Happenings around the garden.

Graham and Gay gave me a vertical planter for herbs and I love it. It’s so simple that anyone can do this. I thought if you have access to wooden pallets you could make some good money selling these. So simple.
There was one row of plants that was way too close to the other so I had to take that one off. I learned how to put this vertical planter together by taking a bit of it apart.

photo credit: CK Worley

You’ll need a wooded pallet, some burlap, heavy duty cardboard, Soil Moist, scissors, heavy duty stapler and a screw driver. The screw driver is to help you make the holes through the cardboard and burlap.

photo credit: CK Worley

photo credit: CK Worley

Cut the burlap to fit around the slats. Wrap each row with burlap making a trough. Staple it as tight as you can. Cut the cardboard to fit into the bottom of your trough. Next, make holes that go through the cardboard and burlap. Be careful not to pull the burlap loose. Next fill the trough with soil and herbs. Use Soil Moist pellets to make sure the plants don’t dry out. You only need a small amount of Soil Moist to make this work. I talk about Soil Moist in many of my blog posts.

http://www.growitfirst.blogspot.com/2013/06/grow-it-first-with-ck-worley-how-to-pot.html

I have to replace some of the plants that were originally in there but that's okay.
Here is the finished product. So fun! A wonderful Father's Day Gift!

photo credit: CK Worley

Just an update on this years garden. I made some chicken wire cages to go around my tomatoes. This is a great way to inexpensively stabilize the plant.

photo credit: CK Worley

When I start to see fruit appear I’ll throw some garden netting over the tomatoes to help keep the squirrels from eating everything. The netting lets the sun and rain in and (hopefully) will give us a chance to enjoy the fruits of our labors. Last year between the dogs (they love tomatoes) and the squirrels we didn’t get one tomato on the table. I would love to be able to make my yummy summer salad with tomatoes out of my garden this year.

photo credit: CK Worley

The recipe can be found on my August 23, 2011 blog post here-

http://www.growitfirst.blogspot.com/search/label/tomatoes

My potato plants are coming along. I first cut the bottom off a large plastic pot and washed it out. The cut doesn't need to be pretty. It's going to be on the ground.

photo credit: CK Worley

I cut my potatoes leaving an eye or two on each one then left them out to scab before planting them in the bottom of my open ended pot.
More on potato planting on March 29, 2013 blog post here -

http://www.growitfirst.blogspot.com/search/label/planting%20potatoes

photo credit: CK Worley

photo credit: CK Worley

As the plants grow I’m adding soil to the pot being careful not to damage the stems. I’ll leave the top of the plants uncovered to continue to grow and get sunlight. As the plants grow I’ll add more soil to the pot until I reach the top. The stems will root and grow more potatoes as time passes.
Harvesting will be easy and I won’t have to worry about damaging the potato because there won’t be any digging. I’ll just shimmy the pot up and off the plants and the potatoes should fall out. Remember potatoes need to dry out for a week or two before you cook them. Store the potatoes in a cool dry place.

I’ll add pictures to the bottom of this post as the plants progress and are finally ready to harvest. Stay tuned!