Many apologies on the radio silence over the past month. Life and loss reared their ugly heads and blogging fell way down the priority list. We still managed to make a bit of headway in the garden… I say a bit, but really we’re down to preparing the last buckets and plantings for the spring.
First, my hubby finished the watering system for the peas and beans. We’d watched the aforementioned ldsprepper’s take on a bucket system on YouTube and then adapted it for our balcony. Mr. ldsprepper used a regulator bucket with a float valve in it connected to his water supply on one side, and his line of buckets on the other. Where his regulator bucket connects to his water supply, ours connects to a 5-gallon water reservoir bucket. The regulator bucket then feeds to the first crop bucket, which has hose connecting it to the next crop bucket, and so on. We’ve set up two of the three systems we’ll have on our deck and will be building the final one this week.
Each system services 8 buckets. Everything in self-watering buckets, with the exception of the strawberries and potatoes, will be hooked to one of the systems, simplifying watering for the bulk of the garden (less dragging the hose around and such…). It also means not having to run out in the middle of hot afternoons to make sure the beans haven’t dried out nearly as often as in years past – they drink a lot in the summer! We’ll just need to make sure the reservoir is full in the morning, mid-afternoon, and once more in the evening. If the level has dropped enough, we’ll just fill it back up. If not, we won’t have to do anything until the next check. Either way, it will be a matter of monitoring three reservoirs instead of 24 buckets…
Snipping the ends of the tube helped fit them through the snug neoprene grommets. The result? No leaks!
Among the many benefits: This system loses almost no water. The float valve is adjusted to cut off the water level just barely below the overflow holes in the buckets. When the plants are big enough, we’ll add some mulch to the top to lessen evaporation through the top as well.
So far, we have our peas, carrots, and beans connected to the systems, and we haven’t had to water much at all! Having said that, I must confess that we’ve had a fair bit of rain. Today starts a significant warming trend, so I’d expect to have to fill up the reservoirs at least once over the next several days…
Until things sprouted, I did lightly water from the top, but almost everything has made an appearance now, so I’ve been watching to see if the water being wicked up from the bottom is sufficient – so far, so good. Once a week, everything will be watered from the top when it gets a weekly fertilizer.
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While we were working on the buckets, nature made headway, too! We’ve seen flowers on our strawberries, raspberries, and blueberries in the past week.
And it’s not just the berries: We had to bury the potatoes for the first time last week. They’re growing so fast, we had to do it again yesterday… I hope it’s a good sign, but can’t say for sure. I don’t remember them growing so fast last year.
The pic is of the German Butterball Potatoes we planted several weeks ago. We’re also growing Yukon Golds – This is the third year we’ve grown these particular varieties. The Yukons are harvestable much earlier than the Butterballs, which makes for a nice long season. They both have a wonderful flavor and texture, and the Butterballs winter over pretty well. When the weather started to warm up the ones we had left went to seed, so we planted the best looking ones and bought a few seed potatoes from our local nursery just in case ours didn’t sprout. Encouragingly, they’ve all come up!
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By far, the most exciting progress has been made was this week, when Hubby completed the structure for the center of the deck. With space limitations, the trend is to go vertical wherever possible, as evidenced by the sheer number of Pinterest pins referencing the concept. In years past, we had a maze of containers with individual trellises… challenging to navigate with the hose. But inspired by the Vertical Gardening book referenced in an earlier post, a plan began to form in our minds, which was revised and adapted as we went along. We settled on a pair of footed “T’s” to be joined at the top by rails, and a rail system on the bottom, that would not only provide stability, but the feet for the buckets to sit upon. Two pipes would span the length, one on each side, with one more spanning the center posts nearer the bottom. The pipes would form the frame for trellis netting. The pictures tell the story much better than I can:
We’re really excited: It looks streamlined, and with the netting angling away from the center, there should be improved airflow for all of the plants using it, which will be our tomatoes, peppers, and squash. Fingers crossed!
All of that called for a bit of lounging for in the two chairs we’ve managed to fit out there (as one of our cats looked on longingly from the living room. Of course, she turned her gaze to the camera while I was trying to capture her envious posture. Oh well…)
little farm on the balcony 