Here's a young datil pepper in it's new home, a 5 gallon bucket filled with a mix of bare naked sand from the artifact dig mixed with some homemade compost and topped with a 6 inch layer of commercial potting mix.
This is a grape tomato hybrid ...Jelly Bean...Jubilee ... something like that.
Tomatoes seem to struggle in my ground between deer, disease, etc. So these are bucket bound.
The sweet white dog in the pic is "Lady", the neighbor's dog and a love interest of "Bear".
She just dropped in for a visit and a tummy rub as I was finishing up yesterday.
The "system" looks like this.
Years ago, I had it set up with drip irrigation and grew some peppers this way. Later, I planted a grape vine too close and just let it take over the shelf as a trellis.
When I first used this system, I used the typical black growing pots and I think they just got too hot in the Florida sun. Last year I grew my datils in white buckets and the soil mix I just described and they made me swarms of peppers. Those buckets sat in the back of a broken down truck near the barn and they did so well, I decided to cut the grape vine way back and seize control of it again.
My seatbelt system.
The old drip tubing is cut away and the white pvc carries water but, not yet to these plants.
I will be picking up a little bit of drip stuff soon and hooking this up the rest of the way.
I will update you as the system progresses ... or regresses ... you know how gardening goes.
If you are local, be sure and hit the Spring Art Festival in Gainesville this weekend and look for the Southern Sisters booth.
Mrs. FC will be there with her posse slinging some amazing food. Yesterday she baked a couple of Key Lime cakes and about three Buttermilk Walnut pies.
That's not the whole menu, but as official taste tester, I can vouch for these two items!
7 comments:
Ice on the birdbath this morning, I am a long way from putting tomatoes and peppers in pots to enjoy the sunshine! That looks like a great system, except here they would need to be about 8' off the ground. See April 7 photo on my blog for reason.
Wish Gainesville wasn't quite so distant from the Black Hills, it sounds like the Southern Sisters booth would be worth the trip all by itself!
I don't suppose Mrs FC would be willing to give me the recipe for the Buttermilk Walnut Pie? It sounds like heaven.
Lady's a nice looking dawg! Go Bear! good luck to Mrs. FC at the Arts thing. Those are fun.
Need your thoughts on agri-aqua-culture matter at THE TROLL REPORT.
Oh I wish I would have read this post sooner!!! Would have loved to drive up to Gainesville for that festival!!
Love the gardening system. Still trying to figure one out here. Can't seem to grow things w/o the squirrels getting to them. If I applied myself I bet I could come up with something, but for now, it's a hit and miss sort of thing...
That looks like a cool system. I'm thinking of doing more tomatoes and peppers in containers this year so I can move them into a greenhouse if necessary. If the greenhouse idea becomes reality.
Caroline,
Brrr. Ice? I'll go check that post!
Jean,
I'm not allowed to give out SSisters dishes. But, do what I do and google it. Almost all recipes are out there.
Troll,
You have a good eye for lady dawgs.
Went there and posted a purty long response.
Lynn,
Squirrels are a pain here too. They uprooted a few baby tomatoes when they were still in cups.
Deb,
I would think a greenhouse up there would be almost a necessity!
FC,
Fortunately for you my wife is still mad about last years April fool escapade and does not read your posts, unless I send her a link. She will not be getting this one. She might decide that I need to try it. I have spent 2 years getting the soil right in my garden and I'll be very unhappy if your little drippy thing makes better tomatoes than my old fashioned garden. Dang new fangled gadgets, where do you get off! LOL just kidding, that looks like a fun and economical method. Keep us posted.
Thanks for sharing,
Billy
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