Wicking Box Tomatoes

I’ve proved this year how great Wicking Boxes are for me, I don’t need to go out in stifling heat and water the plants every day. We have so many tomatoes I’m giving them away but now I’m thinking of getting rid of the boxes I’ve made. It’s very disappointing after all the effort and the fact they work so well but during our recent heat wave I realized that if a fire did come here the polystyrene boxes would create an inferno of their own. I’ve thought about alternatives and decided after this season I’ll make our half wine barrels into wicking beds, they should be well insulated like the polystyrene without being so flammable. It’s a daunting prospect, having to remove the soil that’s in them and line the casks etc but I’ll see how I go. One at a time.

One day’s harvest.

Nice big fruit on the bush.

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Mosaic Pole

In my ignorance I decided to make a mosaic for the garden using some PVC pipe, I learnt a lot along the way!

Both Liquid Nails and the powdered tile adhesive you mix with water seemed to stick the tiles but the ones which fell off  later were those stuck with the mixed adhesive.

I’ll never use PVC pipe again because even now I can’t be sure the pieces won’t fall off. Someone did tell me attaching fly-wire to the pipe would have given the adhesive more holding power but they told me that after I’d finished.

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The rocks are around the base to deter my dog from scratching her back on the pole, I’m sure it wouldn’t be long before she’d dislodge tiles.