Category: Outdoors

Kiddie Pool 21/08/26

Family fun for the weekend

Family fun day

Field of Dreams Community Park (48 Geremonty Drive in Salem; fieldofdreamsnh.org) will host Family Fun Day 2021 on Saturday, Aug. 28, from noon to 6 p.m. The day will feature a bounce house, a toddler bounce house, a petting zoo, photos with superheroes and princesses, food trucks and ice cream trucks, touch-a-truck, music, prizes and more. A wrist band so kids can have unlimited access to the bounce house, pictures with the characters, the petting zoo and an obstacle course costs $5, according to the website.

Ice cream and first responders

The Derry Fire and Police departments will hold a First Responder Freeze on Saturday, Aug. 28, from noon to 2 p.m., featuring a free kiddie cone ice cream for the first 100 kids under 12, according to a Facebook post about the event. The event will take place at Pete’s Scoop on Route 28 in Derry and will include games, giveaways and more, the post said.

Movie night

This Friday’s “Pics in the Park” film at Greeley Park in Nashua is Aladdin (PG, 2019), which will start screening at dusk on Friday, Aug. 27, at the park’s Bandshell, 100 Concord St. The screening is part of the city’s SummerFun lineup; see nashuanh.gov.

Live on stage

The Palace Theatre (80 Hanover St. in Manchester; palacetheatre.org, 668-5588) completes its 2021 Bank of New Hampshire Children’s Summer Series with Sleeping Beauty on Thursday, Aug. 26, at 10 a.m. and 6:30 p.m. Tickets cost $10 per person.

Student performers from the Palace’s summer camp program will also present their final production this weekend: Willy Wonka Kids will be performed Friday, Aug. 27, at 7 p.m. and Saturday, Aug. 28, at 11 a.m. Tickets cost $12 to $15.

Picnic with music

Pack a picnic and enjoy some live music this Sunday, Aug. 29, from 4 to 5 p.m. at the Canterbury Shaker Village (288 Shaker Road in Canterbury; shakers.org, 783-9511) on the lawn near the Meeting House. The suggested donation is $10 per person. This week’s entertainers are the Mink Hills Band, a five-member New Hampshire-based acoustic band playing bluegrass, swing and folk as well as originals, according to the website. The Music on the Meeting House Green series runs Sundays through September.

Day at the museum

You still have time to make a mid-week visit to the McAuliffe-Shepard Discovery Center (2 Institute Dr. in Concord; starhop.com, 271-7827). The center is open daily through Sunday, Sept. 5, from 10:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. and from 1:30 to 4 p.m. (Starting Sept. 6 and running through holiday vacation, the center is open Fridays through Sundays.) Buy timed tickets prior to your visit online, where you can also buy tickets for planetarium shows. Masks are required for all visitors age 3 and up, the website said. Admission costs $11.50 for adults, $10.50 for students and seniors and $85 for children ages 3 to 12, the website said.

The next few weeks are also a good time to get in a visit to the Children’s Museum of New Hampshire (6 Washington St. in Dover; childrens-museum.org, 742-2002), which will close for a week Sept. 6 through Sept. 13. The museum is open Tuesdays through Saturdays with timed tickets for 9 a.m. to noon or 1 to 4 p.m. and Sunday 9 a.m. to noon. Buy tickets in advance online; masks are required for all visitors over 24 months. Admission costs $11 for everyone over a year of age ($9 for seniors).

The SEE Science Center (200 Bedford St. in Manchester; see-sciencecenter.org, 669-0400) is open daily — 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on weekdays and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekends. Though walk-ins are available (when there is space), pre-registration is recommended, according to the website. Masks are required for ages 2 and up. Admission costs $10 per person ages 3 and up for walk-ins, $9 for people who pre-register.

Worth the visit

Delightful surprises at public garden

I recently visited Bedrock Garden in Lee and came away feeling refreshed and enlightened. This 37-acre public garden was created on the premises of a 1700s farm that was purchased in 1980 by artist and garden designer Jill Nooney and her husband, Bob Munger.

Jill Nooney is a talented designer, who has won many awards at the Boston Flower Show. She is a welder who uses her skills to create metal sculptures from small to mammoth, as well as working with other media. Bob is a natural builder and fix-it guy who has enabled Jill to install her art in the landscape, along with water features, walls, paths and much more. They are a couple who really bring out the best in each other.

