I have every kind of tomato plant you can think of in this. There are three squash plants on one end and two yellow pepper plants on the other. I will post pictures every few weeks.
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opabinia51
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Hi gib, I have to give my husband credit here also. He was the one who built this little box I just put everything in it. I bought Top Soil, Manure + Humus (garden pro brand) and worked it together. I think I ended up putting about 30 bags all together. I used some blood meal (went by the instructions) and threw a small amount of granulate fertilizer in also. Then I put some mulch around each plant. I checked the little guys today and they are all standing at attention. I was relived. Yesterday they looked a bit wilted and I was afraid maybe I had over done the manure. We have had a lot of rain up here this month and I am having to remove some mulch around other things I have planted to keep the roots from rotting. Last year we had dry conditions so I wont complain.gilbertc wrote:Emerald, that's a great idea, I should be so lucky as to have such an imagination. Is this the first time you've planted like this, or is it an ongoing endeavor?
Gib
This is not my first time planting veggies. I have had my hands in the dirt since I was old enough to follow behind my grandmother. This is the first time I have used a planter box for vegetables. I will have to add that before I moved here I had no idea what poor soil was. I had always been lucky enough to live in areas where the dirt was rich and easy to grow in. I had grown flowers in boxes and found after years of that I had to replace the dirt because of using synthetic fertilizers. I didn't know it then but I was killing my soil. I am now trying to work on the soils here and hopefully a much easier growing season next year.
The box wasn't hard to build. He used some old scrap lumber we had.
Your box/bed looks great Emerald. If it gets dry again this summer, I think you will be very pleased with how this box will hold moisture as well, with the adequate mulching it appears to have.
Another suggestion from these boards I use in my beds - save a few egg shells, crush them very fine in a sack, and dig them in around your tomato plants now while they are younger. They do help to prevent blossom end rot from rearing its ugly little head. I doubt it will be an issue next season in a well tended bed, but it might show up the first year in a new planting site. Might not be an issue at all, but an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, right?
To set your mind at ease, so long as the manure is aged and not 'green', I don't think it's possible to 'over do' it. I use tons of the stuff from my cattle barn.Yesterday they looked a bit wilted and I was afraid maybe I had over done the manure.
Another suggestion from these boards I use in my beds - save a few egg shells, crush them very fine in a sack, and dig them in around your tomato plants now while they are younger. They do help to prevent blossom end rot from rearing its ugly little head. I doubt it will be an issue next season in a well tended bed, but it might show up the first year in a new planting site. Might not be an issue at all, but an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, right?
Hi Roger,Roger wrote:Your box/bed looks great Emerald. If it gets dry again this summer, I think you will be very pleased with how this box will hold moisture as well, with the adequate mulching it appears to have.
To set your mind at ease, so long as the manure is aged and not 'green', I don't think it's possible to 'over do' it. I use tons of the stuff from my cattle barn.Yesterday they looked a bit wilted and I was afraid maybe I had over done the manure.
Another suggestion from these boards I use in my beds - save a few egg shells, crush them very fine in a sack, and dig them in around your tomato plants now while they are younger. They do help to prevent blossom end rot from rearing its ugly little head. I doubt it will be an issue next season in a well tended bed, but it might show up the first year in a new planting site. Might not be an issue at all, but an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, right?
Many thanks for the heads up on egg shells. I really appreciate your resounding the info. I don't use a lot of eggs but we have a restaurant that would be glad to save me enough to use the growing season. I have seen blossom rot and that would be awful to loose out to when prevention is so easy.
My husband put a black liner in the bottom of the bed that allows water to flow through but I was a little worried it may not allow good drainage. I took the pitch fork and stabbed a few extra holes so I am in hopes that will do the trick. It probably wasn't necessary to put a liner in as the box is extremely deep and there is nothing but rock under it. I think this part of the yard was a driveway at one time.
Thanks also for easing my mind over the manure. I got all of it from Lowe’s. I am sweetly talking my way into a ben for manure and so forth. My hero is pretty good at taking little hints so hopefully I will have one in the next few weeks. I will start collecting fresh manure from the lady up the road who has horses and anything else I can use to decompose for mulching for winter.
Many Thanks
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opabinia51
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Oh no worries at all. I was raised on a cattle farm. We had everything from horses to hogs so I am aware of the difference. I was always the runt who had to clean the stalls and pins. I use to think it was a curse but now with children of my own I see what a blessing it was.Roger wrote:"green" meaning fresh.... when I phrased it that way I had forgot all about the terminology for composts... that was a little misleading, wasn't itthanks Opa!
Perhaps a better way I could have phrased that was :
...so long as the manure is aged and not 'Fresh'....
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opabinia51
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Hi Roger, thanks for responding to kindly to my correction. I often make mistakes in my nomenclature and what not as well. I guess we are all here to correct eachother. 
Emerald, I grew up on a farm as well and used to hate cleaning out the stalls. Now, for some reason I enjoy shoveling manure because I know what a wonder it is in the garden. I also have a lot more muscle mass than when I was 5.
Emerald, I grew up on a farm as well and used to hate cleaning out the stalls. Now, for some reason I enjoy shoveling manure because I know what a wonder it is in the garden. I also have a lot more muscle mass than when I was 5.
I'm right there with ya! I might be a runt at 5'4 but I have a back like a mule and there isnt anything I cant get done with hoe, or pitch fork. lol My grandma use to tell me all the time what doesnt kill you will make you stronger..........I'm not dead yet.opabinia51 wrote:Hi Roger, thanks for responding to kindly to my correction. I often make mistakes in my nomenclature and what not as well. I guess we are all here to correct eachother.
Emerald, I grew up on a farm as well and used to hate cleaning out the stalls. Now, for some reason I enjoy shoveling manure because I know what a wonder it is in the garden. I also have a lot more muscle mass than when I was 5.
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opabinia51
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Oh arthritis can be a real bully sometimes. I have been spared many aches and pains so far. I do have a little trouble with my neck as there is a disk problem from back in 2000. I have found the harder I work the better I feel. I watched my grandmother and she was an inspiration to me. She gardened, caned and froze foods, mowed her own years and was still running the town post office at age 81. We lost her last year to what they thought was a stroke. She was 96 but after she left the post office around the age of 87 she started forgetting things and looking for my papa who had passed 10 years earlier. She became a victim of Alzheimer’s disease. She was favored at the nursing home. Although, she had this disease that was causing her to slowly forget everything she ever new. She always had a smile. She would wait by the door every morning to get outside and she would go along side the building pulling grass and petting the cat they housed. If you ask her why she was pulling grass she would simply say, “I must pull the weeds so the good stuff will growâ€