Photo of my set up...

[Baizanator]

Just thought I'd snap a photo of my set up. Disregard the differing plant sizes. The smaller ones are replacements after a hailstorm wiped out about 1/2 of my plants a few weeks back and severely damaged most of the rest. This a combination of 14 EarthBoxes and City Pickers. I'm using the EB AWS on them and it's working great. What you can't see is the top of the trellis system, which is set up to do a Florida weave once they outgrow the netting.

[lycomania]

Looking good! How tall is the netting part? I'm guessing tomatoes get huge in your area.
Sorry to hear about that hailstorm. I had my first hailstorm experience a few springs ago. Talk about getting sucker punched!

[Vespertino]

Awww, that's terrible about the hail storms but I'm glad that some of your tomatoes made it through and that you had some back ups! Earthtainers are really popular, they seem to be working really well for most!

[ginger2778]

Originally Posted by lycomania

Looking good! How tall is the netting part? I'm guessing tomatoes get huge in your area.
Sorry to hear about that hailstorm. I had my first hailstorm experience a few springs ago. Talk about getting sucker punched!

They get huge in South Florida. I tried netting last year and the plants got so heavy that the netting got torn. We also used a Florida weave after they got too tall for the netting. This year we went to cages around each earthbox and when outgrowing, we put in furring strips after my husband sharpened the ends, and used 14 guage malleable galvanized wire( Home Depot in a spool) and this became the "twine" for our Florida weave. This was much better for us. None of them toppled this year and none were torn. It's a learning curve for sure. reed you can see the cage in the photos of the CH I put up.
Reed this looks very nice for now. I bet it is going to work just fine.
Marsha

[Baizanator]

Originally Posted by ginger2778

They get huge in South Florida. I tried netting last year and the plants got so heavy that the netting got torn. We also used a Florida weave after they got too tall for the netting. This year we went to cages around each earthbox and when outgrowing, we put in furring strips after my husband sharpened the ends, and used 14 guage malleable galvanized wire( Home Depot in a spool) and this became the "twine" for our Florida weave. This was much better for us. None of them toppled this year and none were torn. It's a learning curve for sure. reed you can see the cage in the photos of the CH I put up.
Reed this looks very nice for now. I bet it is going to work just fine.
Marsha

Yes, the strength of the netting was a issue in my mind so, although you can't see it, every 18 inches or so down the net there is a length of concrete tie wire running from post to post. The t-posts are about 5ft tall and there is an additional 5 feet of wooden post above that.

[Baizanator]

Took these pictures about dusk a few nights ago...

I'm growing three kinds of cucumbers this year. I'll have Straight Eights, Poona Kheera and Armenian. These are the Armenian cucumber seedlings.

First tomatoes of the season. These are Terenzo F1s and they are looking pretty.

You can see my corn plants in the back half of the garden. I'm growing Trucker's Favorite - White this year. It's a non-sweet field corn. I prefer it over sweet corn.

These are Florida High Bush eggplants. The little one on the end doesn't look so good but they should be okay.

This is my lettuce bed. We've been eating fresh salad regularly. I've got Yugoslavian Red Bibb, Amish Deer Tongue, Bronze Arrowhead, Susan's Red Bibb, Forellenschluss and also some radicchio. There is also a Late Flat Dutch cabbage on the right.

This is the front end of the garden. In the front are some Burpee's Best Cabbage. It's a hybrid I don't know much about but it had good reviews. On the end of that row is a Chiltepin pepper plant and two Bhut Jolokia (ghost chili) pepper plants. Behind that is an assortment of hot and sweet peppers. There are also a few bell peppers in there.

I'm growing several kinds of radishes. This is them in the center. They are French Breakfast, Black Spanish Round, Black Spanish Long, Long Scarlet, Early Scarlet, White Icicle, White Hailstone, Chinese Green Luobo, Chinese Red Meat, China Rose, and Purple Plum. There are also some Scarlet Nantes carrots, Cosmic Purple carrots, Granex onions, Purple Top White Globe turnips, Red Round Turnips, Hollow Crown Parsnips and Detroit Red Beets in there as well.

This bed is on the side of the house. I've got about 12 tomato plants of various varieties, some kohlrabi and some Early Jersey Wakefield cabbages...

This is the other side of the house. I've got six tomato plants in the front, some Brussels sprouts behind them and then some potatoes at the end.

These are the tomatoes down the fence. Some are varying heights thanks to our hailstorm, which required me to replace several plants. These are beginning to put on fruit as well. All total I'm at 48 tomato plants.

[nantucket]

Gorgeous photos..............a real inspiration!

[lycomania]

Thanks for the reply and I love your new pics!

[BucksCountyGirl]

Wow...looking great so far!

[zeroma]

Are you using the straw as mulch? I guess that is worded oddly since mulch can be anything, but anyway....do you have newspaper under it too? It looks so good.

[Baizanator]

Originally Posted by zeroma

Are you using the straw as mulch? I guess that is worded oddly since mulch can be anything, but anyway....do you have newspaper under it too? It looks so good.

Nope. Nothing under it, which I should have done. Next year I'll have cardboard under it because those dang dandelions are ridiculous.

[Dewayne mater]

Extremely efficient use of space! Did you nearly bury the tomato containers? That seems like a lot of work. What do you anticipate the advantages to be? Root temp regulation? Ambitious back yard garden. Nice!

By the way I don't know a few of those lettuce types you mention. Where did you get the seeds? How would describe the taste? We did several lettuces this year the the salads have been supreme! Maybe consider arugula next year...one of my favs!

Dewayne mater

[Mojave]

Beautiful yard!!

[Baizanator]

Originally Posted by Dewayne mater

Extremely efficient use of space! Did you nearly bury the tomato containers? That seems like a lot of work. What do you anticipate the advantages to be? Root temp regulation? Ambitious back yard garden. Nice!

By the way I don't know a few of those lettuce types you mention. Where did you get the seeds? How would describe the taste? We did several lettuces this year the the salads have been supreme! Maybe consider arugula next year...one of my favs!

Dewayne mater

I did not bury the containers but they are covered in and surrounded by a thick layer of wheat straw. The reasoning was that the summers get quite hot in Oklahoma and I wanted to reduce any surface evaporation of moisture and keep root temps down a bit.

As for the lettuce, 90% of my seeds came from the Seed Saver's Exchange and Baker Creek.

[b54red]

It all looks good. I hope you can maintain that neat look into the summer. I'm always disappointed in how those darn plants just want to do whatever they want and not what I want them to as the summer progresses. You've got a great start to the year so keep posting pictures. I really want to see how the netting holds up as the plants get large. Plants can get huge here in LA and I finally went to a steel conduit trellis to keep my plants supported. I hate putting it up and taking it down every year but it has made supporting the plants so much easier and I don't run into the problem midway through the season of the plants getting too big and heavy for the support.

Bill