After a rough start the strawberry barrel has hit its productive stride. I am very happy with the results. It took a while for the soil chemistry to readjust from the epic overload of compost initially. Now there are happy worms in the compost tube and harmony has been restored.
Although there is only one remaining strawberry plant from the original set up, the success of growing greens has been a happy trade off. The barrel has grown Bok Choy, Tatsoi, lettuces, parsley, celery, tomatoes— and in the top portion—multicolored carrots & potatoes.
Replanting the barrel
Here is a little video I put together to show how I plant into the pockets when refreshing with new greens.
This was a short and sweet gardening project that used some nice recycled ship lap redwood and 1 inch thick boards. The redwood came from an acquaintance that was moving and had to release his collections of scavenged wood bits. This was a perfect project that solved the problem of gophers, and, increased the food area in a non-productive strip of sandy soil that nothing favored growing in.
First all of the straggler planting was removed from the sandy strip
By creating two raised beds the raspberries could be planted in good house compost fortified soil. Watering needs would be less and the raspberries could be curtailed from spreading into other areas of the garden. There was a concrete footing along one edge that was a remnant from a previous dweller on the property that would also help contain the berries in this narrow strip.
Assembling the raised bed using the recycled lumber was easy and the ship lap made a nice tight fit for keeping soil inside the boxes
Most of the lumber was already cut to a 4 foot size. Only a little bit of cutting was required to assemble two raspberry beds. These beds are approximately 3′ x 4′ in size and 2′ deep. The screws and galvanized wire were the only costs to this project (besides labor and visioning).
Galvanized wire bottom was an absolute necessity because of the ravenous gophers that historically lurk in the neighborhood
The raspberry starts were Heritage variety, which is a fall bearing type that will give a small crop in the spring with heavier fruiting in fall. This is a perfect growing habit for the local climate as the raspberries don’t get fried by summer heat (not in the summer fog!) but get that nice clear skies push in September, October and November.
The raised beds were filled with house blend home compost and the raspberry starts were planted and watered very thoroughly
Some of the plants were dug up from another garden where they were escaping the bed. All of the planting was done in late February when plants were still a bit dormant – although not as dormant as, say, Montana!
The second raspberry garden bed is added to the strip and planted with the new starts bought at Bokay Nursery
Of course, there were some volunteers from the home compost that appeared shortly after planting. One tomato was allowed to fill a corner of a bed and so tomatoes were harvested from the bed in the first year as well. Now the bed is so filled with raspberry canes that there is no root room for much else to get started.
The raspberries are beginning to travel outside of the bed but the maintenance of removing runners has been minimal. These beds are hand watered, but thinking that some drip automation would free up my time and probably give a better crop. I do top dress seasonally with straw, manure or more compost depending on availability.
A volunteer tomato provided a nice extra crop while the bed filled in with raspberries
Overall, the raspberries were a good addition to the garden. Other than watering, not too much else is required. The gophers have not been able to get in, and, the birds would rather eat the blueberries. There has been a minimal bit of leaf roller caterpillar damage seasonally. This coincides with nesting season and we have observed birds investigating the undersides of every leaf to find treats for fledglings. So maybe the bird foraging is controlling a possible larger outbreak here
This is an update and review on the function of the strawberry barrel project with vermi-compost tube that was planted a few months ago with 3 types of strawberries and home compost. The plants looked great for several weeks and produced well. But I overloaded the vermi-compost tube with too much rotting food at once. The tube went anaerobic fast (too wet and encouraged the wrong microbial work force) and the strawberries on the lower levels burned from the soil chemistry change.
So, the clean out plug at the bottom of the tube was utilized to take all the muck out and start all over. Would highly recommend not omitting that removable clean out plug if you plan on making this! Although removing the sour slop out of the tube improved the plants in the upper levels – it was too late for the lower levels. All of those strawberries burned and died.
But, shortly after the clean out, volunteers sprung out of the home compost and, as shown below, there are now several sunflowers, parsley and a large tomato taking over. I have tucked in a few bok choy starts as well in what was the “dead zone.” so far, all seems to be readjusting, but a great error to add too much food waste at once.
