39 Days In..Year Two

I just wanted to post some updated pics of this year's garden. I am so happy with the progress. I installed an automatic watering system (thanks to reading posts on here, giving me a source to buy from).

I love my garden, and am so proud.


Beans, Tomatoes, Squash, Herbs & Cucumbers


Peppers & Beans being watered.


Beans & Squash


Zucchini & Tomatoes


Lettuce is doing great, but I think it's choking my sage. I have since eaten some of that lettuce!


Beans, Tomatoes, Zucchini & Cucumbers


First picking of my banana peppers. Had enough to make 10 pints of pickled peppers.


Oregano I have already had to cut back once.


Cherry Tomatoes

WOW, what a GORGEOUS garden!!!! Congratulations, and thanks for posting such beautiful pictures!!!

Wow, what a garden. Super healthy. Hope it continues for you.

All Around Excellent

What watering system did you use?
I'm tired of daily hand watering boxes and the rest of the non sq. ft. flower garden areas in the yard.

wowowow!!! that's amazing! what did you put in your compost?? This is really impressive!!

Thank you for the kind comments everyone, such a supportive community!!!

Southern gardener... I have aged horse manure for the compost portion of my mels mix. I knew those hay-burners of mine were good for something Next season, I will use my neighbors aged cow manure. We trade, lol.

Llama Momma, I used the Mr. Landscaper irrigation products. http://www.misterlandscaper.com/default.aspx
I ended up buying the starter kit, the add-on kit, and some extra irrigation stakes and heads, but all in all it was a worthwhile investment.

I had planned this to be my add-on next season, but I went to the beach for a week, and my husband was in charge of watering the garden once a day. When I came back, he green lighted the purchase because he says it is a pain to water all that daily. lol.

Now it is set up on a timer and is watered 2 x a day for a half hour each time. I really think it has made all the difference in the world! Especially right now, we have had very little rain since mid-June.

tinakocher2000 wrote:Thank you for the kind comments everyone, such a supportive community!!!

Southern gardener... I have aged horse manure for the compost portion of my mels mix. I knew those hay-burners of mine were good for something Next season, I will use my neighbors aged cow manure. We trade, lol.

Llama Momma, I used the Mr. Landscaper irrigation products. http://www.misterlandscaper.com/default.aspx
I ended up buying the starter kit, the add-on kit, and some extra irrigation stakes and heads, but all in all it was a worthwhile investment.

I had planned this to be my add-on next season, but I went to the beach for a week, and my husband was in charge of watering the garden once a day. When I came back, he green lighted the purchase because he says it is a pain to water all that daily. lol.

Now it is set up on a timer and is watered 2 x a day for a half hour each time. I really think it has made all the difference in the world! Especially right now, we have had very little rain since mid-June.

So, are you saying your compost was only horse manure? not a blend of 5 different kinds? wow!

Tina, that is a FANTASTIC garden! Everything is so lush and healthy. Congrats on the reaping the rewards of your hard work!

@ southern gardener: I did only use horse manure. I know your supposed to use the blend, but we don't have a lot of access to bulk landscaping supplies in this area, and I couldn't bring myself to buy it a bag at a time from lowes. I was having a hard enough time mentally with shelling out the dough for vermiculite and peat moss, lol.
As I pull plants this year, I am replacing what is lost with my neighbors cow manure, and I may get a bag or two of compost then to mix with that.
The downside to horse manure is I do get weeds, but I have only had to weed thoroughly once, and now pluck out the occasional straggler.

@ masonGarden: thank you thank you!

tinakocher2000 wrote:@ southern gardener: I did only use horse manure. I know your supposed to use the blend, but we don't have a lot of access to bulk landscaping supplies in this area, and I couldn't bring myself to buy it a bag at a time from lowes. I was having a hard enough time mentally with shelling out the dough for vermiculite and peat moss, lol.
As I pull plants this year, I am replacing what is lost with my neighbors cow manure, and I may get a bag or two of compost then to mix with that.
The downside to horse manure is I do get weeds, but I have only had to weed thoroughly once, and now pluck out the occasional straggler.

@ masonGarden: thank you thank you!

wow! that's amazing. I am curious to see how they continue to grow with only one source! Good for you!

Tina thats looking grand ,
I have similar auto watering to yours .. I've just taped the sprayers to the top of three foot canes for no way was I paying £ 1.50 per stake ( $ 2. 00 ) when I can get 20 canes for the same price .
Using the full height of of the canes has proved well worth it in the flower beds at the front of the property. Nothing interrupts the tulip shaped upwards cone shaped spray .

I can also turn off individual sprayers which is handy in the glasshouse.

One thing I found is that the watering was also heaven for slugs as well , so ended up using a nematode slug killer to remove them

plantoid wrote:Tina thats looking grand ,
I have similar auto watering to yours .. I've just taped the sprayers to the top of three foot canes for no way was I paying £ 1.50 per stake ( $ 2. 00 ) when I can get 20 canes for the same price .
Using the full height of of the canes has proved well worth it in the flower beds at the front of the property. Nothing interrupts the tulip shaped upwards cone shaped spray .

I can also turn off individual sprayers which is handy in the glasshouse.

One thing I found is that the watering was also heaven for slugs as well , so ended up using a nematode slug killer to remove them

Thank you, plaintoid!
That is a great idea about the stakes. I did buy extra hose and connectors. If my beans get any higher, I am going to need to do something, and that sounds just like the ticket. Mine turn on and off as well individually, and I have a few just open part way to keep the flow in the beds.

