Friday, May 15, 2009

Lots of planting!

Did a lot of planting the last few days. Transplanted all my tomatoes (17 total - 7 varieties), basil and the last of the lettuce. Also sowed cilantro, green onions and more carrots. Both the bush beans and pole beans have germinated and are growing fast.

Here's a tour of the boxes...


I'll start harvesting some spinach in the next couple days.




Some leaf lettuce is just about ready for some harvesting as well.


I finished my Self-Watering Containers and planted Roma tomatoes in one and Rutgers tomatoes in the other. The jury is still out for me about these things. They are expensive to make, what with using 2 totes and and 2 cu ft of Miracle Grow Potting Mix, which isn't cheap. In the end, for the cost of making these two, I could have built another 4x4 raised bed filled with Mel's Mix and had more planting area. I'll see how it goes with them this season. It did allow me to plant 4 more tomato plants than I would have otherwise.

5 comments:

  1. You're right...the jury is out for me as well with the SWC. I seem to get as much out of them as my pots. The only thing I like about them is watering from beneath.

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  2. Luke, a couple of comments/questions. I see that you have the tomato grow boxes located next to a wall which will most likely reduce the light and the productivity of the plants. I'm curious about the mulch-like material on top of the white plastic mulch and what it's for. I also wonder what type/brand potting mix you used. Hopefully it contains NO top soil. Also, you don't need 2 totes to make one planter when using a cutout from the lid to make the platform. Based on widespread user experience you should get significantly higher productivity in sub-irrigated planters than in the ground. Just trying to help

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  3. The tomato boxes are on the south side of a East-West wall of the shed. This spot gets 8+ hours of sun daily. The mulch-like material is just wood mulch. I just thought it looked a little nicer than the plastic -- purely aesthetic. The mix is Miracle Grow Potting Mix. And, yes, you don't need to use 2 totes. In fact the green one is made with one, but it was such a pain trimming the lid piece to fit nicely, as well as cutting sections of 4" PVC for the supports and wicking chambers I used the 2-tote method for the gray one. I'm not sure why I don't like the SWCs. I guess they're relatively expensive and a bit uglier than wooded raised beds.

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  4. Luke,
    Wow. Your veggies are growing so fast. Must be getting good sun there. That lettuce looks ready for salad time. Very nice work. Enjoy!!

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  5. Our yard is long and narrow and runs East-West, with the house on the Western most part. Our backyard gets zero shade, which is tough for us people on summer days, but it means 8-10 hours of sun for all the plants.

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