a blog over the Hanging Garden.

During our holiday, the strawberry tree comes to fruition.

My niece likes them very much.


But at the same time, heat and drought hit during our holiday.

Despite my brother-in-law's best efforts, the hanging garden is still damaged after three weeks of heat and drought.
Although the irrigation system worked, it still needs to be fine-tuned to cope with such conditions.

Already filled quite a few pots at mid-May.

Mainly busy building an irrigation system so as that my brother-in-law, when we are on vacation, can water everything from one single tap.
About 75mm of water remains in the tubes. Higher , then it overflows through the 5/8" pipes.
Because the pots hang at an angle, about 15 degrees, they hang, depending on the type of pot, 15 to 20 mm in the water.
This keeps the potting soil moist. The future will tell which plants like it and which cannot stand it.

Attached bamboo sticks along the threaded ends and at right angles to them , to give the beans the opportunity to climb.

Constantly adjusting the irrigation system to find the optimal settings. That is quite a learning process.

Pre-sown herbs in the pots. Such as celery, parsley, thyme, majoram, coriander. Also some extra rhubarb plants. Want an extra rhubarb bush. But that will take another year.

The cultivated tomato plants are planted in a planter and equipped with bamboo sticks to tie them up.
Growing tomato plants was a real success. Going to take about 6 of them to France and give them to our neighbor there.

At the end of April, the turnip greens are flourishing.

And at the beginning of May it is time for the first harvest.

Turnip greens, deliciously mashed with mashed potatoes and fried bacon.

Because our Fiat Panda can only handle lengths of up to 260cm , I had at the Wildkamp a 5mtr PVC pipe of 120mm sawn in half. And let them saw off from another one 2x a meter.

With 2x a 120mm socket I can then achieve the planned 3.5 mtr lengths.
Cut 23 holes with a 10cm hole saw with a 15° offset to the front. 17 times on the right side of the socket and 6x on the left side. Ofcourse, no holes can be made in and near the socket. The offset so that when it rains, the water is caught and does not run past it. And because the plant pots hang at an angle, they also hang in the water in the tube and don't dry out that fast.
Drilled holes in a 5/8" yellow PVC pipe of 3.7 m long and placed it as an overflow/drainage inside the thick pipe. Drilled 16 mm holes in the end covers for the drainage pipe and kitted the whole together so that 7.5 cm of water remains standing in the tubes. Not glued because that way it can be dismantled at some point.

With 6 threaded rods M8 and twelve brackets the two thus prepared tubes were suspended. One console on top and one on the lower side. This way the tubes can be tensioned and wind cannot get a hold on them.
Hung between the threaded ends 2 rows of 5 planters of 60 cm long and 20 cm wide.

Attached on top of the top consoles, a 20 cm wide shelf so to be able to put some pots there.

This shelf is also useful for hanging a foil from it to protect young plants during night frost in the spring.

Made a design for the hanging garden with Librecad in the winter months 2022 - 2023. Librecad is a perfect program for that. To be used under Windows or Linux.
And it's Open-Source and free of charge.

The used Autocad file format .dxf is a de facto standard and can also be opened with other programs or apps. Super handy on your Android tablet. Save often during use because it sometimes wants to crash unexpectedly.

Bought in Baak, at a roadside stall, strawberry plants, and filled the tree full with plants.



A month later , just returned from France , we found a first red strawberry.

I am very allergic to strawberries but my wife really liked it.

Bought a large plastic planter at Lidl which is to serv as a base for the strawberry tree.

Made with a disc-grinder , on three sides every 20cm a cut in a thick 20cm PVC tube. No use on the recerse side as that side faces the wall.There is a 10cm difference in height between the front and the sides.
Heated the slots with an electric heatgun and bended the softened slots into a planting holes with a 6cm pointed wooden stake.
Then drilled a 32mm PVC pipe full of holes and attached it with threaded ends in the middle of the pipe. This pipe must provide sufficient drainage.


A 2ltr/hr dripper fitted above each hole and connected with 3/8" black ethylene tubing.
Each vertical row has a separate 3/8" supply line. These come together at the top and are connected together with an adjustable tap.

At the bottom, the three 3/8" tubes are connected to each other and connected to a pressure distributor with filter.
The pressure distributor is then connected to the water supply.
Then placed the thus prepared 20cm tube in de large plastic plant pot and set it with coarse gravel and fixed it with two crosswise M8 threaded ends into the side of the pot.
Now attached the tree to the east wall with two aluminum hooks. Such that the gate door still can be opened properly. The tree leveled on a tile.
Then filled the tree from above, with a mixture of 90% potting soil, 7% hydro granules, 2% cow manure granules and 1% kieserite (magnesium oxide or magnesium sulfate)

Have been grouting the wall in recent weeks. Because I have little experience in this, the result does not deserve a beauty prize. But the wall has become a lot stronger.
Strong enough to carry the hanging garden.
But first we are going to build a new strawberry tree with a built-in watering system.

Before we can turn the east wall into a vertical garden, we will first have to fix up the wall. In the past, due to an outgrowing tree at the neighbours, the wall was bent, cracked and shifted.

The problem was tackled using steel plates of 15x15cm and 6mm thick and 12mm threaded ends. Welded a 20cm threaded rod M12 on a 15x15cm plate and drilled a 13mm hole in another 15x15cm plate. And made multiplex wooden (9mm) protective plates. These wooden plates serve to protect the wall when the nuts are tightened.
Drilled in the wall, at 12 strategic places a 13mm hole along the crack.

Placed the clamping plates in these holes and tightened the nuts.
Over the course of the next six months, the nuts were turned a quarter turn every week until the crack was gone.
Then, in three places, slots of more than one meter were ground in the horizontal joints. And fixed in it, with component cement, an 1 mtr. stainless steel wokkel of 8mm thick .

During the first months of the corona epidemic, it turned out that, without our own garden, we are very dependent on third parties for fresh vegetables and herbs.

But we don't have room for our own vegetable garden. We have room in front of the carport against the wall on the east. Messuring about 75 cm wide and 3 meters long, for a row of flower pots to grow garden herbs.

Because, after 30 years in the garden in France, the maggi plant there was showing signs of exhaustion, I took a cutting back home and put it against the wall in a large flower pot. Did the same with a cutting of the mint plant.
Slowly the idea arose to transform the east wall into a vertical garden.

The start of it all is around 1982 when I, just back from Israel, built my first strawberry tree in Garderen.

Inspired by the horticulture and irrigation experiments in the kibbutzim I visited, I decided to convert a PVC pipe with a diameter of 120mm into a strawberry growing area. This in order to prevent the problem of fruit rot in soil cultivation. All around the tube I drilled holes with an 8cm hole saw. Fastened the cut-out circles with a piece of PVC into the holes.
A green painted metal bowl was attached to the top of the tube, with the intention of collecting rainwater and thus providing moisture for the plants. And if it remained dry for a longer period of time, the tree could be supplied with water by means of the ethylene tube fitted through the tube, connected to the bent copper tube.

The whole was firmly anchored in a heavy concrete base.
After filling the tube with good potting soil and planting the plants, it soon became apparent that the top plants were washed out of the tree during heavy rain.
This was solved by means of a nylon stocking filled with potting soil. The water could no longer flow directly into the tube, but had to trickle down slowly through the sock. The tree has borne fruit. But the yield was disappointing. The amount of soil in which the plants took root turned out to be too small. The openings in front and the angle at which the plants were placed were not optimal. But especially my absence due to my travels and subsequent lack of care and maintenance made the tree less profitable.