Tuesday, November 23, 2010

A whole growing season come and gone!






I COMPLETELY forgot I even had this blog! LOL

Not like there seems to be a lot of people paying attention, but I could be wrong!

This was a very 'experimental' year, I got to try some topsy-turvy troughs, some used tire stack potato towers, and some attempts at grafting to an old crab-apple stump to name a few of my adventures };^D>

Here's a pic of the basic construction of the trough supports and the materials used and tools needed... and another showing how I used old tarp material and grommets to custom build the 'hammocks' that suspend from the trough frames.

The troughs were then affixed along the tops of the stockade fencing nice and level, with a considerable space between for plants to dangle. Then slits were cut into the hammock and two different varieties of either tomato or pepper were inserted root-ball first from the bottom and soil added from the top, then climbing beans and snap peas were planted in the trough itself and trained to grow downward (which worked, but ended up being rather laborious)

The tire taters seemed to be working well, but found out at the end of the season that my medium was too rich so I got lots of leaves, but few spuds =( Live and learn... next year, the tires get straw and/or leaves only after the first tire.

Tired now... will update more later...

Brian