A steel chiwara or stylized antelope mask in the garden. Courtesy photo.

When I toured the gardens I was lucky to have Jill as one of my guides. Also touring the gardens with me was John Forti, Executive Director and Horticulturist of the nonprofit that manages the gardens. We spent nearly three hours together looking at the gardens and I learned about many plants I had never seen before.

Bedrock Garden is full of surprises that delight, enlighten and inspire visitors. I came away wishing I had a bigger garden space for my own efforts, and with an appreciation for how much Jill and Bob have packed into their gardens.

For years Bedrock Garden was open a few weekends each summer, but five years ago Jill and Bob decided that since they were approaching what some call “retirement age” they needed to look seriously at the future of the gardens. They created a nonprofit, hired John Forti as the director, and figured out how to separate the public and private spaces.

During the pandemic they created a parking lot and visitors center that are accessed away from their home, the old farm house they have lived in for over 40 years. They have created a space that is family-friendly that delights children as much as their parents.

Near the parking lot is a gnome house kids can enter made from a huge hollow sycamore log that Jill capped with a steel roof reminiscent of a mushroom cap. She saw the wonderful hollow log alongside the road and hit her brakes immediately to ask for it. Luckily, she was the first to ask, and got it. (Five others stopped and asked for it that day, she told me, but she was the first).

I consider myself well-exposed to the palette of plants available to gardeners in New Hampshire. Bedrock Garden is in Zone 5b, meaning that most years it does not get colder than minus 25 degrees. But Jill has installed and grown many plants that I have never seen before, including many woody plants normally found in Japan or China.

Jill Nooney has used plants in ways that surprised me. For example, she used Bulls Blood heritage beets in a flower bed for their deep purple leaves. An annual effort, but very striking. When a hollow tree was cut down, she had Bob cut it in two-foot sections and stack the sections between two trees so viewers walking by could see through it like binoculars. One can see where branches had been swallowed by its growth. They call it “Log Jam.”

Jill has used decorative grasses well throughout the garden. Fountain grass is a genus of grass that gets to be more than 6 feet tall and very bushy in full sun, where she grows it in an “allee” arrangement that is gorgeous. But she also uses it in shade. “It’s wispy in the shade,” she said. “I like that.”

This gnome house near the parking area alerts children that they are welcome. Courtesy photo.

Metal sculpture is a key element throughout the garden. Early in our tour I admired a space made by forming ¾-inch steel rebar into a series of 11 arches 13 feet tall and spaced 7 feet apart. “I’m using the sky,” she said. She consciously mimicked the lines of a Gothic cathedral, bending each steel frame to a gracefully pointed Gothic arch. And she is growing European fastigiate beeches to clothe the metal frame as part of the installation: one on each side of the archways and tied to the steel. They will eventually reach the sky, the apex of the arch.

Also in the garden are two iron “Chiwaras” modeled after antelope masks made by the Bambara people of Mali. Many years ago I had told Jill the legend of the antelope in Mali, where I had worked with the Peace Corps. The Bambara people credit the antelope for teaching them to plant millet, their primary grain. The antelope pawed the ground, and dropped a little manure into the soil containing seeds. So they honored the antelope with their stylized masks, which Jill captured beautifully.

So plan a visit to Bedrock Garden if you can. There is a guided tour each day, and two on weekend days. Or just wander around and study the design elements. See how Jill has used plants that awe and inspire, and how she has added whimsy and art that delights and amuses. This is a garden worth visiting even if you don’t have a big space or the energy to develop it the way Jill and Bob have. Bring a lunch and plan on spending the day. You’ll be glad you did. And if you have children in your life, think about attending the Fairy Hobbit House Festival Oct. 9 to Oct. 11. Learn more at bedrockgardens.org.

Featured photo: Gardens and sculpture go well together. Courtesy photo.

Kiddie Pool 21/08/19

Family fun for the weekend

Summer celebrations

Intown Concord’s annual Market Days Festival in downtown Concord runs from Thursday, Aug. 19, through Saturday, Aug. 21, and has a lot of events on the schedule geared toward kids and families. The KidZone on City Plaza in front of the Statehouse lawn will be open from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. each day during the event, according to the event’s website. For $5, kids can jump in a bounce house and play mini golf and other games, the site said.

