Finally got my garden going again!

[IrishLass]

It's been a few long, hot, sweaty days of work out in the yard, but I was able to take my Tower Garden out of the proverbial mothballs, give it a good dusting off/sprucing up and get it up and running again for the 2020/2021 season. WooHoo! For those not familiar with the manner in which I do my veggie garden, here are two threads full of pics that talk about it:

https://www.soapmakingforum.com/threads/i-finally-have-room-for-a-veggie-garden.60997/
My 2018/19 veggie garden

Without further ado, here's how she looks after I got done today:

Here's a list of what I planted in the different slots:

Green Grape tomatoes
Ceylon Dollhouse mini-beefsteak tomatoes
Little Leaf H-19 Cucumber
Lunchbox peppers
Stevia
Rosemary
Nufar basil
Amethyst basil
Thai basil
Chocolate mint
Granny Blank mint
Collard greens
Wildfire lettuce
Celery
Cilantro
Bok choy
Happy Rich broccoli
Starbor Kale

Ten slots are still empty, 6 of which I'm purposely leaving empty to help me be able to manage my tomatoes, peppers and cukes more efficiently. Things can get pretty wild and wooly real fast if I'm not mindful to stay on top of things.


IrishLass

 

[Jersey Girl]

It's been a few long, hot, sweaty days of work out in the yard, but I was able to take my Tower Garden out of the proverbial mothballs, give it a good dusting off/sprucing up and get it up and running again for the 2020/2021 season. WooHoo! For those not familiar with the manner in which I do my veggie garden, here are two threads full of pics that talk about it:

https://www.soapmakingforum.com/threads/i-finally-have-room-for-a-veggie-garden.60997/
My 2018/19 veggie garden

Without further ado, here's how she looks after I got done today:

View attachment 49590

Here's a list of what I planted in the different slots:

Green Grape tomatoes
Ceylon Dollhouse mini-beefsteak tomatoes
Little Leaf H-19 Cucumber
Lunchbox peppers
Stevia
Rosemary
Nufar basil
Amethyst basil
Thai basil
Chocolate mint
Granny Blank mint
Collard greens
Wildfire lettuce
Celery
Cilantro
Bok choy
Happy Rich broccoli
Starbor Kale

Ten slots are still empty, 6 of which I'm purposely leaving empty to help me be able to manage my tomatoes, peppers and cukes more efficiently. Things can get pretty wild and wooly real fast if I'm not mindful to stay on top of things.


IrishLass

I love this! A friend of mine sells them. I wish I had an indoor space it would work in. I think they are so cool. My house does not have much natural light coming in. Good for storing soap...not so much for growing veggies. My vegetable garden did not do well this year...especially the tomatoes. Everyone was saying the same thing with their gardens. Here in NJ we had a very very sweltering hot July and it took its toll. I’ve never had a year this bad.

 

[shunt2011]

I'm so jealous. That's incredible! My veggies didn't do too badly this year but I kept on top of them. I don't plant much though either. Tomatoes and peppers mostly.

 

[Jersey Girl]

I'm so jealous. That's incredible! My veggies didn't do too badly this year but I kept on top of them. I don't plant much though either. Tomatoes and peppers mostly.

The demise of our pretty big garden started when we went camping for a week and left a neighbor in charge of watering for us. We were paying her to do it and left specific instructions. Well...it was a very very hot week and apparently she didn’t give it much water cause when we returned our beautiful tomatoes which were just fruiting up beautifully when we left had started turning brown and it was downhill from there. We were sick over it as we spend a lot of time tending it and it was beautiful when we left. The peppers, cucumbers and eggplant rallied somewhat but the tomatoes never recovered.

 

[Catscankim]

The demise of our pretty big garden started when we went camping for a week and left a neighbor in charge of watering for us. We were paying her to do it and left specific instructions. Well...it was a very very hot week and apparently she didn’t give it much water cause when we returned our beautiful tomatoes which were just fruiting up beautifully when we left had started turning brown and it was downhill from there. We were sick over it as we spend a lot of time tending it and it was beautiful when we left. The peppers, cucumbers and eggplant rallied somewhat but the tomatoes never recovered.

Sacrilege....ruining Jersey Tomatoes.

sorry about your experience. And it sucks that you paid her to do it.

 

[Jersey Girl]

Sacrilege....ruining Jersey Tomatoes.

sorry about your experience. And it sucks that you paid her to do it.

Right?

 

[Catscankim]

Id give anything for some jersey tomatoes and silverqueen corn right now lol

 

[Iseleigh]

Here in East TN we've had a terrible gardening year too. Cool spring, cool summer, and the groundhogs destroyed everything I planted until I started getting rid of them. Even without groundhogs everyone I've talked to had a rough time this year.

 

[Jersey Girl]

Id give anything for some jersey tomatoes and silverqueen corn right now lol

The corn has been so incredibly good and sweet. I could eat it everyday!

 

[IrishLass]

I love this! A friend of mine sells them. I wish I had an indoor space it would work in. I think they are so cool. My house does not have much natural light coming in. Good for storing soap...not so much for growing veggies. My vegetable garden did not do well this year...especially the tomatoes. Everyone was saying the same thing with their gardens. Here in NJ we had a very very sweltering hot July and it took its toll. I’ve never had a year this bad.

