heres my small garden

first is a close up of my greenhouse bench with the containers on top and the soaker hose running through it. i have to hose attached to a timer. it goes on each day of the week for two hours per day. so far everything is looking good.

here are the tomato plants. please don't ask what they are because for the zillionth year in a row i screwed up I.D.ing of the plants.

my cheese peppers

a close up of the peppers

and the basil

Way to go, Frank! I'll be setting up one of those soaker hose systems next year for sure. Great idea!

I see lots of little yellow flowers on the tomatoes! Woo hoo. Am envious of your healthy and prolific basil. Great work. Keep the pics coming.

They all look fantastic! I think I may have to find room for a table like that. Good going!

Wow--nice looking tomatoes. Wish mine looked that neat. I have 30 and they need to be tied AGAIN!

thanks everyone. i was a little late putting my plants out for the season but everything seems to be coming along.

Excellent! Where did you get those buckets?

I have some grape tomatos in large pots as well as a red bell pepper and I'm trying a red onion in a container as well. low-mid 90's next week!

Tom

HERBIE43,

Everyone's right, those sure are healthy looking plants! I also like your idea of hook-up for the soaker hose. Is the soaker hose exposed between buckets, and if so, does it drip constantly on your deck? Yes. and where did you get those buckets?

Thanks in advance.

Red

So you cut holes for the hose to go through the buckets and then snaked the hose through all of them. Is this correct?Deanna

Herbie,

The tomatoes look realllly great, good job! Your pictures look very different from last year. Didn't you do the containers on your deck again this year? Maybe I missed one of your posts, but I'd love to see them again as this is my first year trying containers (Earthboxes). :)

Megan

i bought most of the containers at walmart after last growing season. they are regularly about 2.80 but after the season they go for about 1 dollar.

meagan - last year i grew them on my deck but i did not have the table as i do now. plus i had a lot more containers than i do now.

big red - the containers are so close together that there is not too much dripping on thje deck except where i have the hose attached from the faucet to the top of the deck which is about 5 or 6 feet. i could have bought a small regular hose and attached it to the faucet and then run it up to the deck and attach it to the soaker hose but i didn't.

deanna - yep, that all i did. the hose rest right on top of the soil so nothing can get clogged. i also found that my watering this way the soil itself does not get compacted into the cotnainers like when i hand watered it with the hose.

Herbie, Your potted garden looks just great and healthy. Altho I think with the soaker hoses that are available at my WalMart, there would be quite a bit of leakage between the pails, as it seems like the holes in my hoses must be closer than yours. I have only used soaker hoses in garden where it doesn't matter if there is leakage. You have a very good system worked out there.

DonnaS

donna - i bought the hose in my walmart. since i have a well i am not to concerned about losing some water. i really like this system.

Herbie43, I wound duct tape around the part of the hose I didn't want dripping. It isn't completely effective, but does really cut down the dripping*G*.

Margo

I wonder, can you cut the hose in sections, along with regular garden hose, splice/clamp it together right where it goes in and out of the containers, and just have the drip section(s) inside the containers? Hmmm, I may try this next year.

Red

Red, that's what I wanted to do, but couldn't find enough of the soaker connecters, and most of mine soaker hoses leak where they're connected, anyway. Maybe I'll have better luck next year when I re-do them.
Margo

2 questions:

If you are leaving the pots on the table, how will you work the staking?

How will you handle harvesting them? Can you get between the pots and around the table?? Won't the branches/vines be way high up???

Red, you can get half inch soaker hose and solid poly hose from Orbit that can be readily spliced together with various compression fittings (straight connectors, T's, elbows, etc). It's available online at MrDrip and probably elsewhere, also our WalMart has started carrying the hose and fittings.... definitely nice for custom applications, although it can be a bit more expensive than attaching the 50 ft. soaker hoses to a regular hose.

I don't think the "hose repair kits" work for splicing regular soaker hose (the kind that comes with a hose-end connector), but you can cut and splice together pieces of solid garden hose to lead out to your various beds and soaker lines.

Technically, Sequee, that's four questions. But I guess we'll let it slide this time.

Wow ... Frank, that's a lot of work. You can come down to my house and set mine up next year. LOL You know there's no way I can do all of that by myself! Now mind you ... my DH is sweet and all, but I was lucky to get those tomato cages this year. ;)

sequee - my wife told me that i would have to do all the harvesting cause she couldn't reach them. now that i go out and look at them i am thankful for having a small step ladder that i will be able to use for harvesting etc.

elaine - i know you and i know danny and i know he will DO ANYTHING you ask him to do for you. if you need any help setting it up give me a hollar.

Yooooohoooo Fraaaank ...
grin

i'm on my way. get the grits and collard greens going.