There will also be daily free activities on the Statehouse lawn: on all three days, this includes a storytime (11 a.m. to 2 p.m.), face painting (11 a.m. to 3 p.m.) and a DoggySplash Zone from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. On Friday, catch the Aim High Canine Performances at 2:30 p.m. and 4 p.m. On Saturday, catch arts and crafts from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and a robotics demonstration at 3 p.m.

Also on Saturday, catch Mr. Aaron, a kids music performer, at 11 a.m. at the Binnie Media Performance Stage on Main Street.

The event also includes food vendors, loads of live music and more. See marketdaysfestival.com. Get more details about Market Days in the Q&A on page 6 as well as on pages 26 (for information about the food offerings) and on page 42 (for a look at music).

Londonderry’s Old Home Days continues this weekend, through Saturday, Aug. 21. According to the event’s schedule, Thursday, Aug. 19, is the battle of the bands at the Londonderry Town Common from 5 to 9 p.m. On Friday, Aug 20, food, popsicle and ice cream trucks will set up at the Londonderry High School in preparation for the fireworks at 9 p.m.

On Saturday, Aug. 21, according to the Old Home Day Facebook page, a parade will start at 10:15 a.m. (rain or shine) and run from Londonderry Middle School to Mack’s Apples. A craft fair will be held from noon to 4 p.m. at the Town Common. The first annual Sunnycrest Farms Apple Pie Eating contest will take place at 3:15 p.m. at the Londonderry Town Common Bandstand (and is open to anyone 14+, if you have some hungry teenagers). The schedule also lists a Wildcat Kidz Zone with wildlife encounters starting at 1 p.m., the Portsmouth Shipyard STEM program, a bowling game from the YMCA of Greater Londonderry and a dunk tank and Kona ice. At Lions Hall & Grounds, the Lions Club will offer a 603 Beer tent from 11 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., 603 Axe Play (with blow up axes for children under 10) and a cornhole tournament, according to the schedule. Find the event on Facebook for more information.

Just plane fun

The Manchester-Boston Regional Airport (1 Airport Road, Manchester, 913-4010, flymanchester.com) will celebrate National Aviation Day on Thursday, Aug. 19, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Activities will include a Touch a Truck display featuring vehicles that help the airport operate, K9 demonstrations and a paper airplane contest, and free swag will be handed out. Tables will be set up by the baggage claim, including one with pieces of a plane that’s currently being built. All employees and guests are required to wear masks at the airport.

On the stage

The Palace Theatre (80 Hanover St. in Manchester; palacetheatre.org, 668-5588) continues its 2021 Bank of New Hampshire Children’s Summer Series. Finishing up this week’s run, catch Cinderella on Thursday, Aug. 19. Next week, the production is Sleeping Beauty, Tuesday, Aug. 24, through Thursday, Aug. 26. Showtimes are at 10 a.m. and 6:30 p.m. and tickets cost $10 per person.

Student performers from the Palace’s summer camp program will have a production of their own this weekend: The Lion King Kidswill be performed Friday, Aug. 20, at 7 p.m. and Saturday, Aug. 21, at 11 a.m. Tickets cost $12 to $15.

Movie time

Plaistow residents can catch a movie screened drive-in style onFriday, Aug. 20, at 8 p.m. The screening will take place at the Plaistow Public Library parking lot and will be presented as a drive-in. Admission is being restricted to 50 cars; register in advance at tinyurl.com/umsrmjz7.

Speaking of drive-in films, catch nightly double features at the Milford Drive-In (531 Elm St. in Milford; milforddrivein.com). The drive-in offers two double-feature options nightly with shows starting at 8 p.m. The drive-in grounds open at 7:15 p.m. Sundays through Thursdays and 6:15 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays. Admission (which can be purchased in advance through the website) costs $30 and covers one car with up to six people ($5 for each additional person).

At Chunky’s Cinema Pubs in Manchester (707 Huse Road) and Nashua (151 Coliseum Ave.) they’re hosting theater candy bingo on Sunday, Aug. 22, at 6:30 p.m. Admission to this game costs $4.99 plus a theater candy, and tickets can be purchased at chunkys.com.

