Yep, i've been busy in the garden area as usual. Besides - it was a beautiful sunny day on Saturday, and I just had to create a level spot for all of these 4 gallon swp's to sit on. The only problem was that I literally had to scrounge through my scrap lumber pile to provide the materials needed for this little expansion. There's even a small piece of 2x4 on the bottom. Anyone that has a level landscape for gardening is lucky - let me tell ya. You see, everything I build on the property has to be constructed on a severe slope - which makes it a real pain. The soil you see in the box is dug up from the woods, hauled about 200 feet by wheelbarrow, then put into place and smoothed out until level. Scrap pieces of roofing shingles are placed on top of that, which eliminates weeds from growing up around everything - and also keeps the containers from sitting in a muddy mess. So...like I said - a real pain.
Photo below - The expansion provided just enough room for 11 self watering planters that will be used for growing cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, and bell peppers. I even threw together a makeshift trellis for the tomatoes and cucumbers, but I worry about the strength it would have against a pretty strong wind. It's a far cry from my usual "hurricane strength" trellises that I usually build.....
Photo below - here's a closeup, which of course shows how things are really packed in tight. The homemade trellis is made from 2 different sizes of tomato stakes, and fastened together with cable ties. The horizontal pieces were about 2 feet too long, so I had to cut them off. After this photo was taken, I removed all of the lids from the containers so that Mother Nature could saturate the mix, and also perform the initial filling of the reservoirs for me. Besides - i'm not gonna keep them full of water over the next 3 weeks with nothing planted in them....
On the day of this photo, three of the swp's hadn't been constructed yet. So, they had to be constructed, and also the homemade 6:3:1 potting mix consisting of (6 parts) peat moss, (3 parts) perlite, and (1 part) vermiculite for each was mixed up too - which made for a really long day. In all, they held about 44 gallons, which means another bale of peat moss will need to be purchased before filling the larger swc's. My back hurts just thinking about it.....
Anyway, it was a very productive day.
I also took Jude to the vet on Saturday morning, because she apparently cut the side of her mouth with something she was chewing on (probably a stick or something), and it looked infected. We got her all fixed up, and I even took her to Burger King for a treat afterward. The girl at the drive-thru window was freaking out when she opened the window to find a big dog staring at her. Heehee - yeah, she was pretty shook up. I'm just gald she wasn't holding a frisbee - now that would have been bad! Anyway, Jude loves to ride in the truck (up front, of course). She's such a good girl....
Take care, and happy gardening!
EG
9 comments:
EG...first of all I'm glad to hear that Jude is okay....she sounds a lot like my Buddy...always getting in to stuff and always ready to play catch : )
The Swc are pretty slick....do you normally grow all your tomatoes like this?
My dogs love Burger King. They don't get to go very often, as Otto is overweight and Annie looks like a whale (a very sweet whale, however), but they do get an occasional double cheeseburger from the dollar menu! They only get the meat and cheese, I toss the bun.
Glad to hear Jude will be okay. She's such a sweet puppy. I love how you have such success with the SWCs. Whenever I tried to do toms in pots they never work, but I wonder now if that's just because they're not SWCs.
That is a good patch of SWCs. I'm lucky, my land is pretty flat. It has enough of a slope to keep the water draining well, but it only has about maybe 4" of change for every 6'. My new house will be even flatter.
Sunny - thanks for the concern, Jude seems to be getting better each day. I always grow cherry and paste tomatoes in swc's of this size, and they work great.
Granny - I didn't have time to remove the bun. As soon as I unwrapped it, she gulped it down!
ribbit - thanks for your concern. Growing in pots is just more difficult than swc's - in my opinion.
Daphne - thanks, you are so lucky....
Jude always steals the show on your videos! Obvioiusly a very good dog. Glad to hear she is on the mend. Hate it when the furbabies get hurt or are not feeling well.
The base area for the SWCs is pretty slick and looks like it added a lot more growing space for you.
kitsapFG - tell me about it! I'm beginning to think it's her blog. I need to shoot a video of her this coming weekend. I'll try to do that.....
I'm *finally* filling 4 of my SWP's for peppers today using your mix. I can't recall if you've mentioned fertilizing... What's your method for this and the SWPs?
Momma_S - you're gonna need to mix 1/2 cup of dolomitic lime and 1/2 cup slow release fertilizer into the top 3" of the mix in each swp...
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