Vertical "self contained" gardens.

I hate to be totaally lost.....(or dumb)...what is "EB"??

Oh Birdie are you in for a treat. How 'bout it gang? Tell birdieBlue th good news about EBs.

Earth Box. Be prepared.

kb

? Earth Box...hmmmm..could be interesting...I'm a disabled Veteran and sure miss my gardening

Joy.......hope you are enjoying your pricacy fence as much as I do mine. Here is an idea you might use, a couple of them in fact. I ran water hoses around the top rail of my fence. I used 15 sections of CHEAP water hose and put a Y connector at each connection so I could continue the string of 15 footers and have a hose connection every 15 feet. The Y connectors (Cheap ones) have shut-off valves at both outlets and I put a quick disconnect on there so I can just walk around and plug in a short hose and get to all the areas I need to water. If this works out to my satisfaction, I may replace it with higher quality stuff in the future. Then again....maybe not......I may just keep going cheap.

And if you look close, you will see a very thin netting attached along the fence. That is CHEAP deer fenciing. For about 8 bucks, you can buy a 7 foot high by 100 foot long section of that. I just snip a hole in the stuff and drape it on the metal posts of my fence and let it hang down for all the climbing type plants to climb on. The sweet peas love that stuff and are getting so entertwined in it that I will just have to pull it down, net, vines, and all and discard it after they have completed their season. I think I will plant tomato's to grow on it also. Did I mention that it is CHEAP. Have you noticed how often I use the work CHEAP. Not that I'm cheap of something......but....well.......you know how it is.

EBs= Earth Boxes. The originals are made by a reputable company and though I too am a Newbie I have a couple of EBs and some home made ones [we refer to them as HEBs.] They are self sustaining boxes designed to grow anything you would normally grow in garden soil, [yes, even corn. Go to the Earth Box site onlne [which eludes me just now.] Where are you oh TPlant EB guru?

Okay, here BirdieBlue is the link to read about Earth Boxes. Devota

http://www.earthbox.com/

If you are the least bit handy with tools.........or control the action of someone who is........Here in the next few posts is a "tutorial" of how to put together a cheaper (there is that word again) version of the EZgro vertical growing system. The pots you see in the pictures can be purchased from www.theezgro.com for about 6 bucks each. When you figure that each pot has four growing sites, that aint too expensive.

As you can see in the picture, I screw short stubs of 3/4 inch electrical conduit to a wooden base. In your area you may just be able to drive a 1/2 inch peice of conduit at least 12 to 16 inches into the ground and slide the 3/4 inch conduit over that to vertically mount the pots.

For this project you need the pots, 3/4" conduit, 2 screw EMT (Electrical metal tubing) brackets, and 3/4" EMT coupling.

Here is a closer view of the short stub of conduit screwed to the frame. The ranch guard dog is on duty to prevent someone from infringing on my patented way of doing this. That is one vicious canine!

Jaywhacker- -As you know, I have one set of EZGro and love it. And your set up is FANTASTIC. Looks like you get alot of sun on the "porch".

BocaBob

Jaywhacker: Good job, there are so many great ideas here, and I love your idea for the peas, I will have to give that one a try.

Texas: It will be there, but, one new hobby at a time here, gardening takes the presedence here, I will take the pics and get my sister to help get them up on the site so everyone can see them ok? If not, I will wind up cutting and pasting my fingers on the site instead of what I want to be on it. LOL

Gymgirl: Great set up there.

joy112854

Here is the longer section of conduit. Its length will depend on whether you will be mounting 3,4,or 5 pots. That is a two screw coupling at the bottom of the upper conduit. Tighten the top screw to firmly attach the coupling to the upper conduit but you will not tighten the bottom screw. The coupling will just sit down on the bottom conduit and can be lifted off easily.

And now for the grand finale!! The upper conduit is sitting on the lower conduit held firmly by the coupling and a large washer dropped down over the conduit to better support the bottom pot. The washer is not absolutely necessary (the danged thang cost $1.25.......each...ouch) as the top edge of the coupling is sufficient to support the pots but over a period of time, the washer will result in less wear to the bottom pot. The pots can spin on the conduit to better expose all plants to sunshine.

And here is the key feature.........mobility. Im a firm believer in mobility as I have managed to live thru 2 wars and 3 marriages. You gotta be quick on your feet and ready to duck and move out at all times. This should add a new dimension to "picking" or harvesting your crops. You just pick them suckers up and move on. Selling your house? Take your garden with you....all you gotta do is fix up some ground mounts at your new place or run around screwing short stubs (in Texas we call them stobs.......a stob is a stob is a stob...right Karen) every place where its possible to mount a pole. Just visualize that.........You are moving into your new house, the neighbors are gathered around to get acquainted.....up comes a moving van and suddenly you are dashing in and out of the van carrying your garden on poles and stobing them into the ground, on porch railings, patios, etc. The new neighbors are amazed........but you just smile and say, "If'n any of ya'll wont to help pick some peas and 'maters, you are welcome to stay for supper."

Jay, That deer fencing looks pretty weak, like string or very thin wire. How in the world can that keep any deer out? Seema like they could just walk thru it, not even have to jump. (I do realize that you have a wood fence, but have never seen deer fencing before and am very baffled. I'd really think it took something both stronger & more visable to stop a deer)
----sprry for "off topic"----

Yes Jaywhacker, LOL! A stob is a stob. Linda (Pugzley) fell over a stob when she was little and landed smack on the stob with her face! You are a hoot mister, with your be propared to move quickly story, hahaha! Great picture, a handsome Kerrville cowboy!

