Cool garden ideas

[seekertruth72]

I can see where self-watering could be a life-saver if you can't water the garden on a regular schedule. But I prefer top-watering (though it does have its challenges) because it follows nature's general pattern more closely. As the water descends through the soil, it takes with it organic matter from the top – animal waste, decaying plant matter, etc. It also etches minerals from the rocks, and brings it all down to the roots. The plant, in turn, brings all this goodness back up to the surface, eventually to be deposited as leaves, seeds, fruit and stems. So there's a vertical ecosystem going on that I don’t see other systems, such as self-watering or hydroponics, offering.

Interesting. Thanks brother. The one draw back to overhead watering is fungus can grow and lead to blight and other disease. The plant will get overhead watered anyway when it rains, but the self watering container ovoids excessive overhead watering with a garden hose and doesn't allow the plant to go through the stress of drought which can stunt the plant and fruit yielding, and with container gardening you would want to use a good potting mix with plant food already added but they will get overhead watering when it rains

 

[seekertruth72]

Interesting idea-

The women in the first video says she gets more tomatoes on individual plants if she hand pollinates them.


How To Hand Pollinate Tomatoes In Your Tomato Garden - Insightful Nana - YouTube

Hand pollination of Cucumbers - YouTube

 

[seekertruth72]

Another thing i learned from that video is that flowers help attract bees which in turn pollinate the vegetable garden. I was never into growing flowers before, but i think that i will grow some flowers now so it will attract more bees.

 

[paul1149]

Watering was my most critical issue last year – my first real attempt at gardening. I had only 8" of soil in raised beds on a hard ledge rock base (I've been adding to it since then), so the amount and frequency of watering was crucial. I had no idea what I was doing, and I ended up with spotted tomato plants. I was trying to deep-water to develop the roots, but I didn’t realize that the shallow beds needed more superficial and more frequent watering to keep the moisture content in the optimum range.

I think the ideal solution is trickle watering. It has the advantages of top-watering, but can be adjusted to regulate soil moisture very tightly. It can even be attached to a moisture meter or timer and set up to operate automatically, so you have some of the advantages of self-watering. The plant leaves generally stay dry, which is good, and the rain and dew will take care of the chore of washing the dust off them. But trickle watering is an investment, and I don’t know how long I'm going to be where I am, so I've avoided it so far.

 

[seekertruth72]

Watering was my most critical issue last year – my first real attempt at gardening. I had only 8" of soil in raised beds on a hard ledge rock base (I've been adding to it since then), so the amount and frequency of watering was crucial. I had no idea what I was doing, and I ended up with spotted tomato plants. I was trying to deep-water to develop the roots, but I didn’t realize that the shallow beds needed more superficial and more frequent watering to keep the moisture content in the optimum range.

I think the ideal solution is trickle watering. It has the advantages of top-watering, but can be adjusted to regulate soil moisture very tightly. It can even be attached to a moisture meter or timer and set up to operate automatically, so you have some of the advantages of self-watering. The plant leaves generally stay dry, which is good, and the rain and dew will take care of the chore of washing the dust off them. But trickle watering is an investment, and I don’t know how long I'm going to be where I am, so I've avoided it so far.

You're right i think, trickle watering is the way to go, using a soaker hose most likely.

I over watered my garden the first couple years i started gardening and ended up having disease/blight problems. So i started learning how critical proper watering is. This is my 4th year now, my first year was nothing more than some tomatoes and peppers growing in pots sitting on my deck.

Self watering containers make gardening easy and maintenance free, giving more time for planning and learning more useful ways of gardening. This is the first time i tried self watering container gardening, the only drawback that i see so far is that im not sure yet if it uses more water, less or the same amount of water that a ground garden uses.

 

[paul1149]

Both of those videos are awesome. I like the idea of maximizing the crop, and this is doable. Thanks.

 

[seekertruth72]

Both of those videos are awesome. I like the idea of maximizing the crop, and this is doable. Thanks.

I though that was cool too.

