This week I tore out the old tomato plant, refitted the container a bit and put in a new eggplant.

Garden Log

Container 1

It’s worth noting that this container seems to have something wrong with its weed cloth. Whenever the water runs out it’s brown - full of dirt it looks like. I’m assuming it won’t be a problem before we take that container apart and plant something new in it.

  • Bush beans - We’ve got itty-bitty little beans! Itty bitty beans
  • Flowers - Still very lively and beautiful
  • Ginger - The ginger is still leafy and happy

Container 2

This week I replanted this container, but first I took the opportunity to make some improvements. Here’s a picture of some cotainers - each with the same problem:

Sunken Barrels

In both of those do you see how the band around the barrel on the top half is almost touching the top edge of the bottom half? That isn’t supposed to be that way: the top half sunk down under the weight of the waterlogged dirt. I thought there’d be some settling, but this is so bad that the drainage holes in the bottom half are being covered up by the top half of the barrel. I didn’t put anything in the barrels to prevent them from sinking, so they did. This time, I fixed it.

The first step in this process was to tear out the tomato plant. Next, I unloaded all of the soil from the container. Now, I had to figure out how to get the top and bottom halves separated. They were pretty well stuck together let me tell you. Trying to do it by hand failed, so I did this:

Ingenuity

What you’re looking at here is a Harbor Freight tie-down wrapped around the top half of the barrel right where it meets to bottom half. All I had to do was tighten it a bit and the top half came right out.

Next, I popped out all of the caps in the holes on the top half. This left two bare 2” circular holes in the bottom of the top half. I stuck a 2” PVC pipe through each of those holes and then attached tee junctions to them, then put an 8” piece on the other side of the junction. The middle I left open. This is what it looks like:

Ingenuity

This approach does several things for me:

  1. The lip of the tee junction on each pipe will support the top half and prevent it from sinking.
  2. Having two PVC pipes instead of one allows me more options for above the container: I can use the PVC pipes to build a trellis or a shade for the plants.
  3. The water reservoir is filled through the PVC pipes. Previously I would have to cut a notch in the end of the fill pipe to ensure water could escape, but now it will just exit through the empty middle connection in the tees if it can’t from the bottom of the pipe.

You can see another modification in the above picture: drainage holes in the bottom of the soil container. These holes will be covered with landscape fabric so soil can’t get out, but excess water should be above to drain through them easily. A lot of the plants I want to grow require well-drained soil, so this should make them happy.

The top was a bit wobbly when I put it back in, but it lost that when I put the soil back in and filled the bottom with water. I haven’t seen any sinking yet and don’t expect to. The capacity of the water reservoir was impressive.

Here’s a picture of the finished product, complete with the new eggplant.

New container

Container 3

This container is currently shaded. We had a major culling this last week in this container.

  • Parsley - Still growing, but not going crazy. Looks pretty happy for the most part.
  • Big pepper plant - Producing new peppers like crazy. They’re seriously everywhere on the plant right now. The rotting at its joints has subsided for the moment, so that’s good too. I still can’t identify whatver might be eating the leaves.
  • Rooted pepper plant - Dead and gone.
  • Pepper plant sprout attempts - All dead.

Plan

Container 1

I thought I might plant some turmeric in here but it looks to me like the bush beans might claim as much space as they can if I leave them be. I’d like it if they did that, so I’m going to focus on encouraging the beans and seeing if they expand.

Container 2

Water the eggplant every morning for two weeks.

Container 3

Plant the turmeric in the newly-free space in this container.

Container 4 - Planned

Possible options:

  • Yellow squash
  • Cherry tomatoes
  • Okra
  • Southern Peas
  • Sweet potatoes

Fall/Winter

We’d like the following plants:

  • Garlic
  • Onion
  • Green onion
  • Spinach
  • Kale
  • More greens
  • Carrots

Fruit Trees

We want the following fruit trees:

  • Avocado
  • Mango
  • Lime
  • Papaya

Harvest Log

Harvest Date Green Pepper Tomato (Beefsteak) Beans Eggplant
Up to now 12 11 0  
6/17/17 2 5(3) 0  
6/24/17 0   0  
Total 14 14 0 0

To Do

  • Research cherry tomato varieties to buy
  • Research sweet potatoes

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