My Garden Photos.

I thought it might be fun to post a few early, mid season, and late season photos this year.

Hear is my early garden.

Garlic on the left, onions on the right. Cucumbers will grow up the trellis behind the garlic. Beets are planted behind the cucumbers and tomatoes on the other side of the beets.



Lettuce planted behind the onions with tomatoes and summer squash between the lettuce and onions.



More lettuce of different varieties, tomatoes, summer squash, and onions.



My new containers with a variety of plants.



It's gonna be a good year.

Ted

[shelleybean]

Ted, I envy you and your warm temps!! We're in for a warm up here and I'm getting ready to harden off my tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, herbs and okra. Outside, my lettuce is a speck compared to yours. The only sort of mature looking thing I have is shallots planted at Thanksgiving. Keep us posted on your progress with pictures! Thanks!

Originally Posted by shelleybean

Ted, I envy you and your warm temps!! We're in for a warm up here and I'm getting ready to harden off my tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, herbs and okra. Outside, my lettuce is a speck compared to yours. The only sort of mature looking thing I have is shallots planted at Thanksgiving. Keep us posted on your progress with pictures! Thanks!

Shelley,

Don't be to envious. We had temps in the low twenties two weeks ago and the threat of freezes earlier this week.

Ted

[attml]

Very nice!!

[sprtsguy76]

Everything looks great. Looks like you get a lot out of every square inch in your beds.

Damon

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk 2

[efisakov]

Ted, seriously, this is not an early garden,
this kind of GARDEN I will see a few months from now.
Great job.

[MikeInCypress]

Ted,

Sure looks good. What size are the large containers? My home made self made earthtainers are getting a bit old and I am thinking to going to large containers with a drip line. Sometimes its a burden filling the earthtainers twice a day. How do you water? Have a great year.

MikeInCypress

Mike, they are 25 gallon in size or 27.5 to be accurate. 25 gallons is equal to approximately 3 cubic feet. I fill them full and they compact to 25 gallons when the soil gets wet. I use drip irrigation on a timer to water them. I have two adjustable drippers on each container. When the plants are large and the weather is hot, I adjust the watering cycle time on the timer and then lower the time when it starts cooling off at the end of summer. If you look on the fence behind the containers, you can see the main water line going to each container. It's nothing but 1/4 " plastic tubing. My raised beds are watered the same way with buried soaker hoses in each bed connected to a central buried pvc line on a timer. If you use the crtl and + keys on your keyboard simultaneously, you can also enlarge the photos to see more detail of the adjustable drippers. CTRL and - keys return everything to it's original size.

If you decide to stay with the earthtainers, you should be able to retrofit them with some type of float control valve with 1/4" tubing between each earthtainer. I modified a plastic bucket with a float control valve so my dog never runs out of water. I don't know what the guts of an earthtainer look like and there may not be room in one for a float valve. You could rig up a separate float chamber tank and let it gravity feed water to the earthtainers. It would have to be established at the same level as the earthtainers or it would constantly be causing the earthtainers to over flow or go dry. A gravity tank made of large diameter PVC pipe would also be a neat way to occasionally fertilize your plants. Just lift the lid and pour in the liquid fertilizer. An old toilet reservoir from a resale shop could be rigged to do the same thing.

Ted

[efisakov]

Ted, one day I will have something as good or maybe even better as you have now, but it will be SOME DAY, few years from now, when I move to Florida, When I retire...
SOME DAY

[Crandrew]

Looking great Ted keep posting!
I like your beds.

Crandrew,

Thank You!

Ella,

All good things are worth waiting for. I'm willing to bet your garden will be better than mine. Mine fits my needs and desires. Yours will fit your needs and desires. Good luck with your efforts.

Ted

[efisakov]

Ted, that was a joke, what you have took most likely long time to make and lots of love for gardening.
great job

[kath]

All your plants look so healthy, Ted! Thanks for starting this thread and sharing your garden with us!

kath

[greyghost]

Wow-everything looks healthy! Your containers for tomatoes look great.
Hope you have a wonderful season-you're sure off to a good start. Thanks
for posting your photos-I enjoyed them very much. Darlene

Originally Posted by sprtsguy76

Everything looks great. Looks like you get a lot out of every square inch in your beds.

Damon

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk 2

Damon,

I'm not a square foot gardener, but I try to utilize all my available space. All of my plants have proven to be good companion plants and there is a reason for the placement of each. Each bed has a few square inches where I couldn't seem to work anything in. I planted a variety of flower seeds in those spaces. I'm hoping the flowers attract some pollinators. Some years, I have an abundance of pollinators and the next year; none. I love having a lot of bumble bees. They buzz around like small helicopters, but have never bothered me in the garden. They will occasionally land on me, but not sting. I've made the mistake of getting to close to their nest in the woods and they really attack me then.

Ted