On Wednesday, Aug. 25, catch Back to the Future (PG-13, 1985) at Chunky’s in Manchester, Nashua and Pelham (150 Bridge St.). The movie starts at 7 p.m. and tickets cost $4.99.

For the younger moviegoers, all three locations will also offer a sensory-friendly screening of Paw Patrol: The Movie (G, 2021; it opens in theaters and on Paramount+ on Friday, Aug. 20). The sensory-friendly screening, which keeps the lights up and turns the sound down, starts at 11:30 a.m.

Kids Fest

The annual Hampton Beach Children’s Festival continues through Friday, Aug. 20, with programming on Hampton Beach, according to the Hampton Beach Village District website (hamptonbeach.org) and Facebook pages. On Thursday, Aug. 19, catch Magician Fran Flynn (10 a.m.), Wayne from Maine with a musical singalong (1 p.m.) and a performance by the International Red Star Twirlers (3 p.m.), according to a schedule posted on the district’s Facebook page. The week is capped off with a children’s costume parade on Friday (11 a.m.; participants should line up at 10:15 a.m.), a grand finale with prizes at the Sea Shell Stage (noon) and pictures with Santa and Mrs. Claus (1 p.m.), according to the schedule.

Obsess much?

On becoming a plant collector

I’ve always been a gardener — or at least as far back as I can remember. More recently, say the last 20 years or so, I’ve been a plant collector. What does that mean? If I fall in love with a plant, I want to grow other plants related to it.

One of the most obsessive collectors I ever met was the late Bill Countryman of Northfield, Vermont. When I interviewed him in the late ’90s he told me that his sister sent him a peony, and although he was in his 70s at the time and not a gardener, he planted it. It bloomed magnificently and Bill fell in love with peonies. He decided to grow every type there is.

Collector Bill Countryman started out with one peony, and eventually collected about 600 different varieties. Courtesy photo.

Bill Countryman bought a chain saw so he could clear his land to plant peonies. He bought a bulldozer to remove the stumps and went to work. When I met him, he had already planted some 300 kinds of peonies, though he continued on, getting more varieties, perhaps as many as 600. He sold them, but mostly he just enjoyed them. He was quite the collector.

I’m not nearly so obsessive. What do I collect? Well, peonies, I suppose. But Cindy and I have only 44 peonies. Primroses. Burnets. Persicarias. Wildflowers. Willows. I have dozens of colors of daylilies, but don’t consider myself a collector of them — they are just nice, reliable plants, but I don’t need one of every kind. Thank goodness for that; there are many hundred.

The burnets are quite a diverse group in the scientific group or genus sanguisorba. First I got the one native to New England, sanguisorba canadensis. It loves wetlands, so I planted it in a weedy, marshy place in part sun/part shade. It thrived, sending flower spikes with bottlebrush flowers 6 feet tall or more. It blooms in late summer or fall, and can still be pretty in late October.

My absolute favorite of these flowers is one called sanguisorba hakusenensis — lilac squirrel. I saw it online and asked all my local garden centers to no avail, so I finally ordered it from Digging Dog Nursery in California. I planted five small plants last year; they wintered over and are blooming now. The flowers are like pink squirrel tails hanging down from 18-inch flower stems. They make me smile, especially with a name like that.

The littlest of the burnets I grow is one called S. officinalis or Little Angel. It makes a tidy clump of diminutive green leaves edged in white. Each leaf is just half an inch long. The deep red catkin-like flowers are on 6-inch stems that lean or fall over. Now, five years since I bought it, the clump is about a foot across and just 3 inches tall.

Little Angel’s bigger cousin in the same genus is one called Tanna. This is called a miniature, but that is only relative to some of the bigger ones that get 4 to 6 feet tall. It has very tidy 18-inch leaf stems, each with 13 to 17 leaflets in dark green. It makes a tidy mound and has the same dark-red smallish flowers.

