Posts Tagged ‘tub’

Theres Not Enough Holes in the Bucket, Dear Henry, Dear Henry

Gardening, Herb, Fruit and Vegetables | Posted by Dean
Jan 22 2008

I am not going to bore you with a song for children, nor will I throw in the odd “Dear Liza” or “Dear Henry”, but I will tell you about the impending disaster in the garden. As I have mentioned in recent posts it has been rather wet in Sydney. The garden initially loved this, and much of it still does, however the cucumbers do not.

Basically the issue is that the soil has become water logged due to not enough holes in the tub. This was the first of the recycling tubs converted to sizeable planters. It has exposed a problem with the design. Basically I need to double the number of drainage holes in the tub to allow sufficient run off of excessive water.

The soil is now a rather wet sludge and if I was to attempt to pour the excess water out I am fearful that the entire soil structure will also float out. Now that would not be an issue given there is a spare, though rain water filled, crate that could be used to replace it once converted in the now proven design. However, I do not want to cause the plants even more shock by transplanting the cucumbers given they will also be suffering relocation stress due to their impending move to Wollongong.

Thus, I am in a pickle as to which way to jump. Do I transplant and take my chances? Or do I wait it out? I will be taking a look tomorrow when hopefully work pressures will be relieved. If there is still a pool I think my decision will be made for me and an emergency transplant will have to ensue. I will keep you posted.


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All I Needed Was Garden Stakes

Gardening, Herb, Fruit and Vegetables | Posted by Dean
Jan 10 2008

Yesterday I needed some garden stakes to assist my now bushing beefsteak tomato. It has stopped rocketing skyward and is now going sideways. One of the longer branches was as such in need of staking. So rather than trapes to the the big kids toy shop we opted for Mitre 10. It is about 5 minutes away and has a reasonable selection of gardening implements and supplies.

Upon walking in we had an armful of supplies but not the garden stakes. Included in the supplies were a new set of excellent garden gloves. These have leather fingers and palms with a stretchy blue rear. They are really comfortable and are great. Definately good replacements for my recently deceased Jamie Durie gloves.

So we headed out to the nursery where the stakes are kept. Of course I had to take a quick look the plants. Almost immediately I spotted a Cherry tomato literally laced with fruit. Some was even ripe and ready to harvest. After confirming the price was good it was in the trolley.

This of course dictated a suitable pot. So off to the pots I went and located some nice round tuscan style pots. We already have a number of these in the garden, so I decided to go with one of those.

I then remembered that I wanted a larger pot for my stunted exiting cherry tomato. My theory is that the healthy but dwarf tomato bush is severely by its small tub. So quickly there were two pots and drip trays, the gloves, the tomato bush, some other supplies, but still no garden stakes.

I then finally grabbed them and a bag of Yates premium professional potting mix and headed to the checkout. Over $100 later I headed home with my less than $4 grden stakes and a whole lot more. Gardening can be expensive.

So after repotting the tomatoes I freed the fairy lights and the Red Coral Lettuce from their constrained environments. The Red Coral Lettuce severely neededits own spot due to the Green Coral Lettuce growing so well and crowding it out of the wheeled planter. It was growing upwards and was jokingly known as the Christmas tree lettuce due to its shape. It now has a nice large pot to grow in, I will be trimming the Christmas tree shape out of it tomorrow afternoon.

I am now looking forward to a better harvest.


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