Bondage in the Garden

I have a small patio garden:  some cucumbers, peppers, and four tomato plants growing in Topsy Turvy planters.

This year, I have been pretty successful with my cherry tomatoes.  They have been spectacular and delicious.  We've enjoyed several batches of them already.  The other two planters have a full size tomato plant variety called "Mortgage Lifter," and I am anxiously awaiting those tomatoes being ready to eat.  They are not there yet.

Tomorrow morning, early, we head off to Denver and a visit to the grandson and his parents.  I am thrilled we are able to make the trip, but I am fussy about my tomatoes and cucumbers.  Six days without water in our Cincinnati heat will kill them for sure.  What to do?  Watering my hanging garden is a chore and a labor of love.  I haven't got any neighbors who would be willing to haul water to my green babies for a week.

So, I hunted online and found a self watering siphon system.  It consists of a set of ceramic spikes with tiny siphon hoses to gradually and steadily feed water to the plants.  It gets some pretty good reviews by people who have used it, and I hope it will be the answer for my plants while I am gone.

There are some complications to using it.  The siphon tubes are pretty short -- less than three feet long.  The water supply has to be below the surface level of the soil.  My hanging vines are up high.  So, I have messed and messed with how to supply the water the system needs.  Finally, I settled on hanging buckets with ropes.  A few quick knots and my bit of garden engineering is set to go.

I think I may, at last, have put to use the things learned over the years in all those Bondage 101 workshops.  Tah Dah!!!!

swan