Finally posting some gardening pics

I've been meaning to get some pictures of my garden up to hopefully inspire people to start one if they haven't, as well as welcome some helpful hints my way. I have a crap-tacularly small city yard, and have been trying to do the best I can with the space. To that end, there is a 3ftx3ft self watering planter from Gardener's Supply that is just amazing. (I don't receive any kickbacks for saying that.) The plants seem to grow almost twice as fast and you can fit more plants in a smaller space with self-watering containers because they don't compete with each other as much for resources.


Here's what I have in it right now:


In the center third, I have 3 vertical towers with 8 "oh so sweet" watermelon plants. I may sling the melons for support soon, but for now the vines seem to be holding up fine.

In the front third of the planter, I have some beets and carrots. The beets are just about done. I have a few chickens running around willy-nilly in my backyard and although the planter has chicken wire and a row of buckets surrounding it, they still stretch their neck out and sample the beet leaves a little. I've decided I can live with the amount of damage since the setup still keeps them from causing any catastrophic damage.

The back third of the planter has 2 grape tomato plants. To keep them from overcrowding the planter, they are woven through the chicken wire into the asparagus bed. Only the roots are in the self watering planter. It seems to be supporting them pretty well too.

Here is the asparagus bed with the tomatoes poking in to. It is about 3ftx4ft. I would like a bigger one, but that's all the room I have unfortunately.

In the corner of the self watering planter between the tomatoes and the fill tube there was just enough room to squeeze in a couple of basil plants. I put them there because I read it would ward off tomato hornworms. I haven't had a problem with them this year, but cabbage moths seem to like the basil plants:( Just need to keep the cabbage moths away now. Still working on my no-pesticide approach it seems.... 

 
So that's it for now. I feel that is a lot of garden for the space, and I highly recommend these planters. I have more going on in other containers and on the side and front of the house. I will post more later. Anyone reading this tell me what you think!