Pallet Garden - the end of the tale

There have been a lot of people reading about my pallet garden effort on this blog, so I thought it only fair to finish the story...

I planted the garden in August last year (which is late winter in Melbourne), and  was in  a bit of a hurry as I was going overseas for a month the first week in September. I left it in the care of my fellow workers in my absence.

When I came back, it was flourishing - but no-one was eating the lettuce, and it was going to seed ! By then it was spring, and the vertical garden was getting more and more sun, it being on a north-facing wall, and needed more and more water, which I couldn't apply becuase it was so leafy and couldn't get the water in.

Then came summer, and it was HOT. The garden was in the sun. Against a brick wall. All day. 12 hours a day.

I gave up.

My advice to anyone planning a garden is this:

You are supposed to leave the pallet horizontal, once you have planted, to allow the root system to develop, and preferably in the right direction. I didn't do this. I planted it when it was attached to the wall. Wrong ! Be patient.

Put it somewhere where it gets a couple of hours of full sun, but not all day. It will dry out too quickly -  in the southern hemisphere, anyway.

If I did it again, I would put a piece or two of garden hose going to various lengths within the planter, so that you could pour water down the hose, and it would be guaranteed to reach the lower levels. Do this when you are filling it with soil.

It was fun while it lasted, but I don't really feel inspired to do it again - at least not in this location.