DH to join me in that celebration.
I needed that inspiration Bob :)
Bob, I was reading that website on drip systems and I'm trying to figure out exactly what we would need for the vege garden. I don't know how many gallons per hour for each plant etc. Our vege garden is very small and all in the ground. It's probably 6 x 14 feet. We have tomatoes, bush beans, cucumbers, cantalopes, corn and lettuce (I hope). All our hoses are 3/4".
I just started a thread about Irrigation so as not to go to off field on this thread. I put most of the little I know there.
http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/603674/
-Bob
Mary Lee, we use soaker hoses on our veggie garden in raised beds. Robert links the soaker hoses together with pieces of regular hose and connects the system with Y's and quadruple thingies. He can turn the water on for one particular 4'x8' bed or for the whole garden including nine fruit trees, which actually have the drip emitters instead of soaker hose. For the area you are describing, soaker hoses would be the least expensive way to go and would be very efficient. We got ours at WalMart. They also have the connectors and caps to make whatever layout you need. We put down the hoses and then put hay over them for mulch.
Patricia, do you use 3/4" or the little soaker hoses Walmart sells? And do you cover the hoses with mulch? I'm guessing the sun would destroy them if you don't.
Thanks for the link to the other thead Bob. I'll go look.
Silver my DH uses a vegetable garden soaker hose system from Walmart. It comes in a kit for about 20 bucks and has many replacement and attachment parts available as well. My DH ran a thin soaker hose down and back up in each raised veg bed (we have 8). He has this hooked into a new faucet spout he put in at the base of the garden so as not to be draggin hoses all around. It runs on a timer. It's an Orbit Soaker Sprinkler System.
I used soaker/sprinkler hoses up until I got my sprinkler system last year. I found the soaker/sprinkler hoses that connect end to end for $8 each at Lowe's. (Black with pink stripe) The soaker hoses HD had wouldn't connect together. I had about three on one faucet. The water shoots up like a sprinkler and drips like a soaker also. But anything you do is better than dragging hoses for sure. Good luck.
Sheila
Mary Lee, Robert gets the 3/4" soaker hose in a bulk roll of 25 or 50 feet, cuts the length he needs, and puts ends on it. To make the soakers work more efficiently, he puts a pressure reducer at the faucet to reduce the pressure to 20-25 lbs. All the parts are in the same department at WalMart. He mulches with old hay on top of the hoses to preserve water and keep down weeds, and the soaker hoses last for years. If your water causes mineral deposits like ours does, soak the hoses in a tub filled with vinegar and water to remove the clogging.
Good ideas Pat. The mulch or hay to cover and vinegar to cut the mineral deposits sound right on.
Thanks to all for the info and suggestions. We have been gone a lot and are behind at work, so it'll be awhile before I can get to any projects in the yard. We went to Mo to pick up DD from college and then went down to the coast for a vacation. got back yesterday to parched plants, tall grass, and lots of work. Later.