Jim Inman's (jinman) Garden - 2007

[schmism]

we pulled about 20 golf ball sized radish out last night....

we have baby squash!

 

[TBDonnelly]

All this talk about okra in TX...... I've never grown okra before,
so I thought I'd start an Honorary Texas okra section. See Pic.

Glad to see Txdon embracing the "yarden" concept.

Don

 

[txdon]

YARDEN! I like that word. Tonight we are having fried okra, squash, tomatoes and onions from the yarden. We are using Ron's Drakes, MMMMMM....
But wait there is another 2 pots with garlic potatoes, and purplehull peas.

 

[TBDonnelly]

....a few pictures from the "yarden" this evening.

Don

 

[Bird]

That's really different, Don. It looks great, but it also looks like someone did, and will have to continue doing, a lot more work than I'd want to do.

 

[WayneB]

....a few pictures from the "yarden" this evening.

Don

Don I am a Yankee , it might explain why I can't figure out the vertical garden method. Looking at the different plants it seems like it is a small planting pot extending out of a 5 gallon bucket.

If you find the time explain how it works. It looks great, but I am like Bird and feel it is way too much work.

Wayne

 

[jinman]

YARDEN! I like that word. Tonight we are having fried okra, squash, tomatoes and onions from the yarden. We are using Ron's Drakes, MMMMMM....
But wait there is another 2 pots with garlic potatoes, and purplehull peas.

Yum! I'll be right over...

It'll be two weeks before we get okra and one week for the peas. With the inch of rain we got yesterday, I don't expect to have to water while I'm gone to Montreal the first part of next week. My youngest daughter and my grandkids came over yesterday and helped us pick stuff. The kids had a ball having a contest on picking tomatoes and beans. We got over a half-bushel of tomatoes (mostly cherries), a bushel of squash, and about two bushels of beans. I even got to show my grandson how to dig potatoes. After digging the ones in the dirt, I let him dig some in the hay. He was sure impressed with that method and how much easier it is than digging in the dirt.

After picking everything, they sat around shelling pinto beans and snaping Kentucky wonder beans. I think we ended up with about two gallons of shelled pintos and another gallon of snapped beans. I don't know who had more fun, me watching them or them doing it.

 

[TBDonnelly]

Don I am a Yankee , it might explain why I can't figure out the vertical garden method. Looking at the different plants it seems like it is a small planting pot extending out of a 5 gallon bucket.

If you find the time explain how it works. It looks great, but I am like Bird and feel it is way too much work.

Wayne

This is my first year planting vertically upside down. Sort of a virtual experiment if you will. All comments and observations are certainly welcome!

Some of the benefits I have heard about upside down planting are:
The plants never touch the ground..... so staking & caging are eliminated.
Problems with bacteria, ground rotting & fungus's are greatly reduced or eliminated.
Small animal feeding frenzies are a thing of the past.

I chose to fab up my own upside down planters. Started with the basic 5 gallon bucket and a very small flower pot. Found the small flower pots locally 3 for $1.00. Cut a large hole in the 5 gallon bucket, dropped the small flower pot in. Melted a hole in the bottom of the small flower pot to feed the small starter plants through. A small circle of foam rubber hugs the stem and holds the plant in place. I would say this is not for high volume tomato plant growers unless you have a unlimited supply of five gallon buckets.

This planting method has the potential to be low maintenence. No cages or staking. For TXdon, NO weeding , simply mow the grass underneath the plants. The planters are infinitely height adjustable. As the plant grows, just adjust the chain for a convenient height to prune or pick veggie's. And if their planted to close together it's easy to move the planters further apart as the plants grow.

....and they are quite the coversation piece.

Don

 

[_RaT_]

Very very cooool Jim, I like your garden and the selection of plants. I have never grown pinto beans but I grew up on frijoles, my Dad was from El Paso.

 

[Bird]

Very very cooool Jim, I like your garden and the selection of plants. I have never grown pinto beans but I grew up on frijoles, my Dad was from El Paso.

I never raised any pintos myself, although I've sure eaten a lot of them. The only "green beans" I raised were Blue Lakes, but my Dad used to plant the pintos and pick them while they were young enough and that's what they snapped for green beans instead of letting them get big enough to shell them out.