So you like to garden? Try these on for size.

good read, Icegal. I've always like verticle (hanging) gardens. they were once considered one of the seven wonders of the world with the gardens of Babylon under king Nebuchadnezzar II almost 3000 years ago.

thanks

My hubby and I are going to do raised beds for next year. The cinderblocks are an ingenious idea! Thanks for sharing your experiences here.

We did mainly containers this year and were fairly pleased with our results, though the watering gets tedious, 2 x daily, also had to fertilize much more than regular gardening.

Have a great eve

I like bringing the garden inside, make a small dish garden with chives and a rock in any shallow ceramic vessel. Herbs like thyme and rosemary can be trained as bonsai, a potted wisteria in a large floor pot can grow 6 feet high and still be moved in and outside.

We have collected all of the horse manure that will rot over the garden this winter, we will cover it in black plastic in the spring and then build raised beds from scrap lumber and fill it with new compost and a mix of other dirts that we have collected.

We will cover the paths between the beds with rocks an stones we have piled up for three years.

I am clipping this to other groups icegal.

We have large self watering grow boxes we made ourselves that shed excess water too (essential for those heavy subtropical downpours we have in Florida). They can grow a lot with no threat of nematodes or other undesirable soil pests. They are tall enough that most of our forest critters don't care to climb them while being easier on human backs. And they are portable so we can move them around the yard for different lighting conditions or in case of a freeze.

They grew such excellent tomatoes, basil, peppers, cucumbers, zucchini, celery and lettuce on our first round of plantings that we plan on doubling them soon.

We also have the similar boxes set up as worm bins which make both super nutritious (for plants, lol) worm tea and great compost out of our kitchen scraps with which to replenish the grow boxes. With the addition of a few marigolds strategically planted for their natural insecticide properties and a very limited use of pyrethrum spray and we have a complete organic system.

Icegal

That is a great idea, I know how you feel about weeds weeds weeds and more dang weeds. I have a limited spot to garden but did very well this year except for my tomatoes, I think a lot of people had a small tomato crop. Here is an idea to add to your raised garden bed. What I did this year is after I got my plants in the ground I lined them with two or three pages from the news paper and watered them. It will keep the weeds out and hold the moister longer for the base of the plant. It also turns into good mulch after a few watering's.