Of the large ones that are garden-worthy, I have two: probably S. obtusa and S. tenuifolia. The literature, even online, is sketchy about identifying these plants and I lost the plant tags long ago. The first, which has reddish-pink tidy small catkin-like flowers, needs to be tied up early in July. If not tied up, the flower stems, which get to be over 4 feet long and have 20 or so blossoms per stem, flop over. The other is standing tall and proud right now, but the flowers have not yet opened — and I haven’t staked them.

Why do I collect burnets? I just like them. They can be picked for flower arrangements, but I rarely do. I like seeing them in the garden.

Willows, of course, are more of a problem to collect because of their size, but I do grow at least half a dozen. My favorite is the hakuro nishiki. It has variegated foliage early in the summer: green and white, and then with pink mixed in for a few weeks. It is colorful and fast growing. Like all willows, it appreciates moist soils but will grow in ordinary garden soil.

Hakuro nashiki willows have tri-colored leaves in early summer. Courtesy photo.

Hakuro nishiki is not a large willow. It seems to top out at about 20 feet in 10 years. I planted three some 20 years ago, 10 feet apart, and they created a dense grove. I was able to prune out branches growing into the center, creating a small room where I placed Adirondack chairs. It makes a cool space near my brook to eat lunch on a hot day.

The rosemary willow is another favorite of mine. It is a small willow, only getting to be about 10 feet tall and wide in 10 years. I love that its leaves look somewhat like leaves of the herb rosemary: narrow and pointy leaves. They are dark green on the top side, gray or silvery on the bottom side. I’ve almost been able to fool people visiting my garden into believing it was really a rosemary plant on steroids but for the lack of smell. Neither the rosemary or hakuro nishiki produce any noticeable flowers.

So I encourage you to look for — and collect — plants related to the ones you love. Not every variety will tickle your fancy, but if you discover a few that do, they will make you happy for years to come.

Featured photo: I have dozens of daylilies, but don’t consider myself a real collector of them. Courtesy photo.

Kiddie Pool 21/08/12

Family fun for the weekend

Try-Athlon

The Friends of Aine’s 9th annual Try-Athlon is scheduled for Sunday, Aug. 15, starting at 8 a.m. The event will take place at the Bedford town pool (on County Road) and the nearby Bedford High School and will feature swimming, biking and running events specially designed for kids of all abilities in the 4 to 10 age group and the 11 to 15 age group, according to friendsofaine.com, where you can register for $40 per kid in advance (registration on the day costs $45). There will be a post-race family festival with food, games, vendors, face painting and more, according to the website.

Old Home Days

As mentioned in This Week on page 9, there are several Old Home Days coming up on the calendar. For families looking for some fun, here are some of the events they can expect.

Hudson’s Old Home Days runs Thursday, Aug. 12, through Sunday, Aug. 15, at Hills House (211 Derry Road in Hudson). Events with special interest for kids include a fairgrounds trick-or-treat from 5 to 6:30 p.m. on Thursday with costumes encouraged so kids can join the Parade of Horribles at 6:30 p.m. and then kids games starting at 7 p.m.; kids cornhole during the adult tournament (which starts at 7 p.m. on Friday), and kids games from noon to 4 p.m. and a haystack hunt at 5 p.m. on Saturday. Rides and food vendors will be available throughout the event, which runs 5 to 10 p.m. on Thursday, 5 to 11 p.m. on Friday, noon to 11 p.m. on Saturday and noon to 5 p.m. on Sunday. See hudsonoldhomedays.com for details.

Epsom’s Old Home Weekend begins Friday, Aug. 13, and runs through Sunday, Aug. 15, with events happening at Webster Park in Epsom. Friday’s events from 5:30 to 9:30 p.m. include a cookout, s’mores and popcorn and storytime for the kids, according to the town’s website. Saturday’s schedule of events runs from 9 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. and includes a parade, kids games, a pony ride, a petting zoo, food and other vendors, a 3-on-3 basketball tournament (including for youth sixth grade and up) at 2 p.m., a climbing wall, a bouncy slide and fireworks at dusk. On Sunday, events run from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. and include a road race (running or walking; starting time for that is 8:30 a.m.) and a resident yard sale, according to epsomnh.org.

Londonderry’s Old Home Days starts the evening of Wednesday, Aug. 18, and runs through Saturday, Aug. 21. According to the event’s schedule, Wednesday is senior night with bingo at 4 p.m., a barbecue dinner from the Lions at 5 p.m. and a 7 p.m. concert with Neurotic Gumbo (a classic rock band) at the Londonderry Town Common. Find the event on Facebook for more information.

