We’ve been very surprised to see the hibiscus in the front really do well this year.
Here is a close up. Lovely.
Planting has begun
Look at Tami go. Planting phase 1 of the garden. Can’t wait to be chopping up veggies in the kitchen.
Cilantro on left and some collards on the right.
Some fall squash in front and tomatoes in the back.
Green onion starting to sprout.
Purple cauliflower. I don’t eat but we shall see. I think we should rename it to tiger broccoli.
Bush cucumbers in the green trellis and larger cherry tomatoes in the red ones. Some cabbage on the right.
The left tank has lots of green onion and garlic.
Ok now the hard part is waiting for it to grow. Starting to plan for keeping birds off the soon to be tomatoes.
Garden update
I added about an inch of sand before putting my soil mixture.
I decided to use this blend from Lady Bug in Austin. It’s expensive so if it doesn’t do really well I’ll be looking at cheaper options in the future. Each tank took about 11cubic feet of soil. That’s 5.5 bags in each tank @ $18 a bag it’s a small investment.
Here is one of tanks now with soil. I’ve decided to leave some room at the top for now. I may build it over time.
Here is a close up. It’s a third soil, compost, and vermiculite.
The suburban gardening project has started
I’ve decided to build a garden in my back yard. Considering the heat and soil in my area I’m going to be working above ground. I’m going to build what in called a wicking watering system. So basically the plants will receive water from the bottom through gravel that hold the water. I plant to do soil and plant next weekend. This is only the first of many tubs I plan to build. I’m going to do it in phases due to the time it take, as well as, the cost.
Here is what my first two tubs look like. I haven’t added soil yet but spent the day setting these up. Getting them level took some work. Lucky that I had Jake to help me this morning.
Side angle. I first laid down about two inches of decomposed granite to act as a foundation for the tubs.
Side angle showing walking room between the fence and the modified drains.
Close up of the drains. I had to extend them to the point I wanted the water to equalize in the tanks.
Here you can see that I have covered the prefferated pipe with pea gravel to hold water. It took 8 bags per tub. The bags contained .5 cubic so I have 4 cubic feet of gravel per tub.
Close up of my 4″ pipe that will act as my water reservoir. Lowes has the 4 inch pvc pipe already cut in two foot lengths so that saved some time not having to measure and cut a much larger pipe.
This is picture during the water test to. Checking to make sure that the water flows out evenly and that the drains work.
Here is the installation of the perforated pipe being installed.
Here is a picture of the end of the pipe. I had to use this 22 degree elbow to get the end cap to fit. I also had to use universal sleeves to connect the PVC with the perforated piping.