Growing up instead of out

I got a delivery from work a few days ago, just in time for mother’s day.

I had gotten a really pretty pot for mom last year- contents TBD. She’d been waffling on what kind of succulent- but via facetime I picked out this gorgeous blue ruffled echeveria.

I’m happy to say it was a hit.

This succulent, while beautiful, isn’t really the subject of this post.

Because I also bought something that I’d stashed in the hold for months.

A yard tree! These are something that are often marketed towards folks who only have small balconies or porches as growing space. But if you have a large space but lots of things to grow- it’s always useful to think of what can grow up instead of out.

It’s a super simple set up. The center pole is in three segments that screw together into each other and a wide base. The bottom two rings can hold pots set into them, and the hooks hold hanging baskets.

I also bought one of those.

For my cherry falls cherry tomatoes!

The idea is to sort of space them so that when they start getting very tall they’ll droop over the sides. This type of tomato was bred with this in mind so I’m hopeful.

The coir basket will also mean good air-pruning of the roots.

See that’s easy enough.

Ta-da!

The other hooks will have residents soon enough, I’ll have to figure out what to hang there. The shiso and the thyme needed more sun anyways, and their terra-cotta pots fit perfectly in the rings.

I also weighed down the base well as I trust nothing.

I have high hopes for just massive yields here. The advantage of this system is also how flat it packs, if in the winter I can’t figure out what to plant here- I can always unscrew it and store it in the shed.

The moving of the terracotta herb thunderdome of course means that my updated garden map is already out of date.

But what else is new.