Take a drive for family fun

Head to the meadow at Castle in the Clouds (455 Old Mountain Road in Moultonborough; 476-5900, castleintheclouds.org) for a free family fun day on Saturday, Aug. 14, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. The day will include lawn games, kite flying, a scavenger hunt, balloon animals, a gaga pit, disc golf, crafts, live music and an opportunity to feed the rainbow trout in Shannon Pond, according to a press release. Lunch, ice cream and beverages will be available for purchase at the Cafe in the Clouds, the release said. Castle in the Cloud is partnering with the Lakes Region Conservation Trust and the Moultonborough Recreation Department, the release said.

The annual Hampton Beach Children’s Festival kicks off Monday, Aug. 16, and runs through Friday, Aug. 20, with programing on Hampton Beach, according to the Hampton Beach Village District website (hamptonbeach.org) and Facebook pages. Monday’s programming includes a BJ Hickman magic show (10 a.m.), rainbow sand art (11 a.m.) and movie night featuring Moana (PG, 2016) at dusk. Tuesday find magician juggler Robert Clarke (10 a.m.) and a touch-a-truck with Hampton Fire and Police (2 p.m). On Wednesday, DrumatiX performs tap dance and percussion (10 a.m.), there will be games on the beach (11 a.m. with OfftheWallKidz), a hula hoop performance with Little Legume (3:30 p.m.) and fireworks (9:30 p.m.). On all three days face painting is available from 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. — all according to a schedule posted on the group’s Facebook page. The week is capped off with a children’s costume parade on Friday (11 a.m.) and pictures with Santa and Mrs. Claus (1 p.m.), according to the schedule.

Live performances

The Palace Theatre (80 Hanover St. in Manchester; palacetheatre.org, 668-5588) continues its 2021 Bank of New Hampshire Children’s Summer Series. Finishing up this week’s run is Rapunzel on Thursday, Aug. 12. Next week, the production is Cinderella, Tuesday, Aug. 17, through Thursday, Aug. 19. Showtimes are at 10 a.m. and 6:30 p.m. and tickets cost $10 per person.

The Prescott Park Arts Festival wraps up this year’s musical, You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown, with shows Thursday, Aug. 12, through Sunday, Aug. 15. Thursday and Sunday shows start at 7 p.m. and Friday and Saturday shows start at 8 p.m. Go online to prescottpark.org to see the reservation options. Prescott Park is at 105 Marcy St. in Portsmouth.

Movie night

See the tale as old as time, Beauty and the Beast, on Friday, Aug. 13, in Wasserman Park (116 Naticook Road in Merrimack) as part of the town’s summer movies in the park. The screening starts at dusk and the films are free and open to residents and nonresidents, according to the town’s Parks and Recreation website.

This Friday’s “Pics in the Park” film at Greeley Park in Nashua is Jumanji: The Next Level (PG-13, 2019), which will start screening at dusk on Friday, Aug. 13, at the park’s Bandshell, 100 Concord St. The screening is part of the city’s SummerFun lineup; see nashuanh.gov.

The Rex Theatre (23 Amherst St. in Manchester; palacetheatre.org, 668-5588) will be screening some films to raise money for the Ballet Misha. On Tuesday, Aug. 17, at 7 p.m., catch Disney’s animated Tangled (PG, 2010). On Wednesday, Aug. 18, at 7 p.m., the theater will screen Frozen (PG, 2013). Tickets to either show cost $12.

Save the date

The Manchester Millyard Museum (200 Bedford St. in Manchester; manchesterhistoric.org) will hold an American Girl Doll Tea Party on Saturday, Aug. 21, from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Tickets cost $10 per person and include tea party and a craft, according to the website. Advance reservations are required.

Self-watering success

Worth giving containers a try

Recently I was at my local food coop and chatted with a friend about her gardens. She told me that she is having fabulous luck growing tomatoes, peppers and more in a bucket system she constructed. Her inspiration was a book by Vermont’s Ed Smith, who has written a number of great books, including The Vegetable Gardener’s Container Bible. And although I have used the Ed Smith system in the past, it’s good to see how another person uses it, so I visited her to see what she has done.

