Tomato Planting Prep

[GoDawgs]

Today's project was to put in place the pallets that the tomato buckets will sit on. Because they rested on the sideboards of a raised bed last year and were up off the ground, they didn't rot and were fine to use again this year.

I needed lots of cardboard to lay under the pallets to keep grass and ants at bay so yesterday I scored a bunch of flattened cartons and beer flats from the liquor store in town. The owner had two shipments come in and she was glad not to have to deal with the empty cartons. One person's trash is another's treasure! I took them all. This morning I first ran a string for the 4x18' area and got the cardboard laid down.



Then Pickles helped get the pallets in place and I inserted brick pavers under them to keep the pallets off the ground. A second row of pallets just like this one was set up next to the house.



Last week Pickles had spotted these pavers on sale at Home Depot for half price so they were 4/$1, a real bargain! We bought enough for the pallet project and extra for future needs that might pop up.



The next step will be to wash and sanitize all of the tomato buckets. Then Monday we'll go fetch a pickup load of the potting soil, fill the buckets, arrange them on the pallets and plant out the tomatoes, weather permitting. That will be a big checkmark on the spring garden to-do list!

[SteveP]

Looks like a well thought out plan. How many containers are you putting out?

[GoDawgs]

As of now there will be 23 tomatoes in 15 gallon buckets, about 14 of them down in the garden and the rest plus two eggplants and probably a few three gallon buckets of dill and zinnias up at the house.

This is a shot of Tomato Row up by the house last June. A tarp was used over the pallets to prevent weeds because the ground under that row wasn't covered with cardboard like it will be this year.

[dot520]

What a great idea! I have access to pallets and cardboard. Too late for this year but may try it next year. What is your clean up like at the end of the season? Do you remove and dispose of cardboard and store pallets?

[GoDawgs]

The cardboard breaks down and can be easily busted up to go into large lawn trash bags. The pallets are just stood up on concrete blocks and lean against a tree for the winter. The key is keeping them off the ground. I was surprised how the top boards didn't rot after all the watering of plants all summer. However, all pallets aren't created equal so there will always be a few flimsy ones that need replacing. You take what you can get! Those flimsies get busted up and tossed onto the big brush pile at year's end.

This past year the row down in the garden stayed in place all winter long until now because it was going to be moved to a different spot in the garden. It was too shady where it was last year, an over correction from the way too sunny spot where it was the previous year! Hopefully this year the spot will get morning and early afternoon sun, a little shade during the hottest hours of the afternoon and then sun the rest of the day. At least, that's the plan. The cardboard under those pallets was pretty crumbly but still suppressed the weeds.

The key with the cardboard is to make sure the pieces overlap well. Weeds will find the least little crack of sunlight! I just slit open the bottoms of cartons, flatten them and lay them down so there's a double thickness. You need more cartons that way but it works well. Beer flats are thinner so you need to double up on those.

If you're setting this up in a grassy area, just mow it as close as you can, lay down the cardboard and it'll be fine. Any grass under it will die or at least for a while. The row next to the house was dismantled after last season and by now most of the grass is back so it's not a permanent scar.