What did you do in the garden today?

[Fishychix]

Well, i made it out there twice this week. One day weed whacking my way thru and yesterday gathering very large, very yellow cukes. Are those still good to eat?
my crazy busy time at work is the same time everything wants to ripen

 

[akroberts1085]

Nothing in the garden today as my son fell this morning around 1am in the bathroom and tore the skin graft in his left armpit. I so took him to the ER where we spent the next 7 hours.
They said it was so backed up because another nearby hospital had no AC and everyone was being diverted to the hospital we were at.
Good news though, he doesn’t need any surgery to repair the damage, just keep antibiotic ointment on it and let it heal from the inside out. Plus he already has an appointment for the burn clinic on Monday. I only got a total of 2 hours sleep since Thursday morning so I am headed to bed.
Oh, I did fix fresh green beans from the church garden for dinner.

Happy to hear he's ok.

 

[akroberts1085]

Yesterday I got my strawberry plants replanted into a much bigger pot. Not much else besides cleaning up the shed that we had to tear down because it was so yucky .

 

[CNJ]

Probably so. I have been looking at getting into the gravity fed drip system. I already have two 55-gallon barrels on a big stand that I could use to store the water. That wicking rope system looks good, but I imagine it would have a limit as to how far the water would wick along a rope. Like you said, with a drip system you can visually see that water is getting to the plants.

I used rocks successfully on the bottom of my 5-gallon bucket with a 3-inch level drain hole, it's kind of similar to this raise bed video. This is another option, the reservoir is filled once a week, and the nutrients in the soil don't get washed out.

 

[gtaus]

I used rocks successfully on the bottom of my 5-gallon bucket with a 3-inch level drain hole, it's kind of similar to this raise bed video. This is another option, the reservoir is filled once a week, and the nutrients in the soil don't get washed out.

I saw that video sometime last year. It's pretty good.

Here is one that I think you might find is even better. It's 30 minutes long, but he packs in all kinds of information. If you are interested in sub-irrigated planters, it's definitely worth your time to watch and learn.

Using his concept, I made three elevated sub-irrigated 2X4 foot planters for out on my deck. They are by far my best planters because the water reservoir provides a constant source of water to the growing plants.

Here is a picture of one of my elevated sub-irrigated planters full of beans about 3 weeks ago....

There are some significant differences in the water reservoirs. Instead of filling the bottom of the planter bed with rocks, Aldo Pepper uses 4-inch perforated drainpipes with an overflow hole drilled in at 3 inches above the bottom. That leaves a 1-inch air gap in the system, so the roots don't drown. Also, rocks take up a lot of volume in the reservoir, whereas the hollow drainpipes can be filled with much more water in the same amount of space.

I calculated that my 2X4 foot 3 inches deep reservoir holds about 15 gallons of water. I imagine if that space was filled with rocks, you would have a lot less volume of water in the reservoir. The result is that I only have to fill up my water reservoir with drainpipes about once a month in the summertime - providing we have normal rainfall.

We had a terrible hot, drought summer a few years ago and it did not rain from mid-May to sometime in September. That year, I had to fill up the reservoir in my sub-irrigated planter about once a week. But my plants that year looked as good as the picture above that I took a few weeks ago. Meanwhile, my in-ground gardens had all dried up and died. My "normal" raised beds dried out and died. My hügelkultur raised beds survived with maybe 50% production. That drought year really showed me the value to my hügelkultur raised beds and the sub-irrigated planter.

One improvement I made to my sub-irrigated system was to cut a strip of swimming pool noodle and putting it into the PVC drainpipe to act as a water level indicator. When full, the pool noodle as a water indicator sits about 3 inches above the top of the fill pipe. As the water gets used up, the indicator drops down. When the indicator is level with the drainpipe, I refill the reservoir. Using a yellow pool noodle as a water level indicator makes it easy for me to see if the planter needs to be refilled, or not.

The only negative thing I would say about the sub-irrigated system is that it costs good money to line the planter with heavy duty pond liner like I used. The 4-inch perforated drainpipe also adds to the expense. I live in a snow state, so I did not think a 6-8mm plastic liner would survive the freezing weather outside in the winter. That would have been a lot less expensive.

All my raised beds out in the yard are 16 inches high, 4X4 foot square made out of free pallet wood, and I use the hügelkultur method. It costs me only a few bucks for the screws and nails to build each raised bed. If I had a bigger budget, I would like to make raised beds with the sub-irrigated concept. But pond liner is pretty expensive, so I am happy using the hügelkultur method instead.

 

[gtaus]

My last post was too long to show you this picture of the PVC fill pipe with the pool noodle in it as a water level indicator. So, I'm adding this picture for you...

 

[chickengr]

All the leaves fell off my fig tree.
WTH fig tree. This thing is way to sensitive.
=======
Last day of brain melting numbness.

happened in my old place (hot and dry). fig tree is smart, drops the leaves when too hot then grow the new ones fast as soon as temperatures drop.

 

[CNJ]

All my raised beds out in the yard are 16 inches high, 4X4 foot square made out of free pallet wood, and I use the hügelkultur method. It costs me only a few bucks for the screws and nails to build each raised bed. If I had a bigger budget, I would like to make raised beds with the sub-irrigated concept. But pond liner is pretty expensive, so I am happy using the hügelkultur method instead.

Thats too much work for me, I'd rather use earth boxes.

 

[jerryse]

I felt rough the last 2 days. I feel better today. Cut some spearmint to dry. Planted more cuke seed. I hope I can keep these alive. Last ones died. Not sure if it was bacterial wilt or mildew as I was gone.

 

[Fluffy_Moth_With_Silkies]

Picked like a bajillion cherry tomatoes and a few bell peppers, as well as some purple basil