Construction of the new salad table

I started making this box for a raised bed garden, then decided to convert it into a salad table. It is made out of an old door put on some bricks for height, cut boards for the sides and some plastic cement mixing bins from Home Depot. I built a small pvc frame to hold the bins on one side. I lined the box with plastic sheeting and will build a pvc frame with plastic over it to hold in moisture. In the bins I put plastic berry containers for a self watering container system.

Peppers everywhere!!

Yellow, red and green peppers are looking good. The eggplants are growing nicely also. They like the cooler nights and are still blooming.

Temps still high

Temps are still high and the tomatoes aren't producing much. We are on our third invasion of hornworms. The chickens are having a feast! My pups got out and decided my tomatoes were something to seek out and destroy, so some of the tomato plants got squashed. Oh well, I guess they needed trimming!
My bigger garden didn't do as well this year, so I pulled most of it up and am changing out the soil. I bought a 200 gallon water tank and if I can get the shade up with a gutter over my chicken coop, I will have most of the water I need for a fall garden as well as a more successful next summer garden.
I am also trying to figure out how to convert one of the buckets to a hydroponic system. I have most of the things I need so this will be interesting if I can get the system to work!

Buckets still working nicely with tomatoes and peppers!

As summer rolls along, I've only lost 3 plants in buckets. Those buckets had water that went stagnant. I have since learned adding a couple pennies to the reservoir can curb algae!
I have bought a couple Earthboxes and plan to put some herbs in them on the patio. I will also be planting seeds for fall and winter veggies. The big garden wasn't as productive this year, so I will be replacing the soil for the winter season. Surprisingly, the plants in my greenhouse have done pretty well. They are in containers but it is very hot in there, often reaching 120 degrees during the day!

It is hot, hot and more hot!

Summer is in full force and the rains aren't here yet. I am checking the bucket water levels each day and some of the bigger tomato plants are drinking all their water and need daily refills in the reservoir and others don't. I am still watering them on the top also. Some nasty hornworms invaded the tomato patch and munched their way down on some tomatoes and plants until I found them and made my chickens real happy. Hopefully I got them all.

I installed a pvc pipe with two headers with 6 and 12 drip line extensions to each tube in the buckets to refill the reservoirs. I need to adjust the system some more to be effective to every bucket. If I can get it going smoothly, that would be a great time saver each morning! I have found one container that had stagnant water in it, and even upon changing it, lost that tomato plant.

Got tomatoes?

The summer is heating up and are tomatoes are growing and producing! Cherry, romas and the rutger are thriving in the heat! They do get shade in the afternoon. While the buckets have reservoirs, I still water on the top each day due to the hot, dry days and the wind.

SIP-Sub Irrigated Planter Buckets

Sub Irrigated or Self watering planters have a reservoir in the bottom to hold water. The planter consists of two recycled 5 gallon buckets, drilled for a wick cup, aeration, drainage and a watering pipe. Most planters just have a hole in the bottom for drainage but in an effort to conserve every drop of precious water, these planters offer a viable solution to water conservation.

Potting soil is suspended above a water reservoir by means of a perforated barrier. Circular "wicking chambers" reach down into the reservoir and draw water up into the plant's roots. The reservoir is refilled by means of a pipe that comes out the top of the pot and the soil in the pot is covered with a layer of plastic that acts as mulch. Depending on how deep the reservoir is, it's possible to go many days without having to add water. This arrangement, combined with the cover on the top and the overflow drainage hole, prevent wasteful overwatering that can occur with conventional pots.

I hope to be able to hook up a drip line from my rain barrels to water each reservoir. I have planted heirloom yellow pear, heirloom pink brandywine, ruger and cherry tomatoes. They are on the east side of the house to avoid the hot afternoon sun.

Different design for hoop house

Since my little hoop house had done so well during the winter and summer, I decided to change up the pvc hoops and build a square frame around the sandbox. I wanted to put a better shade/plastic system up that would be able to be more secured in high winds. As I started working, I decided to go a little higher on the frame and before you know it, I had started on a small pvc greenhouse! Later I added some more pvc for the roof. I ended up putting chicken wire around the base to keep the cats out, who liked to sleep in there at night! I got 28 gallon totes I found a rummage sale to plant my veggies in for sub irrigated planters.

I was hoping to save water and also avoid the mesquite tree roots that had invaded the sandbox!

Small hoop house

I decided I needed another garden, so I took over my son's sandbox. Since he is a teen now and doesn't use his sandbox, the area was up for grabs. I put two hoops made of pvc to put plastic on to hold in moisture for new seedlings. This also kept out the wild birds and our cats that wanted to use the sandbox as their litterbox. I installed a small dripline and covered the ground with straw. This worked better than expected until the winds picked up. It was tough trying to secure the plastic down and the plants would dry out. Some even rotted after drying out, then upon getting the plastic back on, got slimy on the dead leaf parts.

I had planned on replacing the plastic with a shade cloth during the summer, but the plants dried out too much and if left with some ventilation on the bottom, the squash did pretty good. The soil was amended but contained more sand than my other garden and consumed alot of water. The winter garden did better. It produced quite a bit of turnip greens, onions, carrots and lettuce in the small area ( 6 feet by 6 feet).

Traditional Garden

Here is my small traditional garden (6 feet x 8 feet) with a drip line. It eats up LOTS of water and needs shade in our summer. Never had a lot of success with it unless it rained alot (which is rare here). I always added better commercial compost and soil each year but always seemed to have bugs eat it. I decided last year to add aged compost from chicken, goat and steer manure plus some earthworm castings, gypsum and bone meal and covered it with straw and tree shavings mulch. WOW! I had a bonanza of veggies but also a HUGE water bill each month. Usually we get rain in July but the past couple of years it has been dry and real hot. I lost most of this garden when I left on vacation and the caretakers forgot to water it :(