Summer is finally here!

Summer made it finally to the west side of Los Angeles. Ok, it's basically always summer here, or maybe more like spring the entire year. But June usually brings some winterly vibe with this never ending "June Gloom" going on. The coastal morning cloud was hanging over my neighborhood almost every day. It is a bit depressing having to wait for the sun until 1 or 2 pm every day. Now it seems to be over and the sun is out early in the morning.

This is the time my veggie garden comes to life. The few patches I have to plant around the house only get sun until the early afternoon. Most veggies need 6 hours of sun minimum. With that in mind I decided this year to go vertical to double the garden real estate and used hanging planters. I bought the commercial pods even if it would have been pretty easy to built some myself from big plastic buckets.

Hanging planters with upside down tomatoes. 

The 6'-6" long wood planters below are built from 2" x 12" x 8' pine planks. Just have some one at Home Depot cut 18" off the 8' plank and screw it all together at home. Cost about 30$ in materials per planter. Fill with good garden soil for lush growth. The little trellis pieces are there to keep my dogs out of planters. They love taking a nap on warm soil.

Those hanging pods have the advantage that my dogs don't get to it. Lena loves picking fresh fruit and vegetables right from the plants, just a few days before they are ripe enough for me to pick. Last year I barely ever had any red tomato, only plenty of green ones. Tomatoes are her favorite but she also snacked on zucchinis, eggplants and strawberries. At least I have healthy organically fed dogs.

Here Lena during her morning stretch.

Chillies and Peppers seem to like the hanging platers quite a bit.

Tomatoes don't really like to grow down wards, at least not mine and honestly I don't blame them. All my tomatoes plants in the wood planters are way bigger and look healthier. I also planted herbs, eggplants and even zucchini in the hanging pods and they seem to do ok - not great, but ok.

Strawberry pod with some mint.

Linen shoe rack converted into vertical herb garden. Plants don't really grow lush in there but they survive. The pockets need water every day as they dry out really fast. 

I love the large bright yellow zucchini flowers.

My first mandarines are about to be ripe too.

I probably still have to go to the Farmers Market for the next couple weeks before some of those veggies should ripe enough.  Maybe next year I try to use my flat roof as a veggie garden as this would get sun all day long. I only have to figure out how to bring the soil and planters up there and extend the drip irrigation to the roof. I am a bit concerned about the weight those planters would put on the roof. Not sure yet if  that will be a good idea anyways.