Category Archives: Recycle and Sustain

Forty Reasons to Change the Garden Plan

Does anyone else go through the angst of which vegetable should go where?

I get caught up in the process of plotting out vegetables that are good neighbors.

Don’t put tomatoes too close to cucumbers, and keep them away from corn.

Cucumbers and tomatoes don’t play well with potatoes, so give them separate space.

If I hadn’t been craving garden fresh tomatoes for two years, I’d consider them bad neighbors and leave them out of the garden entirely.  That’s not happening!

I plotted and planned to make certain everything would have its optimal space.  You know how that saying goes?  Something about “best laid plans”, or “life is what happens when you’re making other plans”?

purple fingerling potato

potato

Potatoes showed up and changed the plans.

I wasn’t even going to plant potatoes this year.  The rear garden, Garden Two, has such a horrific soil issue that I decided to put it to rest this year while I work on building good soil.

garden put to rest

Potatoes would take too much of the remaining garden space, so I figured we would do without them.  Conveniently, one of my primary nearby grocery stores began stocking organic potatoes and that sealed the deal.

Until potatoes showed up.

Forty potato plants.

Forty reasons to change the garden plan.

Just popped right up in Garden One like they owned the place!

Who invited them?  Sheesh!

Yes, yes, I know.

I did this to myself.

It seems I missed a lot of potatoes when I harvested last year.  That must mean that I need a new potato fork, wouldn’t you say?   ;)

So, back to the drawing board I went.  Those beloved tomato plants had lost their space, so new plans were in order.

tomatoes ready to plant

I pulled out three of the metal containers and filled them with sterile soil mix, then placed ollas into them.  They will sit on the patio, which gets almost 8 hours of morning and midday sun, but gets shade from the sweltering late afternoon sun.

metal planters ready for tomatoes

Hopefully, the ollas will help compensate for the heat of the metal containers.  Tomatoes and marigolds and basil will grow in the containers, so I’ve fashioned limb “cages” to see if they’ll support the tomatoes.

metal tub with ollas

This year I’ll also prune the contained tomatoes, to keep the plants at a manageable height.  They can easily reach 6 ft if left untended.  Since I have eight tomato plants, I’m going to risk late blight and plant the remaining five with those surprise potatoes.  We’ll see how that goes.

basil in tub

The cucumbers also have to move, since I’ve been dreaming of fresh cucumber salads.  I staked the tool handle teepee trellis into the water trough planter and will place the cucumbers there.  I’ll lash small limbs across the trellis to provide supports for the vines.

handle teepee trellis

Since the space is now available, I might plant corn.  I have two heirloom varieties, one of which was a host to corn smut two years ago.  I planted the second variety in the rear garden space last year, and it did fairly well considering the horrible growing conditions, but it’s not as sweet a corn as the first.  Perhaps we’ll see if it grows better in the front garden.

Is your garden working according to plans?

Voila, Olla!

garden

A necessary component of gardening – a necessary component of life, in fact – is preparation.

Last year, our area experienced extreme heat and draught and I was not prepared.  Experience is such a great teacher.  This year, I’m trying to plan ahead.

Already, our weather has been warmer than normal, and spring has come early.  We’re just beginning to catch up on the rain deficit, but there’s no telling what moisture we’ll see through the rest of the garden season.

One of the methods I’ve seen is the use of ollas.  Ollas are terra-cotta jugs or receptacles, buried into the gardening area aside the plants and filled with water to deliver it slowly (via the porous material) to the roots of the plants.

There are excellent options to purchase ollas, but I found them cost prohibitive.  I found this great tutorial to make them from clay pots.  I was inspired to make my own.

Homemade Olla

Materials:

  • Clay pots (two per olla)
  • Gorilla glue
  • Plumbers epoxy
  • Silicone caulk
  • Stone/ceramic plugs
  • White exterior paint

Tools:

  • Gloves
  • Caulk Gun
  • Dry cloth
  • Container of water

I dipped one clay pot top into the water container and set it on the dry cloth to dry slightly.

Gorilla glue was spread thinly over the rim of the other clay pot top.  The two pots were placed together, top to top.  This was done with each clay pot pair.

The pot pairs were weighted for an hour while the gorilla glue dried.

Once the glue was dry, the plumbers epoxy was used to adhere the stone pieces to one opening on each pot pair.  The assemblies were left to dry for 24 hours.

Using the caulk gun, I placed a seal of caulk around each stone piece, and then around each glued section.  With my finger covered by the dry cloth, I smoothed the caulk and pressed it into any remaining gaps.  The pots were set out to dry for 24 hours.

All that’s left is to paint the tops of the ollas, which I’ll do when the weather is warm.

I can’t wait to see how well these work.  I’ll keep ya posted.  :)

Dreamin’ Girl

Self Watering Container

c finished container

I’m such a sucker for bargains!

Thankfully, over the years I’ve acquired some control over an urge to BUY, BUY, BUY when the price is right.  I had to face the fact that an item was not a true bargain if I did not have an intended purpose for it.

Now Hubby would argue that point.  He’s suffered through the salvage of wood from our garage tear down, and will point to the new garage rafters and ask “when are you going to use that?”

He calls me a packrat!  The nerve!  hehehe

Back to the point:  I found a bargain resin tote at a Goodwill store recently and immediately thought of making a self-watering container.  The tote was missing a lid, so at $1.99 the price was right.

The basic design of a self watering container requires a water reservoir, a soil support base, a wicking method, a water fill method and an overflow drain.

I assembled the tools and some recycled materials to achieve the basic design.

I found a great design that used a basic .50 basket for the soil wicking, so I used the basket as my height measuring guide for the plastic containers I would use to help create a support for the soil.

To create a reservoir, I cut the sugar container and the peanut containers to the correct height, and then added v cuts in their sides to allow water flow.

The support structure would be mesh gutter guard remnants laid over the top of the containers.

I laid out the reservoir components to prepare for the filtering layer.  The basket and plastic containers (which are placed bottoms up on the floor of the tub) provide the foundation for the mesh overlay which will hold the soil.

Wicking is necessary to pull the reservoir water up to the soil, so a gap is created that allows soil on soil contact between the wet and the dry.

The water fill components are simple:  two water bottles and the top of the sugar container, sans lids.

Also necessary is an insert for the water fill tube.

Another necessary component is the filter for the soil: a permeable means to contain the soil, yet allow water penetration.  I used landscape cloth, with a second doubled layer of fiberglass window screen.

The cloth was placed first, creating a basket inside the basket to contain the wicking soil, then the mesh gutter guards were laid over the cloth.  I added two scoops of dolomite limestone to the base of the basket.

I filled the basket with soil, packing it in firmly, keeping it contained in the landscape filter.  The mesh gutter supports were then put into place.

The screen is placed over the support structure, with a hole cut into it for the soil on soil wicking method.

I placed the water fill tube into the insert (the screen was cut to wrap around the tube).  Slowly, I added the first layer of soil, pressing it into the sides and corners and around the water fill tube, keeping the screen firmly placed along the sides and corners of the tub.

I added soil to just below the water fill guard (which also serves as a handy means to assess the water level – just pull out the top water bottle for viewing), leaving enough room for a layer of mulch.

Done!

No… wait.

I forgot something.  There’s no overflow drain!

Whew!  I know how to handle this…

I guessed the height of the reservoir and punched a hole about 1/2 inch above that.  The proper method would have been to measure and drill a hole before the soil was added, but this will suffice.

We don’t want water logged soil!

There you have it, an affordable self watering container, also known as a wicking bed.

Easy peasy!

Dreamin’ Girl