Gardening part 1

This backtracks a bit to show what I started last spring before I make another attempt for fall. (Floridians mostly garden in spring and fall.)

I have a pool and screened patio, and like most Central Floridians, not much yard besides that, unfortunately. I've tried gardening outside the screened area, but I tend to forget what I can't see, so that hasn't fared well. This spring I found myself looking for some urban solutions and found sub-irrigation or self-watering. In an attempt to combine this with a tower design I had already used successfully, I designed some towers with PVC and pots we already had and filled in with a few extras.

This is the PVC structure that will hold up the tower. At the bottom is the sub-irrigation portion: PVC tube (front bottom) leading down to a drainage tube. Since the bottom of the pot wasn't sealed, I lined it with a trash bag to hold water in the bottom few inches below the drainage hole I drilled in the side.

What didn't work: The PVC held fine, the pots did not. The weight from the pots above broke through the side of the bottom pot in every tower as soon as they were filled with plants and heavy from watering. Maybe if I had capped the PVC or reinforced it somehow, it would have worked.

The finished towers. You can see the drainage holes for the bottom pots. I did not put drainage holes on the ones above because they have PVC tubes coming up through the bottom and will leak naturally. The PVC you see sticking up is where you water - this part actually worked well. In years past, I'd be watering 2-3 times a day in the middle of summer and everything would still wilt.

What didn't work: I ended up having to move these pots much, much farther apart as the plants grew and crowded. I always seem to forget just how much bigger things get when I'm looking at tiny seedlings.

For all that didn't work, I must have done something right. This is our monster tomato tree - the top is about 8' tall. You might also be able to see a bit of oregano, basil and green onion to the left.


All four towers filled in and pushed a few feet apart:

If you're wondering, the plants on the right that you may or not be able to see are rosemary, another tomato, luffa and a pepper plant. There are other smaller plants mixed in but I doubt they're visible!