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.

One of the (not completely ) answered questions for my summer vegetables in containers project was picking the best ones to grow.  I was looking for a combination of decent yields for the work and – I guess you’d call it -functionality.  I wanted vegetables that could be eaten immediately or could be preserved or could provide a sustained yield for a long time.

I also couldn’t choose all that many, because like the people I’m doing this for I’m pressed for time and space. Finally I wanted to work with plants that would let me test some different container styles – particularly for the soil less containers where I want to be able to check out larger single plant pots, smaller individual plants set into a pipe garden configuration and also I wanted to check out a “broadcast” planter box.  I want to check into cut and come again salad greens so I wanted the most surface area I could acommodate in the space.

Here’s the list so far- Cherry tomatoes, beans, acorn squash, picking cucumbers, lettuce varieties (loose leaf) and hot peppers.  If the hot peppers seem like a strange addition – all I can say is that they can be dried and held for a long time, I like the taste of hot peppers and I happen to really like the look of them too.

Although I’m kinda late getting off the ground, if I can I’ll try and also get some snow peas added into the mix and that will probably be it.

The seeds are sprouting – I dont’ have any pots and I haven’t built the hydroponic planters yet … got to get this in gear!

Today, I took the first step in setting up my project for the summer and I’m very excited about it. You see, I’ve loved gardening all my life and lately I’ve been really interested in things like small space, urban and container gardens, vegetable gardens, the whole idea of eating as much locally grown food as possible and what are the best ways to make that happen. I put myself in the shoes of someone working outside the home, maybe travelling a lot and maybe living in a condo or simply having only a tiny amount of ground or just a deck to work with.

So, here are the questions my summer project is going to solve:

1. Can I make it easy enough for busy, inexperienced gardeners to successfully grow vegetables in containers on decks, patios and postage stamp yards?

2. What vegetables will give them the best bang for the buck – so to speak?

3. Can they maximize the yield and minimize the work at the same time?

4. How does hydroponics play a role?

5. How can I make it affordable?

I am intrigued at the role that outdoor hydroponic systems can play to solve this problem and when I first started looking into it couldn’t understand why they aren’t used more widely. Now I understand all too well – the currently available systems are too expensive for broad adoption – unless of course your aiming for a far more lucrative cash crop than tomatoes and as far as hydroponics goes right now it’s WAY TOO COMPLICATED.

I want to fix that and that, is the project. I have some tomato seedlings on the way (I hadn’t really thought of my grand plan when I first ordered them) and today I started acorn squash, two types of hot peppers and pickling cucumbers. I have half the seeds started in jiffy pots and the other half in rockwool. I’m going to grow them side by side and compare the results.