BirdieBlue.......You make some good points......but did I mention that it was CHEAP. I gave a roll of it to a young hippy who grows trees and flowers at a local hippy campground, www.kerrvillemusicfestival.com to try and keep the deer out of all his stuff. He strung it around and he at first hung a few littly fluttering things on it for the deer to see that first year he used it. But I noticed this year that he just strung it up without the flutter things. This will make two years without deer running thru it. It is on sale at the big box stores. It is tougher than it looks but whether it will hold up under a real heavy load of growing plants or not I do not know..........yet. Check back with me next year. By the way, just re-read your post.........Im not using it to keep deer out........Just for plants to climb.

Jay, at which Big Box did you find your deer net? I did a quick search online and it looked pretty costly, but it was for huge rolls of it...

Stick with me Karen and we will larn these non-texans the proper use for stobs. I had not planned on getting in the picture as I usually use my son as a model but he insisted on taking the picture. I forgot I didnt have my teeth in and forgot to suck in my belly. Did you notice the ranch guard dog protecting my backside there. All I gotta say is, "cover my six there, Lil Bit," and she is right there, prepared for battle. If not for her, the boogers would have got me long ago.

Karen........I googled.........deer fence=Lowes and got a garden web posting where some folks were discussing using the type of fencing I use. I know I have seen it before at both Lowes and Home Depot and bought mine at HD. Im pretty sure I remember the price right.....somewhere around $7.95. It is pretty lite-weight stuff.

Just my non-Texan 2 cents worth: Here we call it bird netting and you can buy small quantities of it at the farm and garden stores. D in TN

Yes........looks just like the bird netting but as I remember was a lot cheaper and covered a lot more. It is 7 feet high and 100 feet long. I remember thinking that it could do the same job as bird netting but was lots less expensive.

Right Jaywhacker, and I plan to hang it over anything the birds might like in the container garden. I also use it as "fish" netting to keep the herons at bay that were robbing the Koi pond.

Devota..........remember to stob it down so them critters cant crawl underneath!

Jay, I got stobs! We got stobs here. I am the top stobber in Tennessee. Thanks for letting me be an honorary Texan Karen.

And I thought everyone wanted to be a Floridian????
joy112854

Oops, Joy. Jaywhacker is so funny I lost control. Teehee.

Guys: Since we have posted on here how to make your own HEBs there has been a run on totes, they may actually go up in price now, can you believe it? I called Home Depot as they had them on sale, the 18 gallon ones for $3.33; and they are a good 35 miles from me, I wanted to go there and save some money, but, when I spoke with the guy he said that some other guy had just left with everyone they had, so this idea must be spreading like wildfire. Now, I just may have to buy them from Walmart or Lowe's at a few dollars more per tote. I got 40 pond baskets on the way, and wanted to buy at least 20 totes. (darn it).
joy112854

Im sitting here laughing my head off. The economy is in the dumps, another great depression is coming, the stock markets dropping daily, car makers bankrupt, all the kids are moving back home, jobs being lost right and left, the future looks dimmer each day.......... and some enterprising guy has cornered the market of 18 gallon totes to make and sell HEB's. Hooray for the enterprenarial spirit!!! Joy, since this is happening in Florida, if I was you, I would suspect either Bob or Tplant.

I planted this pole about 10 days ago. Bottom pot is radish......next pot up is chard.....top 3 pots are mesclun mix. Looks like I planted the mesclun mix a little too thin. So I will just plant on top of whats growing and can probably get 2 or 3 snippings from them. Its kind of nice to just walk out into the yard with some scissors and a collander and snip yourself a salad or rip off a chunk of chard and munch away. It grows so clean you dont even have to wash it. Besides, a little grit in yore chow aint never hurt nobody no how......helps keep the teeth sharp.

Here come my strawberries

Looking at those strawberries has convinced me to try some this year. Are you using your standard soluable fertilizer on those?

Yes sir, daily with the watering

Bob: That is such a cute pic and looks so much like you>LOL
joy112854

jaywhacker, are you planting anything in coir? I dont know where to get that around here and I dont want to pay shipping on it...I have used the landscape mix before and do like it. Used it a lot in my 'other' house before I moved out here to the lake. I also use cotton seed hulls because they are available. they keep the soil loose in my beds. Wish I could get a truck load of that. No one sells anything by the truckload around here either, except sand and dirt...no compost, mulch, cotton seeds, etc.

I haven't found anyone around here that carry's Coir. In the past, I had to order mine from Hydro-gro in Colorado.........25 grow bags and the freight was about $41 bucks. I asked a local nursery to order some in..........now I have to go back and tell her not to order in the courser stuff thats for amending ground beds, not containers.

Check with Jerry (Texasrock garden) about a supplier out of the Dallas area.

OK, what the heck is "Choir"?? I sure see a lot of people talking about it.

Here you go:

http://www.progressive-growth.com/article-coco-coir.php

Jaywhacker,
I like the way you incorporaated the conduits and made your own system work for your situation. BUT....
I looked at the sites for Stack and Grow and for EZ Grow. I haven't found any 6.00 stacks or planters. Am I looking in the wrong place?