My Garden Post: Product Review

The idea of being able to grow 24 square feet of plants in a 4 square foot space by going up rather than out has a lot of appeal not only as a space-saver, but also to add a dramatic vertical element to the garden, or in my case, a dock.

What I wondered was whether, even with drip irrigation, the containers would dry out too quickly, making a stressful growing environment for the plants. Here’s what I discovered …

Arrival

My Garden Post arrived in a large box, beautifully packed with each component neatly wrapped in plastic and tucked in its place.  The sense of care in the packing was palpable, and the itemized list of contents (all of which were present) set a good tone for the project of putting the pieces together.

Assembly

Each piece is neatly packed and clearly labeled.

Putting the pieces together correctly to construct the post is largely intuitive, especially with the helpful markings on the post sections (insert post piece A into piece B, matching up the arrows).

Simply match up the arrows and the parts fit together easily

However, in our eagerness to assemble the post, my husband and I made the mistake jumping right in without first reading the instructions about installing the drip irrigation. As a result, we had to do some fiddling to run the irrigation lines through the post. It wasn’t a huge problem, but the job would have been easier if we had read the instructions first.

To solve the problem of threading the lines through the tall post, my husband weighted the drip irrigation line by attaching it to a pair of scissors so it would drop through the hollow post. If we had followed the instructions in the first place (or disassembled the post and started over), we wouldn’t have had to create this jig.

My Garden Post comes with an optional drip irrigation system. It’s well worth installing but read the instructions first!

The drip irrigation is superbly designed and simple to install (when all else fails, read the instructions…).

The only tools required are scissors and a measuring tape.

Assembly is easy but follow the advice to “measure twice, cut once”.

Once the irrigation and post were properly assembled, we had a tidy, water-plumbed post, ready for planting.

The irrigation lines for My Garden Post are neatly tucked away so that they can’t be seen.

Ready for Planting

Assembled My Garden Post ready for planting

I took the empty containers to Evelyn Walter Ewell of Walter’s Greenhouse in Hardy, Virginia for advice on planting them. Concerned that the plants, especially the ones in the smaller containers, would suffer from hours in hot, direct sunlight, she opted for heat- and drought-tolerant specimens.

Evelyn’s choices were as follows:

Small Pots (one plant in each)

• Red SunPatiens®, a robust, sun–loving, heat–loving impatiens that thrives in full sun or part shade and delivers continuous color from spring through frost.
• Superbells® Yellow Calibrachoa hybrid, a heat-tolerant, self-deadheading hybrid that blooms perpetually throughout the season.
• Blue My Mind® Dwarf Morning Glory Evolvulus hybrid, another heat-loving plant that blooms in true blue all summer long, and doesn’t require deadheading.

Large Pots (three plants in each)

Pot #1:

• Coleus ‘Wasabi’, a vigorous, upright plant that holds its eye-arresting chartreuse color without fading or spotting.
• Ipomoea batatas ‘Sidekick Black’ (sweet potato vine), a great “spiller” in containers with a vigorous, compact trailing habit & purple-black leaves.
• Lanai® Red Verbena, self-cleaning plant that performs well in heat, drought, and humidity, blooming all summer long.  Top that with fragrant blossoms that attract butterflies and hummingbirds, and you have a winner

Planting the pots for My Garden Post

Pot #2:

• Dragon Wing® Red Begonia, a hybrid between wax and angel wing begonias, it is head-tolerant and has large, showy red flowers and leaves.
• Oregano ‘Hot & Spicy’ (Origanum vulgare), an aromatic herb with rich green, rounded foliage and pink summer flowers. It’s ornamental incontainers, and delicious in food, adding an intense, spicy flavor.
• Nasturtium, Alaska Mix, a cascading plant with gold, orange, salmon and mahogany flowers and variegated foliage. The flowers and tender young leaves add color and a peppery zip to salads.

Evelyn Walter Ewell of Walter’s Greenhouse in Hardy, Virginia provided great advice on which plants to put in the pots for My Garden Post.

Evelyn highly recommended Sunshine® Container Potting Mix with added water-holding polymers that slowly disseminate moisture so you don’t have to water as frequently. Formulated for summer container plantings, hanging baskets or window boxes, the mix also contains a controlled release fertilizer to feed up to 6 months and silicon (Si), a beneficial plant nutrient for stronger stems and improved root mass.

I asked her what if people couldn’t find the Sunshine product at a big-box nursery. “Then go to a local, high-quality nursery,” she replied.

Evelyn also recommended fertilizing bimonthly with Jacks Classic Blossom Booster made by J.R. Peters. It’s a mix of 10-30-20 (nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium) blended with an enhanced micronutrient package, which provides optimal nutrition for strong roots and green foliage. The high ratio of phosphorus will keep the root systems healthy.

Plants used in each pot. Final assembly is easy – just snap them onto the post.

It was April when Evelyn planted the pots, still too early for reliably warm weather in Virginia, so she offered to keep them in their greenhouse.

By early May the weather was warm enough for the plants to be outside. When I picked them up, I was delighted to see how much they had grown since Evelyn first planted them.

Final Payoff

It was a simple matter to mount the pots onto the post by hooking them onto the brackets. We secured the drip line spikes into the soil (the large pots have two emitters each), and set the time to run twice a day for 10 minutes.

The plants are flourishing, and we love the floral drama My Garden Post brings to the dock.

Specifications and Features

• My Garden Post converts a 24 square feet of horizontal garden to only 4 square feet of deck, balcony or patio.
• Includes 3 small (10″ x 6″) and 2 large (15 x 9″) planters with unique mounting brackets
• Assembles in less than 10 minutes with no tools required.
• Includes an automatic fully programmable drip irrigation system.
• Constructed of durable UV resistant plastic and mounted on 5 sturdy casters for ease of mobility.
• Retails for $179.00 + shipping

Recommendation

When planted up, My Garden Post is gorgeous, a huge asset on our dock, and the subject of positive comments from passersby on the water and guests. It was easy to assemble, and the timed drip irrigation system works well. I highly recommend it.

Where to Buy

My Garden Post with Automatic Drip Irrigation is available directly from the manufacturer at www.mygardenpost.com for $179.00 + $29.29 shipping or through Amazon for $199.99 + $18.69 shipping.

Also available is My Garden Post without the drip irrigation for $149.00 + shipping from the manufacturer, but unless you plan to commit yourself to watering the pots once or even twice a day, I would recommend spending the extra money for the drip irrigation.

My Garden Post with Automatic Drip Irrigation

The idea of being able to grow 24 square feet of plants in a 4 square foot space by going up rather than out has a lot of appeal not only as a space-saver, but also to add a dramatic vertical element to the garden, or in my case, a dock.

See it on Amazon

Last update on 2024-04-16 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API