Susan Pillsbury has nine or 10 self-watering containers, each made from two 5-gallon buckets. Here is what she did: The bottom bucket is the water reservoir; the top bucket, which nestles inside it, holds soil mix. There is a 3- or 4-inch piece of PVC plumber’s pipe (3-inch diameter) that stands up in the bottom bucket and is full of holes she drilled in it.

The piece of pipe sits in the lower bucket and supports the upper bucket. She used a 2-inch hole saw to put a wide hole in the bottom of the upper bucket, right in the middle.

Holes in lower bucket allow watering from below and draining in times of heavy rains. Courtesy photo.

That short piece of pipe gets filled with soil mix, and because it is sitting in the water reservoir, the soil is constantly wet. Like a wet sponge, it wicks water into the soil in the upper bucket. The wicking action keeps the soil for the plant roots lightly moist. The problem with growing veggies in big pots or buckets is often that they dry out or get waterlogged.

Her lower buckets all have one-inch holes drilled just below the bottom of the upper bucket. If she gets a flood of rain, water passes through the upper bucket and out the lower bucket through those holes. This also allows her to fill the water reservoir from the bottom with a hose. Susan also drilled lots of quarter-inch holes in the bottom of the upper bucket for added drainage.

I asked Susan what kind of soil she used in the buckets. She bought potting mix and mixed it with her own homemade compost in a 50-50 mix. Because a 5-gallon bucket has plenty of soil for roots, and she uses a rich mixture, she does not add any fertilizer.

What does all this cost? Not much, really. Her biggest expense was the plastic buckets, which cost about $5 each, though they are often available free from building contractors. A big bag of potting soil might cost $10 to $12 and would be enough for three or four buckets, once mixed with homemade compost. Purchased compost would add to the cost, but most gardeners make their own. Plastic pipe is not expensive.

I noticed that Susan’s tomatoes were free of disease. Most tomatoes planted in the ground have at least some blight that blackens and kills lower leaves, eventually leaving a plant bare of leaves by September. The most common form of blight lives in the soil and splashes up onto leaves when it rains. But since her plants are in potting soil and cured compost, she has avoided the disease — at least so far. Not only that, her plants are in a fenced dog pen (to avoid deer) and no tomatoes have been grown in there in the past. Obviously blight could blow in and infect her plants, but so far, so good.

Next year Susan intends to grow corn in her self-watering containers. She will use six sets of buckets, each with one or more corn plants. Placed in close proximity, this should allow good pollination. From what she has read, she will need corn plants that are relatively small, given the amount of soil each will be planted in. I watched an online video of corn planted in 30-gallon totes with up to 11 plants in each tote. The ears were large and each plant produced more than one ear.

My Veg Trug grows peppers, herbs and flowers this year. Courtesy photo.

I called Ed Smith to see if he had any updates since writing The Vegetable Gardener’s Container Bible. He and his wife, Sylvia, still grow some vegetables in containers as well as in the ground. Ed turned 80 recently and likes using containers so he doesn’t have to bend quite so far.

Ed told me that he doesn’t bother with self-watering containers any more. He has several 2-foot by 3-foot containers he got from Gardener’s Supply as self-watering containers, but removed the baffle separating the water reservoir from the planting space, giving him deeper containers that he waters as needed from above. He is semi-retired and rarely travels, so that works for him. If you are at work five days a week, a self-watering container is probably a better idea for you.

I‘ve experimented with self-watering containers and ordinary containers. The best type I’ve used is called a “Veg Trug” and is sold by Gardener’s Supply. It is a tall V-shaped wooden bin 6 feet by 30 inches and 16 inches deep in the middle. I’ve grown tomatoes, peppers, herbs and flowers in it with good success — and no bending over. It’s made of cedar; mine is in its fifth summer of use and still going strong. I empty it each winter and put it inside, but reuse the potting soil, just adding a little compost and fertilizer each spring.

Even if you’re a city dweller with little space you can grow a few things on a deck or between the sidewalk and the street. Give it a try!

Featured photo: Tomatoes growing without blight using self-watering system with buckets. Courtesy photo.

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