As Fall approaches the weather is finally cooling down just enough for our plants to put on a few more vegetables. But at the same time, the Sun is traveling an ever lower trajectory across the southern sky. This means longer shadows than a few months ago when the Sun was more nearly overhead. These shadows create quite a problem, as part of our growing area is spatially limited and surrounded by a six foot privacy wall.
.Over the last month, the wall's shadow steadily advanced until it had completely engulfed the containers and large portions of the tomato and okra plants located along the southern side of our house. Since we didn't have any other space available for the plants, I decided that I would raise them out of the shade. To accomplish this I built a plant shelf from a few decorative concrete blocks and a two by twelve board. For the time being, the shelf has the plants basking in the Sunlight once again.
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5 comments:
Hey John!!!! I just found your blog last night. I live in Henderson and know NOTHING about gardening but want to learn. I start a container garden a week ago with carrots and lettuce. I'm going to need your help. I've never even grown a plant starting with a seed. My first try is a dwarf sunflowers and yesterday a couple leaves had holes in them. Probably bugs. What should I spray on them. Any ideas?????
That's pretty ingenious!
Laura--It would be best to try and figure out what kind of bug is eating your leaves before deciding how to treat the plants. Different pest control methods work on different kinds of bugs.
Thanks for the posts Laura and Fern.
Laura- Welcome to our blog and to container gardening here in Las Vegas. It's quite a challenge at times, but lots of fun and very rewarding. I haven't had much experience with sunflowers or lettuce (I planted a few sunflowers this year, but it was during July and the heat got them while they were still small). As for the holes in the leaves, it's difficult to say. As Fern pointed out, it really depends on the kind of bugs and whether you want to use pesticides or prefer more organic methods.
Fern- I don't know about ingenious, but it works :)
That is one good looking shelf! Where di you find those cool cement blocks?
Thanks everyone for all the suggestions. I checked my sunflowers and on a couple of leaves there is teeny tiny black spots. Thats all i can see. I'm ok with any kind of method to save them.
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