Tower of Tomato (Aug 7th, 2009)

See that plant on the right. Yep, that's just one tomato plant. It's a big mofo. As of today it has 11 ripening clusters, each with five to seven tomatoes. There's another half dozen clusters of flowers at the moment too. So we're talking 60+ fruit on the tower, all ripening in the next month or so.

Mega-Tomato (Jul 24th, 2009)

I hadn't even planned on having tomatoes this year but, a friend gave me a tomato plant for my birthday and I couldn't let the opportunity pass. Here we are, two months later with a giant tomato plant. I've devised a support structure and will build it soon.

First Ripenings (Jun 16th, 2009)

So far, so good. There's piles of strawberries ripening in the next weeks and some romaine to harvest in maybe a month's time. The height is great for watering, inspecting, harvesting.

Adding Media (May 14th, 2009)

Today my collection of media components was completed. Tonight, under a shelter out in the torrential downpour, the components were married and the soil of the portable patio gardens was brought into creation.

First, I carefully placed 3/4 inch drain rock around the inverted mesh pot I'm using to keep the drain clear. Then, after all of the rest of the drain rock was installed, the media was mixed. I combined approx. 3 parts peat moss, with 2 parts composted chicken manure and 1 part expanded clay pellets. The latter is something I had left over from the greenhouse.

Halfed Rain Barrels (Apr 3rd, 2009)

I think they're somewhere in the neighbourhood of 60 US Gallons before I slice them in half. I'd say a 30 gal planter would be sufficient for kick-ass root-zones in a variety of different plants. We're thinking : strawberry patch.