More Past Projects

Here is the Earth Box we purchased last summer. It's designed to allow a person to garden without having a garden. The container has a false bottom that holds water without drowning the roots. The uprights are made of aluminum and are designed to support the plants as they get taller.
If you look closely at the bottom of the picture you'll see the spray bottle. That holds a noxious mixture of onions, garlic and hot red peppers blended and strained so it can be sprayed. It is supposed to keep away insects, and I imagine it does, but it is also pretty much home made pepper spray, so if you use it, watch which way the wind is blowing.
We planted two Hungarian Heart tomatoes and two supposedly orange bell pepper plants in this one last time. We will most likely not put more than two plants total in this time. Also, the Hungarian Heart tomatoes were interesting in that they are huge (approximately 2 pounds per fruit) but that's the end of their list of positive attributes, in my opinion. They never darkened to a deep red, staying faded looking, and their flesh wasn't that flavorful, either. One problem we encountered with this system is that the plants were super thirsty and we didn't keep the water reservoir filled consistently enough, which resulted in some Root Rot. Root Rot happens in container gardening when the plant dries out too much between waterings. Enough of these dry-wet cycles, and little black rotten spots show up on the bottoms of the tomatoes.
While this is a cool apparatus for use in our gardening system, it's not cheap. Out of the box this unit was around $100 (including the $30 add on for the uprights.) We thought there had to be a better way.

And by better, we mean more colorful and made from salvaged or scrap materials if possible. So here is our rendition of the Earth Box. It's built around a standard ten gallon tote. I built the false bottom out of small strips of wood and covered it with a left over piece of screen from when I repaired the screen door to the deck. I used super dog proof screen on the door, so that's what's in the box, but I imagine any screen would do. I used this same screen material to cover all the air holes on the rain barrels to prevent mosquito breeding.
Once we had the inner dimensions based on the tote, I built the wooden frame out of the same lumber I used on the shutters. I screwed eyelets into the sides of the uprights and wove the jute twine through them to make the mesh for the plants to grow up. All told, I believe this unit cost no more than $30 dollars and I plan to build a few more for this growing season.
It has casters on the bottom, so it can be easily rolled around the deck whenever it needs to be moved.

Here is my first attempt at making a homemade composting tumbler. I used one of the barrels from the car was and mounted it on this simple frame. I painted it black to help it absorb heat. It has a large flap style door on one side for adding and removing material and I drilled several holes in the sides for air and water to get in and out.
It was a total flop.
Here's why:
1. It's nearly impossible to turn once the organic matter settles to the bottom.
2. There are no baffles inside to assist in mixing the material.
3. I built it in a hurry, so the frame is crooked.
4. It sits on the west side of the garage near the alley, which gets the least amount of sunlight on our property, so the barrel is rarely heated properly.
I'll be tearing this apart and redesigning it this spring. Stay tuned for the new and improved compost tumbler.

Here's another home made rendition of an expensive store bought unit. We modeled this after the Topsy-Turvy, which is a planter made of plastic tarp material and allows you to grow tomatoes upside down. We used the TT for two seasons and it rotted part way through the second one, prompting an emergency replant of a large, inverted tomato plant in mid-July.
That was frustrating, since the TT was $20. I believe we ate four tomatoes from it the first season, so I don't think $5 per tomato is a sustainable growing practice.
We built this model from a pickle bucket and were pleased with the results. In a later post I'll show you the tomato wall, where we have 8 hanging planters growing all sorts of interesting veggies.
For this season, we're most likely to focus on tomatoes in the hanging baskets and peppers in the ground.




Here's a close up of our cucumber and bean trellis in mid-June last year. We have such a small yard that we try to grow as many things vertically as will grow that way. All vine based plants are trained up trellises at our house.