I have a small greenhouse adjacent to the enclosure, and have been trying to figure out what to do for an auto water setup in there as well. Do you have any photos of how yours is set up? Right now I just use a coil hose with a 7-way spray wand. Everything dries out so quickly in there!
I will keep my eyes open for slugs as well. I have been pretty lucky with pests so far. Something is eating one square of my lettuce, but I don't begrudge them a little. Maybe if they are busy with that, they'll leave everything else alone!!

I have plumbed a rigid UV resistant poly plastic 15 mm ( 1/2 inch approx ) pipe from a supply point in the garage to the greenhouse to a cut off tap and then fitted a small digital clock timer like the one you have .
My timer can operate for as little as one minute at a time and can do six events of on off operation a day for a whole week or a single specified day or groups of days.

From the clock outlet I took a single flow reduced pipe ( reduced internally to about 1/8 inch inside ) fitting which pushed into the 1/2" low pressure tube then about 40 inches from the clock connection put it onto an equal tee set high up on the glasshouse wall . I've used girder clips to secure it to the frame .

Then the took two 1/2" pipes off the tee round the glassholuse as one branch /leg to each side of the glass house . From the 1/2" tubes I've taken five foot long umbelical tubes of 1/4 " thick walled tube like you have used for your drippers.
I took something like eight umbelicals on each side and of these have attached four to some home made brackets with a smaller girder clip so I can give an fine overhead sprays over my seed tray areas , these can be turned on or off with a tiny in built stopcock .
The other umbelicals have dripper or sprinkler heads that screw closed or open and can be reasonably adjusted with careful turning of the body .

To turn them off completely , I simply push a bit of the unbelical tube that has been doubled over tight into a small 2 inch length of 1/2 water pipe tube tube so it stays bent cutting off the water to that individual head.

I'll take some pictures of all the set up and close ups of the heads etc. , also with them in operation ..... if it ever stops raining tomorrrow and post them on the thread.
I have also added some push fit pipe connectors to the incoming supply and fitted several on off taps ( you call it a threaded tap outlet or a faucet ) one of these spare taps is for the big spray wand that is used to gently flood water seed trays of big established seedlings if needed and to flood fill the tomato tubs if required after adding a couple of pints of tomato grow stuff , another is to supply the heated mist propagation bed bench mist spray head .


Just had a thunk..
Why do you need to water beans high up ?
Or ar you talking of beans that grow on the ground or just a foot or so high . As far as I know ( certainly here in the UK ) climbing beans don't need watering other than at the ground , unless you are hoping to set the flowers innhot weather when you usually use a very fine spray on a hose pipe for a few seconts at each flower cluster.

Just had a thunk..
Why do you need to water beans high up ?
Or ar you talking of beans that grow on the ground or just a foot or so high . As far as I know ( certainly here in the UK ) climbing beans don't need watering other than at the ground , unless you are hoping to set the flowers innhot weather when you usually use a very fine spray on a hose pipe for a few seconts at each flower cluster.

I have planted blue lake bush beans and have the sprinkler head on the edge of the 4 ft box. As the beans started growing, the water wasn't reaching the other side of the box, so I have added 2 ft worth of extenders to keep the water above the plants.

Your greenhouse water setup sounds wonderful. Thank you for taking the time to explain it in such detail. I am going to read and reread it so I make sure I have a good grasp on it. I have all summer to plan, and winter to implement.

This upcoming year I am only using the greenhouse to get my plants started, so I think I can get something in place by then.
Here is what I ended up building. It is only 8 ft. x 12 ft. so I should be fine for seed starting.

OMG I can't believe how beautiful your garden looks! I sure think I need an automatic watering system! It sounds so efficient and thorough! I use a hose and I damage plants because of it and some days I am hurting so much from FM that I think I am watering too much or too little! This will for sure be going on my "gift" list!

It is GORGEOUS!!! Wow, way to go!

Tina ,
As promised here is my photobucket and it's here for any others interested
It shows all the different types of watering heads I use .

The yellow ones with built in on /off taps are far superior to all the others .
UK price now .... about £7.00 for five but well worth it .

https://s52.photobucket.com/albums/g24/Misterdavid/


There are lots of other gardening pictures to look at as well

Went to photobucket. My goodness you have quite the gardens and set up. No wonder you have so much success. Thanks for sharing. I haven't finished all of the pics but the ones I have seen are wonderful.

cheyannarach wrote:It is GORGEOUS!!! Wow, way to go!

Thank you! Thank you! It took a lot of work to set up, but now it is just tying up tomatoes, training cucumber vines and picking!!

My broccoli and cauliflower just have giant leaves and no heads, but since they were experiments I can't complain too much. I will poke around and see what I can dig up about why that may have happened. I know they are cool weather, so they probably were started too late.

Tina ,
As promised here is my photobucket and it's here for any others interested
It shows all the different types of watering heads I use .

The yellow ones with built in on /off taps are far superior to all the others .
UK price now .... about £7.00 for five but well worth it .

https://s52.photobucket.com/albums/g24/Misterdavid/


There are lots of other gardening pictures to look at as well

Love love love the pictures. You are my kind of people! I love all the innovations you have in your gardening. That is what my husband and I like to do, why buy it if you can build it! It gives you a much bigger sense of pride in your work.

I have a couple of questions on your sprinklers...
What size tubing feeds them? 1/4" or 1/2"? I am paying $3.29 per irrigation stake(1/4" tubing), that includes a shutoff only (no head). Also, where might they be available for purchase online?

If I can make them work with my existing tubing they would be great, especially the ones in the greenhouse. I could put together similar brackets that would hold them over my seedling table.