This was a lot more work than I expected it to be, but things always are – however  I’m very excited to say that I have the pipe gardens up and working and the tub garden is just waiting for my tomatoes to arrive.

I have  some pictures of the current state of affairs in my crowded little backyard and only wish that I had the energy to haul some of the ugly stuff out of the background before I took the shots.

The pipe gardens might need a little more waterproofing. I’m not sure yet because it won’t stop raining long enough to tell if the outside is wet from rain, dew or leakage – I’m hoping for the first two.

Hydroponic beans in the pipe garden

On top of everything else – it’s been so bloody cold here that on the evening of May 30 ( if you can believe it) I almost lost my hot peppers from the cold – one of two degrees colder and it would have been a frosty death.

The Hydroponic Pipe gardens

I have set beans, and peas on the top shelf so that they can climb up the deck posts.  On the second level I have my cut and come again baby salad greens.  and on the bottom shelf is basil, Thai basil and some small Thai peppers – The valves seem to be working just find and so I’m ready now to start tracking the growth and comparing it to the plants I’ve set up on the deck that are planted in compost.

Like if your starting seeds with an average germination of 7 days, it’s a pretty darned safe bet that in 10 days you’ll need a good way to get them into the light.  And if you’re planting jumbo sucker seeds like squash, you’re probably going to need to move them into their first pot inside of another 7 days.

So first I’ve run around like a madwoman to dig out and set up my little portable greenhouse-type-shelter-thing so my seeds could get some light only to discover that those little 3 inch pots were not to be found anywhere in my garage.  I can’t believe it, for the last 10 years I could have sworn they were practically breeding in the garage I couldn’t even find one.  So now I have a bunch of baby plants starting their life in the bottom half of small plastic coke bottles ( I was appalled at how many I found in my son’s room – gotta talk with that boy!)

On the plus side I found a viable organic fertilizer for my hydroponic vegetables and a good planter I can convert for my cut-and-come-again salad greens.   And if anyone asks about my coke bottle pots I’m going to take the high road and claim it’s a green initiative- actually they make pretty good pots – that stuff is good for something after all. And by the way, these lovely little hot peppers have been planted in coir.

But calendar challenged also explains the 75 tree seedlings that arrived before the garden to hold them exists.  I can’t cut gardens out of the sod any more- well not unless I’m planning to spend the better part of my summer in traction.  So I booked the young strong backs of a few members of the next in line in some gene pools I’ve been hanging around for a couple of weeks- but that won’t happen til next week and the trees got here last week.

The neighbours think I’m wacko since I put 75 tree seedlings into my two front door planters -I had to do something.  Just please don’t let them still be there in a month.