My sister sells them, too. She herself has 5 outdoor Towers and also 4 of the inside Towers with the grow lights. I just have the one for outside. I have enough space to fit 2 of them out there in the back yard, but I'm saving that extra space for a large grow bag to grow some root veggies, since you can't grow root veggies in the Tower. There's no way I could fit even one of the Towers in my house. We'd have to go live outside in the front yard. lol

That's a downright crying shame about your tomatoes. Oh, that must've been beyond frustrating! Ending up with such a scenario is why I didn't put my Tower up last September (I always start in September). We had plans to go out of town for a family reunion that November, just as things tend to set fruit at full throttle in the Tower, and I had no one living nearby that I could trust to take care of it while we were away. I'd trust my sis to do it in a heartbeat, but she lives an hour away from me.... provided traffic is good, that is. There was just no way I was going to ask her to do it, although she did tell me after the fact when we were chatting about it later on, that it's very doable to take the Tower apart and transport it and the plants out to her house where she can set it back up and tend to it while I'm away. She said lots of Tower reps do that as a matter of course when they are giving Tower demonstrations in different locations across town. I'm keeping that in mind for next time!

The weather out here where I live is for the most part perpetually sunny and downright lovely for growing all kinds of veggies from September to June, as long as I place a covering over the Tower for those few nights that we get a light dusting of frost. It's truly a blessing to have 9 months in a row for growing things. June is when it starts getting way too hot to even bother, so, I basically treat June, July and August like most folks treat their winter months in the colder regions where veggie gardening is concerned.


IrishLass

 

[Jersey Girl]

My sister sells them, too. She herself has 5 outdoor Towers and also 4 of the inside Towers with the grow lights. I just have the one for outside. I have enough space to fit 2 of them out there in the back yard, but I'm saving that extra space for a large grow bag to grow some root veggies, since you can't grow root veggies in the Tower. There's no way I could fit even one of the Towers in my house. We'd have to go live outside in the front yard. lol

That's a downright crying shame about your tomatoes. Oh, that must've been beyond frustrating! Ending up with such a scenario is why I didn't put my Tower up last September (I always start in September). We had plans to go out of town for a family reunion that November, just as things tend to set fruit at full throttle in the Tower, and I had no one living nearby that I could trust to take care of it while we were away. I'd trust my sis to do it in a heartbeat, but she lives an hour away from me.... provided traffic is good, that is. There was just no way I was going to ask her to do it, although she did tell me after the fact when we were chatting about it later on, that it's very doable to take the Tower apart and transport it and the plants out to her house where she can set it back up and tend to it while I'm away. She said lots of Tower reps do that as a matter of course when they are giving Tower demonstrations in different locations across town. I'm keeping that in mind for next time!

The weather out here where I live is for the most part perpetually sunny and downright lovely for growing all kinds of veggies from September to June, as long as I place a covering over the Tower for those few nights that we get a light dusting of frost. It's truly a blessing to have 9 months in a row for growing things. June is when it starts getting way too hot to even bother, so, I basically treat June, July and August like most folks treat their winter months in the colder regions where veggie gardening is concerned.


IrishLass

I was and still am really upset about it. We had planned to can lots of tomato sauce as we do each year. That and all the wonderful cherry tomatoes for salad. Right now I don’t even have any tomatoes to eat. . That hasn’t been the case for years. I usually keep getting them into October.
I don’t have the indoor space for the tower either unfortunately even if I had a grow light.
I have to admit I’m a little jealous that you can grow for such a long period of time. That’s wonderful. I would love that! It’s gotten cold fast this year already. It’s 55 right now.

 

[Marsi]

i like your solid tower frame
your plant list looks delicious
nice

i have started a fruit hedge by planting root stock this year
most are still dormant
i am watering sticks

 

[Krashdragon]

What are those tower things called?
Looks like something even my old back could handle...

 

[Jersey Girl]

What are those tower things called?
Looks like something even my old back could handle...

It’s called a Tower Garden
ETA... In doing some research there is also something similar called Garden Tower that grows in soil as opposed to hydroponic.
There are many YouTube videos of both towers if you want to take a look.

 

[Krashdragon]

Thanks!

 

[IrishLass]

My cucumber plant has recently developed a case of the feels [feelers]!

IrishLass

 

[Catscankim]

My cucumber plant has recently developed a case of the feels [feelers]!

View attachment 50164


IrishLass

Are you going to grow this beauty on the ground or trellis?

 

[IrishLass]

Are you going to grow this beauty on the ground or trellis?

It's going to grow on the Tower trellised to the Tower cage. In the below pic from 2018, the cucumber plant is taking up the whole right side of the Tower (the rest are tomatoes). That's how they'll be growing this year, too.

IrishLass

 

[IrishLass]

Here is my cucumber plant as of this morning (compared to pic in post #16, taken 5 days ago):

Growing like a weed!


IrishLass

 

[IrishLass]

Some updates with pictures! Everything is growing like a weed, and Hubby and I completed constructing an insect barrier enclosure for the Tower:

All these pics were taken yesterday, except for the last one which was taken this morning:

The enclosure:

An inside look behind the veil: From this side you can see my celery, Granny Blank mint, hot pepper, cucumber, Green Grape tomato, Brandy Sweet Plum tomato, Lunchbox pepper, Amethyst basil and Thai basil.

A closeup of my cucumber:

A closeup of my Thai basil and Granny Blank Mint which look like they are growing as one plant, but they are in ports adjacent to each other:

And my (so far) fourth harvest of the mint and Thai basil:

IrishLass