Now I have added a large clump of worms from a healthy bin and have been S L O W L Y adding scraps along with shredded paper to keep from getting too wet. Watering this system has been problematic as things tend to dry out fast at the top and drain slowly at the bottom. Perhaps more sand or vermiculite should have been added in the compost mix at the bottom when planting to help with drainage. It is possible that drilling larger drainage holes at the bottom would help out too. But not a total loss, despite the overload, as I have been harvesting parsley and strawberries from the upper levels. The bok choy on the lower portion look vigorous and with one plant per pocket should give a good crop as well. The monster tomato may turn out to be best part of the error as the black plastic seems to be giving good heat. Stay tuned…
This vertical gardening concept has been floating around the internet for a while. I have wanted to make one of these ever since the last drought, and, to stymie the sow bugs that have made a mockery of the strawberries growing in the raised beds. This set up allows for a lot of vertical growing space and includes a vermi-compost tube down the middle to break down food waste and provide nutrients for the growing plants.
The black food-grade HDPE 65 gallon container was spotted at the Last Chance Mercantile – a sign that it was time to put this concept to the test. There were several YouTube videos that showcased the steps required and it seemed like an easy weekend project to take on. In theory… we had all of the materials and tools.
The first step was figuring out how many pockets to make to hold the strawberry plants. I settled on 4 tiers with 7 pockets on each tier = a total of 28 pockets. This barrel is about 35″ tall – a nice even number. Using a carpenters crayon, the 4 tiers were marked out about 7 inches between each row and pockets about 5 inches long with 5.25 inches between pockets. Staggering the slits resulted in the strawberries having some room to drape down without blocking off light to any lower plants.
There was some fudging in measurements as the barrel has some tapering top and bottom and the circumference is widest towards the middle. This barrel was roughly 72-73 inches in circumference. The carpenters crayon could be wiped off with a rag and redrawn if the math needed some adjusting. Setting this barrel on a pair of saw horses took the strain off the old back and made marking and measuring much easier.
Use a drill to make holes where the saw will cut the slits for pockets
Drilling holes where the electric jigsaw would cut the pocket slit made room to get the blade in place to begin and end the cuts. This part went fairly fast with a new multi-purpose blade.
Nice clean cuts are easier when there is a good line to follow!
Then the top of the barrel was cut out. Pre-marking with the carpenters crayon made this waaaay easier to follow a line and not get off track during the cut. There is a lot of thick and thin variation in the plastic at the top here, so good to have a clean guideline to follow.
When the top is cut out, it is easier to get hands inside for the next few steps
We used a plastics heat gun to soften the plastic around the slits. This took about 3-6 minutes for each pocket – roughly an hour or so to heat and form the 28 pockets. Beer bottles were used to shape the pockets and made a nicer finished curve than using a pointed piece of 2″ x 4″ as seen on some YouTube demos. Using bottles with a tapered neck worked better than a bottle with an abrupt shoulder. Perhaps a wine bottle would have made a bit larger pocket. Worth trying next time.
The heat gun took about 3-5 minutes to soften the plastic enough to push a beer bottle into
When the plastic was soft enough the bottle was shoved into the cut pocket slit and left to cool into shape
The next step is cutting out the bottom of the barrel to fit the vermi-compost tube into. It was recommended to use 6 inch schedule 40 drainage pipe, but a regular 6 inch PVC pipe was less expensive and readily available at the local irrigation supply store. Trace the outline of the cut using the pipe as a guide and make sure to cut to the inside of the line. This needs a snug fit to the 6 inch pipe and it is easier to sand a bit to remove material than to have to use glue or some other after-the-fact fix.
Use 6 inch pipe to trace the cut line and use the jig saw to cut to the inside of the line
A coarse sandpaper was used to adjust the final fit to the 6 inch pipe
Using some of the extra pipe (They only sold in 5 foot lengths) I fashioned a collar that fit the pipe into the hole (so it does not slip through). I cut a 2″ section and cut open the ring so it would slip around the out part of the pipe. Regular purple PVC pipe glue attached the collar on fast and easy. Many 1/4- 3/8″ holes were drilled into the 6 inch pipe for worms to move from compost to soil and back again. Then sanding was employed on the sharp edges from the drill holes so as to not cut the worms later.
