It’s Wednesday, so it must be time to check in on my garden.  From this distance, not much has changed since last week. I do have another entry for my ‘lessons learned’.

Overflow holes. – I deliberately put them to the back of the patio, but when I’m watering the buckets I can’t see if I have enough water without walking around to the back. I’m not sure if that means the lesson is to face the holes to the patio side of the garden or wear shoes.  That gravel is hard on bare feet. For now I’m wearing shoes.

The second take away is the positioning of the overflow hole on the bucket in relationship to the handle.  That bucket on the far right has the hole right under the handle and it makes it a bit hard to see when I’ve got enough water in the bucket. After the season is over I may take the handles off.

The tomatoes are growing.

Red Beefsteak

Super Sweet 100 Hybrid Cherry

Cherokee Purple Heirloom

The cherry tomato has a single blossom.

Additionally my lettuce has started to grow — click twice on the picture if you really want to see it.

Right now I’m not doing much to the garden. Making sure the reservoirs are filled with water in the morning and afternoon and cleaning the ‘helicopter’ seeds out as they blow in to garden.  The last thing I need is a tree growing in my vegetables!

This is the “Stuff” part of Quilting and Stuff by Knitnoid. I promise I’ll get back to quilting just as soon as I get a few things planted. I already have a few “lessons learned” of the garden variety even though nothing is planted.  The tomato plant pictured above is one of them.

Read the plant tag not just the display box.

I thought I was buying a Red Beefsteak Heirloom and discovered this morning that I have a Cherokee Purple Heirloom. Oh, well.

Cut aeration and water holes BEFORE cutting the false bottom from the lid

I’m using larger 30 gallon tubs for some of my containers. The lid will be a false bottom sitting about 5-inches from the bottom as a water reservoir. There needs to be a couple of holes for the water wicking and lots of aeration hole drilled into the lid. I got excited and cut all three false bottoms from the container lids and now I have to figure out where to prop them while I drill the holes.

A little bit of spray paint can hide advertising

It was my plan to pick up my 5 gallon buckets from Craigslist. But my timing was off. I found these at WM for only 58-cents more than the Craigslist bucket and I was already at WM.  Turns out these buckets are nearly the same color as our newly painted shutters and we have leftover paint.  So, no advertising.

Planting a garden is no different that other do-it-yourself projects — you will have to make multiple trips to the store

Although I could fill my water reservoir via the overflow hole I’ve cut into the side of the bottom bucket, I’m going to make it easier on my back and add in a 1″ PVC pipe from the top. That means I need an 1-3/8 inch hole in the bottom of the top bucket for the pipe. Although I could probably do a rough cut, it will be faster and more importantly easier on my hands/wrists if I have a proper drill bit.  Also, the caulking I have to “glue” the wicking cup in the right place on the bottom bucket is dried up. So I’m off to the hardware store – again.

For at least this week it seems I’m limiting my quilting to after it gets dark.