Oh Jay, you vertical, you
BocaBob
Re building my grow pole garden
Yes, I know what you mean about leaving the daffs for the next year, but won't your pots be pretty bare? Or do you put them somewhere else and put something in their place?
Like Jay was saying, it is pretty hard for you all to get things that make your planters look pretty all during your growing season. I can see where that would be. You see, we have only 4 month long growing seasons so by the time our weather turns cold our planters are still looking pretty good.
Funny the different issues we deal with isn't it?
Jeanette
It sounds like Jay just figured it out. Strawberries!! Good going Jay.
Jeanette
Joy, that is a huge deck you have. Lots of us would kill for something like that. Over a period of time, you should be able to make that deck bloom, especially with an assortment of deck rail planters plus some strategically placed vertical stackers and earthbox's. All within a few steps of your front door. You got it made in the shade.
I have added the third platform in line with the other two while I had my son home to help with the heavy lifting. That platform is located partially up under a live oak tree and some of it will receive afternoon shade in the heat of summer. That is important in this part of the country. At this time of the year and during the winter months, the slant of the sun should fall on that platform for a good part of the day. And since each of my poles is portable and each pot is also portable, I can always arrange them so they are getting about the right amount of sunshine.
My neighbor told me I had too many trees in my privacy fenced area to do any gardening but he is wrong. He is thinking like a dirt farmer. Im out of the dirt and going up, up, and awaaayyyyyy!!
Hi Yo Jaywhacker. I doubt you're the kind of guy who lets his neighbors specify his growing fields. LOL. I am going to print off a couple of your pics for a disabled fried who misses gardening soo much. D
fried/friend what's the dif? Lookie, Lookie. My Georgia Sweet onions in the raised bed.
Looking good Devota...why do you have screen over the onions?
darkmoondreamer Did you see post I made for you..If not look at thread below
Bocobob's
Late Feb Pictures of my garden
This message was edited Feb 22, 2009 6:46 PM
The screen, my dear, is to keep the neighbor hood cats from using my RB as a litter box.
Gotta love them kitties ..LOL
aha, that is "genius" at work! Great idea!!! Tubby thanks so much, I did see your post, but alas, no Minard's? in my area...I appreciate you
Devota: I love that above ground garden of yours. What are the white pipes coming out of the corners, is the above ground garden self watering?
Jaywhacker: You have lots to plant on and yes, I'd be lost without my deck, I like sitting out there during the day, actually, I'm wanting to keep my veggies out back and just plant flowers out front and the deck is out front, maybe one day I will put one out back; but I do love those tables of yours and the way you got those stackers that is really nice looking and convenient. I've picked up quite a few tips from everyone on Dave's Garden Club. If it hadn't of been for all that talk about manifolds I'd of been running myself ragged this Spring/Summer but won't now. LOL Your fence looks just like the one I have around my back yard, best place for veggies hey? LOL
joy
Joy, I too have such a fence, only it isn't mine, it is my neighbor's and she won't permit anything attached to my side of it, alas.
The pipes in the bed are to put flex pipe into to make a little greenhouse in the fall to extend my season since I don't live in the beautiful city of Crestwood.
Devota..........that is a nice onion patch. My son lives with me and we like onions. Here is a picture of our "onion patch". I plant them a couple inches apart and as the season progress's I keep pulling every other one as a green onion. It is doubtful that any of these onions will ever reach full size.
The first onion sets I bought were Walla Walla's and the second set were Texas sweets. The Walla Walla's are still on the skimpy side, about the size of a pencil, but the Texas sweets have already started making little bulbs about the size of a grape.
I am going to buy some more Texas sweets and slip some of them into my vertical pots with whatever is growing in them. I'm hoping what ever is growing in the pot will suck up some of that onion juice and get mean enough to spit right in the eye of any marauding insects. Besides, aint no use in wasting any of that valuable vertical growing system. You orta slip some into your strawberry pole.
By the way.....we aint seen no pictures of your strawberry pole yet.
Doggone it.......forgot the pitchur.......here tis.
Jay, I'm sure growing up here you've heard of the World famous Noonday sweet onion? I only live 10 miles from Noonday, Texas and bought a large bunch today for less than $2.00. If any of you would like to try them I will be glad to buy them and ship to you...Here's a link to information about it.
http://easttexasgardening.tamu.edu/industry/noonday.html
Oh yeah, you betcha, Karen, Check your Dmail.
Jaywhacker, we love onions too, here in TN. I will plant onion seeds for some greenies later. {looks like a nice crop a stobs ya got there, Bub.]
I never tried the greenies from seed but I bought a seed pack so I guess its time I tried them. I have never grown many vegetables so lots of this stuff is new to me. Im going to be inundated with onions........but onions make pretty flowers too and I have been mostly a flower guy before so what the heck........just another flower if we cant eat them all.
I want to share with you that I just discovered this week that BocaBob plants all of his onion sets in the 5 gallon grow bags, like 15-20 onions per bag? His photos look amazing, so that is the method I'm going with this year.
Devota: Wish you were my neighbor, mine don't garden at all. LOL Then again, I'd probably be a pest with the Devota....come look at this, is this right? LOL I wish it would warm up but everyone says I got at least two to three weeks of winter left here. sniffles. Now Ted and Bob are enjoying life where they are but I hear it's a tad chilly down there too right now.
