Large Backyard Planter

I absolutely love this thread! Great tutotial and pictures - you did a wonderful job! Beauty and function --- perfect! Thanks for sharing your project with us!!

Wow, Quality stuff Doc.
You really worked hard on this. May your crops be plentiful.

I like the idea of The circular layout. It actually seems like it would simplify irrigation.

I really need to move somewhere else. We get these surprise late frosts in the spring, and random early ones in the fall.

However, the apple trees are loaded with blooms this year. Perhaps we can work out a trade?

Originally posted by nixie_nox
I am looking at all the bags of dirt though, I know that wasn't cheap.

Well, as I mentioned, it was the cheapest topsoil I could find, like $1.50 a bag, mostly sand with a little organic material mixed in. I mainly needed filler material, and I fortified it myself with several hundred pounds of cow manure compost and river sand (which has its own unique properties).

Also, after churning that 2-ton mix together, I went to a local baitcamp and picked up about a dozen boxes of live nightcrawlers (giant earthworms) and set them loose in the planter. They do a fine job of processing and stabilizing the soil, much better than humans can do.

— Doc Velocity

Doc, just wanted to say you did an incredibly awesome job, and the money saving tips you included on top of that were top drawer.

While I myself do not have the space for this, I will be passing this on to some friends that will be interested and that was a totally awesome idea to contribute here!

I am very VERY jealous of those tomatoes you have there, what's the quality like? Oh and watch out for cats, they 'like' planters, as i've found to my cost.

Originally posted by worldwatcher
love your tomatoes too, obviously they are indetermine types, but what varieties did you use?

Let's see, we used Beefsteak, Roma, Mr. Stripey, Sweet One Million, Sweet One Hundred, those yellow pear-shaped tomatoes (can't think of the proper name, but they're like healthy candy), and many others over the last 2 years.

Just for a little perennial surprise, I planted three Stevia plants, which went crazy and grow to over 8 feet tall every year. Stevia is a natural sugar substitute — you can pluck the live leaves and eat them, and it's like eating a glass of sweet iced tea. Delicious. We use it in recipes that call for sugar.

Stevia flowers in the late summer and early fall, and it is a bee magnet. In fact, bees get drunk on the stuff and just lounge around the Stevia for hours at a time — they even spend the night sleeping in the flowers!

— Doc Velocity

Originally posted by TheComte
Do you mind revealing the approximate cost of the project?

Well, believe it or not, the 1100 lbs of mortar cost the most — don't go cheap with mortar, it makes a difference. Altogether (and not figuring my labor), probably spent around seven hundred dollars in materials. But it's a pretty large project, and it's going to be there forever, and it keeps paying for itself.

— Doc Velocity

What a great job you did! My husband is a mason, he does this type of stuff all the time, now if I could only get him to do this at home. Excellent job and idea. Thanks for sharing with us.

We've mustv'e been neighbors. ;-) lol I used to live in Piedmont as well but I moved recently. That garden looks absolutely great and I commend you for the job well done. That looked like a time-consuming task. I'm sure it is worth it in the end though.

Your wife must be one of a kind to agree to all of that.

I think in this day in time, everyone needs to be much more understanding. (to the good cases)

Cm

Originally posted by Doc Velocity
those yellow pear-shaped tomatoes (can't think of the proper name, but they're like healthy candy),

First off, Wonderfully composed thread, and a beautifullly constructed garden, the problem is...

My wife caught a glimpse of this thread and YOU SIR have added a project to my list

I have grown those yellow small candy like tomatoes, had some heirloom seeds, the name mine went by were peach tomatoes.

and YES... they are healthy candy

Great thread Doc, thanks for sharing!!

Amazing planter, Doc! Your property value just went up.

I have a backyard garden made with 2x4s. It gets the job done but is rather unattractive.

Originally posted by jsobecky
Is that an owl on your knee in the final picture?

Oh, yeah, that's my scarecrow, Kirstie Owly. It's a spun-plastic, lifelike Horned Owl that guards the garden against rodents, mainly. You can get these at most feed stores or tractor supply places for really cheap, maybe $5.

Thing is, you have to move your Owl to different locations on a regular basis, because squirrels and rabbits do not expect real predators to remain stationary for days at a time — if you don't move the thing around, the rodents know something is amiss, and it will make them bolder until they finally just ignore your scarecrow altogether.

— Doc Velocity

Very good work Doc! Practical and inconspicuous too. If I saw that I would never guess that it was built for potential sitx scenarios.

I am impressed. I may build a similar one my self following your guidelines.

Great thread

Very very nice!

I would like one to grow some baccy in!

Wow!! Very nicely done!

Luckily your wife didn't request flowers in it for her birthday

I'm impressed, really! Thanks for taking the time and effort to document and post it all.

reply to post by Doc Velocity


We're just about finished building two 8x10 planters in our backyard, hand have a 10x6 all ready in our front yard, with a two foot wide perimeter garden running 80 feet around our backyard

happy growing!

Doc, that is awesome! I would love a planter like that.

I've just started trying to grow some vegetables in pots and it's quite exciting. Got my daughter to help and now she can't wait to check how high the green shoots have grown nearly everyday. lol

Just got some onions and potatos going but its a start and an education for both my daughter and I!

That is a great project. I have been thinking about getting some kind of garden going in the backyard myself so this gives me some great information to use. Btw I am digging(no pun intended) that orange hawaiian shirt you got on in some of those pictures. I have the exact same shirt.

That is too nice looking for vegetables. In the beginning it looked just like a nice koi fish pond at the local park. Nice work I want one!

Doc, If you weren't a guy I would kiss you right now. Fantastic work you have done with this, excellent documentation and pics to go along with the DIY. There is truly something awe-inspiring to be said about growing your own grub.

Good stuff!


A couple of questions for ya;
Those are some serious tomato plants you got going on in there, my better half is drooling over those. I'm curious to know your growing season and how long those bad boys have been in there. That height is amazing. Second, what else are you planning on starting up in there? More than tomatoes me hopes. Looks like a good size to work with even though it is round.

I just got on the mini-garden bandwagon this last year, and I'm doing the raised bed square foot thing here... maybe I will snap some pics to follow the progress.

Regards,
T-