Friday, May 29, 2009

Putting in the Dirt- Taking out theDirt

Putting in the dirt and taking out the dirt is what I have been doing for weeks. We bought the bag for growing tomatoes. We need something to hang the bag on so we bought a yard pole with four hooks thinking we would get hanging plants and my strawberry plant to even it.The pole comes with and end with two fork like bottom pieces to put in the ground. We began with trying to put the pole in the ground. The ground was too hard. We bought and auger to go on the end of a drill to make a hole. We tried that. Ground still too hard. I had a small barrel on top of a large one last year, so I took the smaller barrel and filled it with dirt and put the pole in there. The pole would stand with hanging baskets until the 40 mile per hour winds came. Down came the pole and baskets. I took the dirt out. John cut two 2x4's nailing them together and drilling a hole for the pole we put them in the barrel covered them with dirt. Did not hold plants. I took out the dirt. The next thing we did was cut a circle the size of the barrel bottom from fiber board put that in the bottom and nailed and bolted the cross 2x4s to it. We covered them with the dirt. That did not work. I took out the dirt. We using L shaped clamps bolted the fiberboard circle to the sides of the barrel. Put back the dirt. I can hang two basket still not sure if they will stand in a wind storm but there is no way four baskets can hang. We don't understand why the pole falls over. It could be I am not getting the pole to the bottom. Dr. John is going to watch as I put the baskets on the pole on Friday. Dr John works in the garage and I am doing the work outside. He can sit on the walker.
Now to the question of the bird house. The bird house project got postponed do to the problem of the hanging plants. The house is painted and on a pole that should be above Maggies leaping abilities. The pole will sit between the pickets on the fence. I put the L shaped brackets so we can fasten the pole keeping it standing. The top brackets are on, but the bottom are not. I would also like my daughter to help me put it up holding it while I fasten the pole.
Meantime the tomato plant is at Pennies she has a hanging pole which was in when we bought the house and it is in cement. We are not leaving them at Pennies because Dr John would to see them grow.
When Dr John said he had a dull day on Tuesday that did not include me. I went to bible study, and, when I came home I planted two rose bushes, and weeded out my front garden, and planted it. I used the hose for the first time this year, and found that the nozzle had cracked at the trigger and I got as wet as the plants.
We have had a rainy week, and the boy down the street did not cut the grass when the sun finally shone. We have very tall grass.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sounds like the equivalent of GIGO - LOL After that many attempts I would pay money to have it done. Your poor sore back. Have you tried cement?

Melli said...

Ohhhhhhhhh my goodness! THIS is why I like to hear YOUR side of things! We get a much different picture - and a lot more detail from you! I have a plant hangar with only two hooks - and I can tell you, the FIRST problem is that they don't make those forks go down DEEP enough! I can't even hang PLANTS on it! It fell over immediately. I have two of my bird feeders on it now. I think your EX neighbors had the right idea when they cemented theirs in the ground.

Soooooo... I'll offer up MY suggestion and you can take it with a grain of salt! I think four 6 or 8 foot 2x4's bolted to your back fence - just something to extend the height - but being held secure and then 4 of those plant hangar brackets that hang from a post or wall - THAT would probably be your solution! And then hang bird feeders on your plant pole! LOL! OH! Wait! I forgot you have the shed! You could forgo the 2x4's altogether and just attach the hangers to the shed! No?

LOL! I know you guys will work it out!

Nessa said...

I see the tomato bag advertised on TV and wonder if it works. Keep us posted.

Dirt in, dirt out can be a new metaphor for life.

PJ said...

My topsy turvey tomatoes are growing sideways now.
I think even if this poor little confused plant can put on
*insert infomercial voice*
"Up to 30 pound of delicious tomatoes"
surely the thing will break from the sheer stress of it!
Hope yours do better...;)

quilly said...

The weight at the bottom of the pole needs to be greater than the weight at the top of your pole. That can't happen -- as Melli said -- because the part of the pole you are burying isn't long enough.

I wish you an easy and inexpensive solution.

bettygram said...

We did another fix and it is working at this moment. We put in four screws on the top 2x4 screwing the top to the barrel. It did mean another dirt in dirt out.
I had not thought of the shed.
My tomato also is trying to grow upward. When the tomatoes come[if they come] they may weigh it down.

Melli said...

Oh good! Well, I sure hope it survives the next 40 mph storm! But... I noticed the photo on Dr. John's blog this morning did NOT include the tomato plant. Where is IT now?

Anonymous said...

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Unknown said...

I recently bought 2 Topsy Turvey planters for tomato’s...Since planting them about 3 weeks ago the plants have literally quadrupled in size. I bought one of those iron pole hangers with a hook on each side to hang the Topsy Turvey planters on. The problem was they are extremely heavy after filling them all the way up with potting soil and the pole wanted to fall over. I could have tied it off to my chain link fence, but decide instead to tie it off to a tree by placing the pole next to the tree then taking a small cloths line rope and tying it around the tree and pole. It has worked out well thus far, but I foresee the tomato plants soon reaching the ground. Now I'm contemplating buying hollow fence pole driving into the ground then shoving the planter pole into it, thus, making it taller. I'll get a small pulley for each plant then run the cloths line rope through them, that way I can easily lower each planter to water them and easily bring them back up when done...It will be a permanent solution that can be used every year...