 

[seekertruth72]

I just thought of yet another reason container gardening is better, it helps defend against some garden pests too. Weeds, pests, disease and hassle free gardening. I cant believe this hasn't taken off yet. Maybe its more hype than the perfect gardening solution, i don't know but in theory this is the perfect home gardening solution and is revolutionary in my opinion, if theory is fact.

One could build and sell self watering gardens cheap and start a gardening revolution and get rich too. Not that i care for being rich. But is someone else does get rich using my idea i wont mind if they send me a few bucks.

 

[sourdough]

Great, inspirational videos! I just started growing my own veggies in big tubs in our back yard (full sun). We recently enjoyed an awesome batch of gazpacho made with home-grown tomatoes!

 

[keith99]

I would strongly suggest that people look into free sources of compost. Or for that matter other adaments.

What is available and free changes with time and for that matter with what you are willing to use.

For me 35-45 years ago Horse manure was free and plentyful. More than once I got 3 pickup truck loads of it in one day. (1 ton pickup, not a whimpy 1/2 ton). That was when I hit things right abd got it loaded at the stable end a couple of time. They were happy to load when they were out working with the tractor. I also at one point got fish scraps from a local fish market.

Then the stable I used found they could sell it to golf courses. Now that stable which was on the outskirts of Calabassas is all high cost houses.

BUT now free compost is available from a couple of sources. The stuff that goes into the garden waste bins gets composted as does sewage.

Free, pleantyful and high quality.

For now, at leat the stuff from the sewage plant also gets sold and my bet is eventually it will no longer be free and perhaps eventually only available in commercial quantities.

 

[MountainBluebird]

I help pollinate my tomato plants too, because of the lack of bees sometimes, but do it a little differently. Also, tomato plants don't need to have the suckers removed, especially if you grow determinate type tomatoes.

Pinterest is a great site to save pictures of gardening ideas or plants you want to grow.

 

[rambot]

1) I dug a hole and put in a hard plastic jug with small (nail sized) holes in the side into it. Just a bit of the jug and the lid. Planted by melons right next to it. Water the plant by pouring the water into the jug. That plant did AWESOME! I gave it a shot of compost tea mid summer, that plant was a thing of beauty. I'll get two melons for SURE and possibly four. horray!

2) Pea Tee-pee. Very convinient for growing a lot of peas!

3) I compost but don't have any leaved trees. My friend has 5 huge trees around him. I get all the leaves I need at the right time of year....teeeheeeheeee

 

[pennyfromheaven]

Thanks for the post and the video. I was confused, though - do you save/replant the part you cut off? Or the rest of the green onion plant? Someone answer me this, and then I will happily try to execute it!

 

[Brother Alan]

When planting a potted plant in the garden, do not initially take it out of it's pot !!

Dig a hole where you need to plant it, place the pot and plant into the hole at the correct height and back fill the pot, firm the soil round it and then remove the pot and plant from the hole.

You will leave(hopefully) a very neat pot shaped hole.

Tap the plant out of the pot and place the plant into the hole and gently firm the soil around it. This way you will not disturb the plant at all.

hope that this is of help

BA

 

[BlueLioness]

It rains around here all the time.

I had an idea to take advantage of our rainy weather and harvest rainwater to purify for consumption, possibly for watering plants too.

I was going to harvest rainwater via a rain barrel/rainwater tank (wanted to buy one of those), but my whole family was in a uproaringous protest, telling me that rain barrels were too big and costed too much money.

Still haven't gotten one yet.

Rainwater tank - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[paul1149]

We had a discussion of collecting rainwater in, of all places, Dreams and Visions. There are some things to watch out for.

http://www.christianforums.com/t7665306/

edit: It begins around post #26

 

[Aklian]

What will you do with this rain water. ??????? Will you use this in the gardening or some one else place.

 

[miss-a]

thanks, this is a good confirmation. I would be concerned about using unfiltered roof water on edible plants. I think it would be fine for flowers.

 

[If Not For Grace]

Vertical Strawberry Planter