Jay: I found another use for empty milk jugs too. I was reading where you fill them up with water and put just a bitty hole in them and let them sit out by your shrubs or trees, that way they don't get too much water, just enough.
joy
Karen, I ordered some growbags from Bob. I'm thinking some hot peppers and pepperocinis maybe.
Joy if I was your neighbor I'd learn as much as you would, just like on this forum. Isn't it wonderful how much help we get from each other? Sometimes it's the questions others ask that tell me the most.
Jay, I'm ready to set out strawberries but my farm center only has the June bearring right now and I want the day neutrals. I may have to take a trip over the mountain and through the woods to a garden center but I'd rather give my business to this family owned farmers place. When I get them up I will post pic.
Devota sometimes my old brain is rather dense, and the reason I mentioned it is because I was always thinking "one/two plants per growbag" and it just zinged me to see that Bob put so many onions in his. I also think I'm going to put my individual peppers in them
I ordered some candy onions from Jungs and am still waiting for them, they are to be sending me a bunch which from what I'm told is a lot.
joy
Good luck Joy. I ordered 4 pkts of seeds from Jungs 2 weeks ago....still waiting!
Jerry
Speaking of old brains, if enough time goes by don't you sometimes forget just what you ordered? I keep a list just because...well you know.
Yes, me too Devota. In fact, I keep the order confirmations in my Email and don't delete them until after I've received the product.
That works too.
I'd be lost without my e-mail records of my ordering. TGS gets your seeds to you in four to seven days and they have a great variety. This is why I only order from one supplier. Afterall, how many different varieties can one grow and they certainly have enough for me?
TGS Tplant? enlighten me?
www.tomatogrowers.com
Ahh. Got it. Thanks, Tplant. I am growing an heirloom this year called "Mortgage Lifter" besides the usual suspects.
You will be pleased with that variety!
Yeah, the reason I'm throwing all my money to the card right now, I'm expecting all I have ordered to be charged to it at the same time right? LOL Maybe I should call Jung's on those candy onions and my daff bulbs? But, then again, planting season here doesn't really start til April 7th. sweat, sweat.
joy
I don't think any nursery will send anything until your planting season? I'm still waiting for some calla lillies!
One more platform installed.......waiting for more pots and got some on the way. Each one of these platforms will support 100 plants each in the bigger white EZgro pots. So I will have a total of 400 plant sites available in the EZgro type pots and approximately another 120 in the smaller stackapots sitting in the middle of each platform. All of that depends on whether I grow a lot of large bushy plants that will require lots of shoulder room or stick with medium and smaller variety's.
I will walk by and turn each stack of pots 1/4 turn each day to equalize sunshine distribution. Im still figgering and planing the automatic watering system so that all plants get equal water and fertilizer each watering cycle. It is going to be nice when I get that set up although it doesnt seem like too much labor to hand water them as I am doing now.
These stacks will get direct sunshine from about 8 AM until 12 noon at this time of year and after that they get dappled shade through a skinny live oak tree an slinder cedar tree. In full summer, they will get more sunshine but will still get some amont of afternoon dappled shade. That should work good in this part of the country. When the garden writers advise us to give our plants 6 to 8 hours of full sunshine, it makes me wonder if they have ever experienced a full 6 to 8 hours of central Texas sunshine. I aint meaning to brag about this but 8 hours of my sunshine is a hell of a lot stronger than many of the places where those garden writers live. Some afternoon shade can literally save the life of some plants in this area.
Editing this post to add that I can lift each individual stack of pots and move it to a different platform to give those plants more or less sunshine as summer progresses and the sunshine falls on a different part of the platforms. I can also lift individual pots and re-stack pots into plant groups that require the same amount of sunshine and then place that stack where it gets adequate sunshine.
This message was edited Feb 26, 2009 3:26 PM
That is as neat a system as I've ever seen. I love those EzGro pots, Jaywhacker. Still waiting on the strawberries to come in at the farm center. All they have now is June bearing.
Another picture to show how sunshine hits different areas of my privacy fenced area. This is the north west side of the fence and during the winter and this time of the year it gets a pretty good blast of sun. In deep summer time it gets good sunshine for at least 4 hours and then slowly starts getting afternoon shade from the fence.
This is the southwest fence. It is 2 pm and you can see that the fence is now starting to provide a deepening layer of shade. Many of the plants I will grow will definitely appreciate getting out of the direct sun rays by that time of day. I have a fairly wide area of lawn carpet laid out there so I can arrange plants in "rows" positioned to determine the time the afternoon shade gets to them. This aint no big labor consuming thang, just take a gander at the plants at about this time of day and if you think they have had enough sunshine, just slide them over toward the shade line.
Mobility in a container garden is a definite advantage. All container gardeners should also be mobile, agile, and yes, just maybe a little bit hostile. Move them plants where you wont them to be and if they dont like it......tough.:-)
This message was edited Feb 26, 2009 4:58 PM
Devota.........while you are waiting for those strawberries, you might use your EZgro grow poles to germinate some fast seeds like tomatos or other vegetables. They make a great germinating system. Watering from the top of the stack allows each plant site to suck up just the right amount of water for germinating seed without ever directly spraying the seed site. It doesnt hurt to "mist" the plant sites if your eddicated finger poke tells you they need it but in my experience, that hasnt been necessary. Just slap a bunch of seeds in there and wrap the pole loosely with saran wrap, plastic sheeting, clear vinyl shower curtain, etc to up the heat for this time of year and also to protect from frosty nights. You might wont to cut a few slits into the plastic sheeting to prevent overheating.