Note collar glued on to the end of the pipe to hold pipe in place
The last part was building and attaching the legs, which I decided needed to be sturdier than seen on the web so there would be better stability in our sandy soil. I used a router, which was tedious, messy and the wrong tool for the job. Doing this again would be much easier using a band saw to cut the curve in the thick wood. Another issue was that the lower odd numbered pockets interfered with attaching the legs equally apart. Should have adjusted for the quarterly leg placement when marking out the lowest pockets for a better fit. Stainless steel bolts (to resist corrosion) were used to attach the legs with large stainless steel washers to prevent plastic tear out from weight stress. Lining up the holes from the pre-drilled legs and attaching to the barrel was a bit of a chore because of the funky fit (pockets in the way). We used Gorilla Glue which helped fill the irregular voids between the plastic and the wood. It expands a bit as it dries and really gave a good seat for the barrel on the pressure treated wooden legs. Drainage holes (3/8″) were drilled into the bottom randomly after the legs were attached. The barrel has great stability on the stout legs – even filled with soil.
Finished and planted barrel with good home compost
A 6 inch plumbers test plug goes into the bottom of the pipe to seal off the vermi-compost tube and allow for occasional clean out of the compost tube. Home Depot had a $16 – 6 inch plastic version that was ordered online. Since no actual pressure—other than gravity—is employed here, this was satisfactory. I later found a 6″ PVC cap at Habitat for Humanity to replace the terracotta pot shown above, but the pot would have been fine for the top too. Maybe plug the hole on the pot in case sow bugs move into the compost and come out of the tube to feast at night. Grrrr….
6 inch plumbers plug is removable for cleaning out pipe
Some of the strawberries were transplanted from a not-so-productive raised bed and were ‘Sequoia’ and ‘Albion’ ever-bearing varieties. The rest were another ever-bearing variety called ‘Quinault’ that will fruit on an un-rooted runner. What a perfect variety for a hanging vertical container! Those fruits have been small, abundant and very sweet. The black plastic barrel, in this coastal climate, will help keep the season going longer. A hotter climate would probably be better served using a white or blue plastic so as not to cook the worms!
The strawberries were planted in with good home compost which was mixed with a little of the native sandy soil. There was a bit of settling of soil in the lower pockets and I had to go back in with a spoon and adjust (lift and add soil) the crowns of the strawberries so they are not below grade (causes rot). I may end up enlarging the drainage holes at the bottom too or add more holes since the soil stays fairly moist now that it is planted. Perhaps a sandier soil mix at the bottom two tiers would have helped the drainage too? A small amount of food waste has been added into the vermi-compost tube but not enough (yet) to add the worms.
Did this project get done in a weekend? No, but none of the steps were terribly hard or time consuming when broken down into mini-projects. The resulting barrel promises to be very productive and might inspire a second unit for growing vertical shallow rooted greens. Stay tuned!
A neighbor and gardener-in-arms often passes cast-offs my way from gardens that she works in. She had an interesting but broken terracotta wall plaque and made the challenge to make something creative with it (she could not bear to throw it away).
This was the plaque before adding the bird wire to the back
This piece needed a succulent of some sort to soften the broken edge at the top. The first challenge was to form and attach a bird wire basket that would hold soil and the succulent.
Using gloves and pliers I bent and trimmed 3/8″ bird wire to fit to the back of the plaque. A masonry bit was used to pre-drill any holes where the 1/2″ (head size) zinc coated screws would be used to attach the basket. I would recommend testing the fit between the masonry bit and the screws in a piece of terracotta scrap. Not too big or the screw connection will be loose – not too tight or the media will shatter from the larger screw.
Once the basket was secure to the plaque, coconut coir was used to line the basket and keep the soil contained within. The succulent was planted in and watered flat before hanging. Pre-soaking the coir before adding the soil helps get the succulent off to a good start too.
This was an easy project that adds a nice touch to the front entry. It was easily accomplished under 2 hours of time and would make a very nice up-cycled gift.
The succulent has been growing well even if passion vine has been hogging up the space
But not a total loss, despite the overload, as I have been harvesting parsley and strawberries from the upper levels. The bok choy on the lower portion look vigorous and with one plant per pocket should give a good crop as well. The monster tomato may turn out to be best part of the error as the black plastic seems to be giving good heat. Stay tuned…
