Our Redneck Tomato Bed

Alan and I spent a good amount of time today working on what I'm calling our redneck tomato bed -- a grid trellis and watering system. Last year, watering the garden was very time consuming, because every plant had to be watered by hand. It was too easy to get water on the leaves of the plants which spreads disease, so this year I wanted to change how we water the garden.

I showed Alan this video of how Donald, "The Bayou Gardener" in Louisiana, uses a PVC tube at each plant to direct water to each of his tomato plants. He fills the tube with water, and the water drains out slowly through a small hole he has drilled at the base of the tube. I really like this idea! And for what it's worth, I really like Donald's other videos, too!

Since our plants are in a raised bed, and not nearly as far apart as the plants in Donald's garden, Alan suggested that we create a larger fill tube at one end of the raised bed and connect it to a smaller "drain tube" that runs the length of the bed, with a small hole drilled at each plant to direct water at each plant in the bed. I liked his suggestion, so we did it!

The tomato plants also needed some sort of trellis, and I thought we could utilize the corner posts on the bed to create a sort of "grid" over the plants to help support them as they grow. We put this in place today too, and I'm crossing my fingers that it works!

First we removed the deer netting from around the bed, and Alan replaced the 4' 2x2 corner posts with full length 8' 2x2 posts so that we could add a bit more height to the grid trellis as needed.

We used 1x2 boards we had around the farm to create the grid trellis, supported by the 2x2 corner posts. Each plant had it's own section of grid when we were done. And we can add more height to the trellis as the plants get taller. The boards are all connected with screws, so at the end of the season, the grid can easily be taken down.

Once we had most of the grid trellis in place, we stood the large 5' tall x 3" wide fill tube at one end of the raised bed. We set it on a short brick to elevate it a bit from the other end of the garden bed.

We attached a narrower piece of 1.5" pipe to the fill tube, that had a small hole drilled at the location of each plant, to direct water along either side of the drain tube. If you look closely, you can see water squirting out of the pipe towards my tomato plants!

It takes about 25 seconds to fill the tubes, and it takes about 2 1/2 minutes for the unit to completely drain. We guesstimate that we're directing about 8 gallons of water to the bed when we fill the tubes and let them drain completely. In the heat of summer, I might have to fill the tube twice a day, but for now I'll keep an eye on the soil and plants to determine how often they'll need a refill.

I love that it's quick and easy to fill the tube with water, and I LOVE that it directs the water at the plants and keeps the water off of the leaves and hopefully soon-to-be-growing tomatoes! I'll also be able to add fertilizer or duck pond water to the fill tube as needed to give the plants an extra bit of growing power. We didn't glue any of the tube sections together, so it will be easy to take the sections apart for any required cleaning and winter storage.

Once we had it all in place, we wrapped the entire bed again with deer netting to keep the critters out. I admit it's not the "prettiest setup", but here's hoping it WORKS! And like Alan said ... as the plants get bigger and bigger, the supports will become less and less visible. And I think that's a GOOD THING! *grin*

Yeee Haw!

Comments

[Shannon]

Good stuff, I love it!!! I have little plans running through my head now... AND I have access to free pipe. Hehehehe

[VivLyn]

Who cares what it looks like...As long as it reduces your work and grows bigger tomatoes, that's what counts! It looks great to me!

[Jennifer K.]

Is it wrong that I don't think this looks redneck at all?!? I think it looks SMART! I bet your garden is going to be super happy and give you lots of rewards for your hard work. I can't wait to have fresh veggies!

[Rebecca Ednie]

Looks like an awesome system. Just don't forget to cap the tube or bugs etc might work their way down to the small holes blocking them. You also probably need to filter grass etc out of the duck pond water for the same reason.

[Nebraska Dave]

Anna, the bayou gardener is too funny. It's all simple even though he said it was complicated. It keeps the water on the roots and would even work through mulch which would be even better. Your version of the system looks to be an improvement and will water more than one at a time. It must be that like minds run in the same circles as last year I started my watering system make from spare barrels, tanks, and garden hoses. I am making an attempt to automate mine to keep the garden watered when I'm gone up to 10 days at a time during the growing season. That has always been an issue in past years. I hope to be harvesting rain water by summer's end as well.

Have a great garden watering day.

[kathynruss]

Tomatoes, watering system and new calf, oh, my. All caught up now, but you didn't say whether you'd received any of the rain you needed. Today and rest of week look promising for rain in DFW area, but nasty winds and storms, too. Take care.

[Dee in N.H.]

I can't believe how beautiful your 'Maters already look! Can't wait to see how your tube thing works out. We got a couple inches of snow yesterday so that dashed any hopes of at least getting some peas and lettuce in today. LOL!
Have a great Easter!

[Kathy Martin]

Lol This design may not make into Better Homes & Gardens, but you may grow some prize tomatoes!

[Kittie Caracciolo]

Who care what it looks like!!!!!!!!!!! I think it's genious. I love picking ripe tomatoes right off the vine. My parents used to plant 100 tomato plants and share them all summer with their church. Mother canned all summer long and we ate garden food all year long. I have tried growing tomatoes, squash and cucumbers here in Florida but I have no success. You have to be a nutrient wizard to get the soil fed well enough to grow anything here.

I love your garden stories, Anna! Keep them coming.

[Sherri D.]

Personally, I was very impressed by yours and Alan's PVC pipe work. I don't think it's Redneck at all. Your tomato plants look real good! Can't wait to see more pictures as the garden progresses!

[NormaJ]

I watched some of the Bayou gardeners videos
and they are quite interesting. I found one
that tickled my DH's fancy and he laughed at
it. The embarrassing garden, it was called.
We want to put in a garden too but with the weather the way it has been, we may have to look at building it but seeding for next year.
We'll see.

[DK Wight]

It looks like the perfect way to apply a little miracle grow as well! I had a friend once that raised worms, dont laugh yet, he used race horse manure from the track where he worked. He "fed" the worms by soaking the stuff in garbage cans for a day or so and then draining the mix through a screen to drain the water as not to drown the worms. then poured the "tea" in his garden and the mulch to the worm bed... It may work on tamaters, ya think? The tea through the pipe and the mulch on other stuff.....Love, Dad That guy had some pretty impressive wigglers too!

[Diana Gibbs]

Hi Anna,
My hubby has pvc pipes into the ground by his pine trees, that way when he waters it goes deep. In Arizona they need that!

How's the new baby? Must be that time of year the Pioneer Woman had a calf born too, but YOU got the better pictures.

Hugs,
Di

[Lisa Kind]

Too funny calling it redneck! You should see my hubby's garden in the summer. He uses old hockey sticks, ski poles, and golf clubs for his supports for the vegetables! It's quite funny looking!

[Carol Dee]

Funny, as I was reading this I was thinking *yeahaw!* This looks like it should work out very well. (Smarty Pants) Will be watching for updates. Hoppy Easter. Hugs...