Your container garden looks GREAT! All my plants except for the peppers & herbs have called it quits for this year.

I think one thing about planting in containers (other than the obvious)
Is it's much easier to weed out the weeds. With my bad back, walking and
bending over is a no go. But to get on my knees and pull weeds in a
container and not having to move till I was done seems so much better. ;)

I started another 'Tire Planter' with Green Malabar today (Basella Alba ~vice~ Basella Rubra, which is the red).

But it's real interesting to see a time lapse series of the Red Malabar as it begins to gather speed. Almost like watching it do a "Hole-shot"!

This is from this morning at about 7 or 8 AM:

https://i1249.photobucket.com/albums...ps8a268a84.jpg
https://i1249.photobucket.com/albums...psccc18403.jpg
https://i1249.photobucket.com/albums...psee0a7e61.jpg
~ just 3 days after the above post.

https://i1249.photobucket.com/albums...ps736f5adf.jpg

This is a tire from my Suzuki Swift that I flipped inside out, on top of a sidewall I cut out of a mud truck tire:
https://i1249.photobucket.com/albums...psded08775.jpg


Here is the new planter for the GREEN Malabar vines
https://i1249.photobucket.com/albums...g?t=1409272214

I still haven't decided what to plant in the middle...

I didn't really want to put the tractor tires all the way down in there (it's the same mud truck tire I got the previous sidewall from) but there wasn't very much good soil to fill it with, and that's also why the center is still empty. I gave about three bucks a bag for that soil, and cleaned out the local store in fact at the time.


*I rearranged a lot of pics on my photobucket account, so some of the pics on the last page don't show now. The pos side of it is that I have everything where it will stay from now on, unless PEE-BUCKET goes under...

Pics from 11:30 today - you can see that it's growing at a rate of nearly a foot every other day now...

https://i1249.photobucket.com/albums...ps6674d5f9.jpg
https://i1249.photobucket.com/albums...ps332a4434.jpg

The 'Tower' is nine feet by itself, the mesh is six inches square.
Shown below the next set of planters in the works, by luck I cut this tire at just the right diameter to GRIP the cage perfectly:

https://i1249.photobucket.com/albums...ps87ee8046.jpg

I'm about to head out there and wash the new one down so I can paint it later. No worries about it drying in time - it's 100 degrees out without factoring in humidity!
EVERY OTHER KIND of salad greens I ever grew would be BOLTING or wasting away from the hot temperatures by now, but this stuff thrives on it...

Through the magic of time-lapse-photography, you tell ME how fast this stuff is growing!!!

https://i1249.photobucket.com/albums...ps1ac5aa0f.jpg

Something I just noticed that I think is really cool (though I have no idea if FTE or PHOTBUCKET is doing it) - if you click the image to see it full size, a SCROLL tab appears so that you can go back and forth through the pic's!

I put this dude in the planter on the eleventh - and look at that little sucker go!


*Someone on the Virginia forum wrote: "Kudzu! Spicy Kudzu!"

Man, if this stuff grows like kudzu, we may have just solved world hunger!!!:-X24

I cleaned out the flower gardens and the vegetable & herb gardens. Got rid of all the dead plants. Now I need to throw some mulch in all of them. I still have some peppers going in the veggie patch. The herbs that are left should be fine over winter (sage, Sweet Marjoram, Lemon Balm). I also have some stevia plants flowering.

I'm going to start planning next year's garden soon.

My focus now has shifted to killing out some bad trees to open up my east property line.
I was waiting for the leaves to drop so that I had a better shot at the cutting I have to do, no sense fighting a jungle just to reach the trees

Clearing trees and brush seems easier during the fall and winter. Just watch yourself with those sharp instruments....:)

Looks like this weekend has done the pepper plants in....we'll see.

I definitely don't see anymore tomatos happening - except the canned kind. I moved the citrus trees to a spot where I can look out a window at them over the winter, only the survivors will be kept. They are NOT coming in for the winter.

I think its time to reconsider some of my garden preferences in terms of what WILL grow in this area, and what won't. I need to identify plants that do not have to be coddled and have special care, except for annuals whose seeds can be economically ordered online.

And for next year - I want to devote a great deal of space to the Poblano peppers because they did turn out to be pure dynamite!

Hey Guys and Gals, and you too Dutch. :D
I saw this on FB and thought it was cool.
So I wanted to share it with ya and see
what ya all thought.:)





https://fbcdn-sphotos-f-a.akamaihd.n...66888de938fc31



GMO Free USA with Roy Patterson and 2 others
PLANT A SEED and grow your own, all year long...in an inexpensive underground greenhouse known as a walipini. A walipini can be built at a cost of $250 - $300... or upwards from there if you'd like. A much more affordable and effective alternative to glass greenhouses, the walipini (an Aymara Indian word for a "place of warmth"), is also known as a pit greenhouse. Walipinis take advantage of the earth's constant temperature. At about 6 ft. below the surface, the soil temperature remains between 50-60 degrees F year round. Use recycled windows or plastic for the roof. Learn more and find directions below. Let's take back control of our food!
READ: http://www.treehugger.com/…/build-underground-greenhouse-ga… (video missing - see video link below)
WALIPINI PLANS: http://freeenergynews.com/…/B…/Walipini_Benson-Institute.pdf
WATCH: ‪#‎PlantASeed‬ ‪#‎GrowYourOwn‬ ‪#‎walipini‬ ‪#‎greenhouse‬ ‪#‎UndergroundGreenhouse‬ ‪#‎garden‬ ‪#‎gardening‬ ‪#‎NonGMO‬ ‪#‎organic‬ ‪#‎gmofreecanada‬ ‪#‎gmofreeusa‬

That might work - take a pile of digging though

That would be a lot of work. I like the idea, though.

When you think about it - the insulation provided by the surrounding earth is going to make it an average temperature even in the summer months.

And as opposed to a structure subject to winds from storms and such - that has a lot better ability to maintain structural integrity.

I find myself thinking about it more and more. Citrus can be grown in a thing like that.

Assuming ballast rock is used on the sides to prevent collapse, the humidity inside it would be averaged based on the surrounding soil wetness.


I bet that would do well even in a desert environment, where the cover might actually condense out water overnight.


UTAH - now that explains a lot. That is a hot desert environment. (I finally watched the video)

But in a moderate or basically COLD area or region - the heat retaining could be the perfect answer.


All of that is really truly amazing...


For rip and tear repairing purposes you would want to think carefully about the material used as a cover. It should be planned from the beginning to use materiels that common adhesives could stick to. Some kinds of plastic reject bonding with adhesives, so that is a consideration.

I was thinking of you Dutch when I saw it.

All the gardens are set for the winter....should still get some herbs occasionally.

Finished all the raking of leaves and wore myself out yesterday. Great compost for next year's vegetables.