Monthly Archives: June 2014

New hatch assembly

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IMG_8779A new prototype hatch assembly being put together on south wall main roof.  In the distance is SE corner main roof which is all habeneros this season (14).  Last season sunflowers grew here.  No sunflowers on main roof this season.  When completed the hatch assembly is supposed to provide roof ventilation while keeping water out.  Some design issues still being worked.

Chives in the foreground keep coming back year after year.  Chives are a great invasive plant that can survive in containers even over harsh winters.  A lot of mint died due to the extreme winter we had but not chives.  Pineapple mint was another big survivor this winter.

Tomato Status

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IMG_8784 IMG_8785Here’s a brief update of tomatoes as of 6/27/2014.  All 8 tomatoes in caged positions healthy and we’ve had a lot of rain.  Fertilized once last week.  That might be kind of late.  Need to fertilize today.

The two wooden boxes are new planters that can hold two big plants.  They are 2x3x1.5=9 cubic feet.  The plastic tub planters are only 3 cu ft.  The two pictures show caged positions 1-7 of which there are 15 this season.  The wooden cage slots have not been installed and they may not be necessary.

Tomatoes buffered by Cleome in caged position 4 and skinny eggplant in caged position 1.  Caged position 7 has two habeneros and caged position 5 and 6 (bottom pic) has tomatoes.  The caged positions closest to the west which get the first shade are growing the best independent of container size.

Update

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No pics.  I’m a bit behind updating this log book so this is a text update.  Pics will be coming soon when I get motivated.  Added 2 3’x2’x1.5′ = 9 cu.ft planters on main roof  which each take two tomatoes around Memorial Day and got all tomatoes, eggplants, habeneros, and even basil planted in time.   Because of the new arrangement somehow ended up with 15 caged positions instead of 14 per previous two years.  Found Cleome in four packs at the Menards parking lot guy.  Those have been successful companion plants for tomatoes.   I couldn’t find them anywhere last season.  I’ve been derelict on veranda level so everything is just growing as if it were maintenance free.  It will be interesting to see how the vines turn out growing wild.

Front parkway doing well.  Have good raspberries and two areas where the catnip returned but it took awhile for it to come up.  Usually that blooms at the end of June and right now it’s nowhere near close to blooming.  Like me and my gardening projects, Catnip is over a month behind schedule in my estimation.