We worked hard this weekend in the midst of Irish dance, ballet and piano recitals to build planters for our tomatoes, basil, cucumbers and peppers. We managed to finish three 3' containers to house all nine of the tomatoes and six of the basil that were started in April.
Originally these planters were to be regular planters like the ones that I built for friends last year, then I received an advertisement in the mail for "The Grow Box". In a shameless act of reverse engineering, I came up with a plan to use the same concept of continuous bottom watering for my homemade planters using a catch basin and a layer of gravel below the soil.
Speaking of soil, after following Mel Bartholomew's 1-1-1 recipe for a planting mix for a couple of years, I have decided to begin using a product called "Bumper Crop" in a 2:1 ratio with vermiculite. The Bumper Crop already contains peat moss, along with a host of other organic soil amendments.
Iris are very close to blooming and most of the newly planted asparagus have emerged. Strawberries and blueberries are blooming though we don't expect a large crop since they were just planted this year.
I house-sat and garden-watered for people who had several of the Grow Boxes (they could afford them). The tomatoes did well esp. because they don't like water on their leaves. Another idea is to lay a perforated pvc pipe in the ditch before setting in the plants and soil. This pipe would be elbowed at one end to extend above ground in which to put water. Your pix are great!
ReplyDeleteDeAnne, that is a great idea! I have been pondering how to make the reservoir under the plants and that is genius! My only hesitation is/was using the PVC piping (I used it here thinking that I will eventually replace it with something more environmentally friendly), but a run of large diameter pipe with one loopback and holes in the upper pipe wall. That will be relatively inexpensive, easy to fabricate and will hold a sufficient amount of water. Thanks!
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