My plants are spoiled. I like to make plant water bottles using plastic water and sports drink bottles with the bottom cut out. I stick the neck of the bottle into the ground and put a stick through the hole to keep the bottle from blowing away. I then put a cup or so of earthworm castings or compost into the bottle. I water through this. The compost/earthworm castings slow the water down and the plant gets a shot of compost/worm casting tea. The water is delivered directly to the roots and there is no run off. The roots also seem to stay moist longer.
Here is a tomato plant with it's own personal water bottle.
My three sisters row has taken off. Planted together are squash, popcorn, and red noodle beans. The beans grow up the corn and the squash grows low and shades everything. I went ahead and put large tripod made of bamboo in to help support everything. In the picture above, the tripod fell over. This has turned into yet another lush jungle in my backyard. It very effectively hides me from the monkeys.
I was thinking this kind of planting wasn't' going to work. Last week I gave everything some earthworm castings and they just took off. All of my veggies get a weekly foliar feeding with a diluted organic liquid plant food. A close look revealed that the squash is putting on fruit. The varieties so far are round and striped zucchini.
