I've made a major container gardening improvement this year
- maybe everyone else already does this - but I had not done
it before now, so I'm posting about it.

With thanks to Mel Bartholomew, author of 'Square Foot
Gardening'... whose ideas I'm adapting. Useful book, btw,
IMHO.

Most of my containers are large black plant pots - VERY
large ones. They're round.

This year, as I plant each one out I am making it a cylinder
of 1" chickenwire.

The cylinder goes inside the pot, around the outside
circumference. The cylinder is pushed into the soil at the
bottom, and further secured by two big staples being pushed
through the wire and into the soil - these are long,
u-shaped things that you can buy at garden centers. (I
think their intended purpose is pinning down black plastic,
or row cover.)

I'm making the cylinders about two feet high - three feet
high in a few cases - or somewhat higher than the plants
will grow.

Now I can easily do the following (using clothespins and the
big staples):

1. Cover all the brassicas with floating row cover to keep
away the cabbage butterflies - Some control measures for the
cabbage butterflies are absolutely essential and I'm an
organic gardener - this is the control measure I prefer.

2. Cover pots with clear plastic if really cold weather or
high wind or driving rain threatens.

3. Cover lettuce and similar plants with shade cloth in hot
summer weather.

It's a pain in the neck to make a cylinder for each pot, but
I'll save them from year to year. They should last quite a
few years.

I'm already using them: I planted out four lettuce plants
and four bok choy plants yesterday and it's VERY windy
today. Now they're sheltered. I left the top and one side
open, but sheltered them from the wind.

I think this would work with any shape container.

Pat
--
CLICK DAILY TO FEED THE HUNGRY
United States: http://www.stopthehunger.com/
International: http://www.thehungersite.com/

Pat Meadows wrote:



I've made a major container gardening improvement this year
- maybe everyone else already does this - but I had not done
it before now, so I'm posting about it.

With thanks to Mel Bartholomew, author of 'Square Foot
Gardening'... whose ideas I'm adapting. Useful book, btw,
IMHO.

Most of my containers are large black plant pots - VERY
large ones. They're round.

This year, as I plant each one out I am making it a cylinder
of 1" chickenwire.

The cylinder goes inside the pot, around the outside
circumference. The cylinder is pushed into the soil at the
bottom, and further secured by two big staples being pushed
through the wire and into the soil - these are long,
u-shaped things that you can buy at garden centers. (I
think their intended purpose is pinning down black plastic,
or row cover.)

I'm making the cylinders about two feet high - three feet
high in a few cases - or somewhat higher than the plants
will grow.

Now I can easily do the following (using clothespins and the
big staples):

1. Cover all the brassicas with floating row cover to keep
away the cabbage butterflies - Some control measures for the
cabbage butterflies are absolutely essential and I'm an
organic gardener - this is the control measure I prefer.

2. Cover pots with clear plastic if really cold weather or
high wind or driving rain threatens.

3. Cover lettuce and similar plants with shade cloth in hot
summer weather.

It's a pain in the neck to make a cylinder for each pot, but
I'll save them from year to year. They should last quite a
few years.

I'm already using them: I planted out four lettuce plants
and four bok choy plants yesterday and it's VERY windy
today. Now they're sheltered. I left the top and one side
open, but sheltered them from the wind.

I think this would work with any shape container.

Pat
--

That is a good idea.
I do like his book, although most of what he talks about has
been done by gardeners around the world for centuries.
Certainly in drier climates, where good soil and water are
very scarce.

On Fri, 28 Mar 2003 17:52:43 -0700, Arri London
wrote:

about 'Square Foot Gardening', by Mel Bartholomew

That is a good idea.
I do like his book, although most of what he talks about has
been done by gardeners around the world for centuries.
Certainly in drier climates, where good soil and water are
very scarce.

It's a handy book to have, IMHO. It gives me the spacing
for each plant: e.g., in a square foot of area, I can plant
four lettuce plants.

My container gardening pots are round, but happily their
area isn't much different from one square foot - they're 14"
in diameter and have about 153 square inches. So I can use
Bartholomew's charts for spacing.

I'm dubious that his spacing would work in some soils, but
the container gardening pots have 'perfect' soil - spent
mushroom soil - that's very fertile and also very nicely
textured so each pot will, in fact, grow a surprisingly
large amount.

Pat
--
CLICK DAILY TO FEED THE HUNGRY
United States: http://www.stopthehunger.com/
International: http://www.thehungersite.com/

Pat Meadows wrote:

On Fri, 28 Mar 2003 17:52:43 -0700, Arri London
wrote:

about 'Square Foot Gardening', by Mel Bartholomew

That is a good idea.
I do like his book, although most of what he talks about has
been done by gardeners around the world for centuries.
Certainly in drier climates, where good soil and water are
very scarce.

It's a handy book to have, IMHO. It gives me the spacing
for each plant: e.g., in a square foot of area, I can plant
four lettuce plants.

My container gardening pots are round, but happily their
area isn't much different from one square foot - they're 14"
in diameter and have about 153 square inches. So I can use
Bartholomew's charts for spacing.

I'm dubious that his spacing would work in some soils, but
the container gardening pots have 'perfect' soil - spent
mushroom soil - that's very fertile and also very nicely
textured so each pot will, in fact, grow a surprisingly
large amount.

Pat
--

Even in our poor soil, plants can grow quite closely
together. The spacings often given in gardening books allow
for tillage and weed pulling and fertilising etc. None of
which I really need to do. I don't leave room for weeds, so
no further tilling or weeding is needed.

Found it interesting to see a photo of one of the NM pueblos
taken in the late 1800s. The gardens were laid out in
squares, called 'waffle gardens' by the photographer.
Planting close together cuts down water loss in desert
soils.