Not sure what you mean by the southside of the tower, are you talking about the bottom half or the half that faces the south?

Sorry to hear you are allergic to the sun. I have a friend that has the same symptoms. He loves being outdoors so he bought clothes that have a high SPF rating and very comfortable/breathable to wear(long sleeve shirts, pants and Buff head wear). Actually I also bought some shirts and Buff head wear for when I go out on my boat in saltwater during the day in mid summer. It actually works I don't get sunburned. Maybe something you want to look into.

sunning with a hat
 

Get a hat like you see the Chinese or Vietnam farmers using. looks like a umbrella. I use one i bought a ebay its called a fishing umbrella hat it was $3.

I am just checking into this stuff. Thinks for the suggestions and I will check them out.

By south side I mean the side facing south from top to bottom. Not sure why except it gets more wind? I plan on moving them next week so they get more sun and less wind and so I can bury the nutes. The ones on the north side are really taking off though...

fintuckyfarms,
I swear one of these days you'll wind up being allergic to water too. I don't mean to make light of your allergies. I have just never known someone that is allergic to almost everything before. I thought I had it bad being allergic to bee stings, but you trump that 100 fold. It must be very difficult to deal with, and I do sympathize with you because I know it must not be easy. Living here in the desert, I use a lot of sun screen, and wear a lot of loose clothing (like already mentioned) to shade from the sun. I'm just not a fan of wearing hats, but they are the best way to shade your face from direct sunlight, sunscreen or not.


P.S.
If you had a greenhouse, you could be in it and not be subjected to direct sunlight. That's a good motivator to get your husband to finally build one for you. Hint, hint.. You can also pull a "I Love Lucy" and start the job yourself. But doing an obviously bad job at it, and he will take over so it gets done right. I think my mom pulls that one on me a lot.

LOL, my family calls me the girl in the plastic bubble. Now it will have to be the tinted plastic bubble. Next it will either my own sweat, water or my husband. Life is just sometimes crazy and I suppose it could always be worse so I will just be happy with my lot in life and count my blessings and carry my epi pen ;)

I plan on pushing hard for the greenhouse after fair and our cruise

How are the strawberry towers coming along fintuckyfarms?

They are doing ok, the origional strawberries have flowers and some baby berries, they ones I replanted and growing strong. I wll still have some holes but I don't think that anybody will be able to see them as the plants grow out. I will post some picts later today. I have the other systems marked and just need to cut the holes and put them together.

So I finally finished the stand for the towers, I haven't yet moved the strawberries but the flower tower is ready for planting!!!! I found some old 4x4's to make it look a little more "country" for fair and I am going to wrap the nute boxes in some burlap. 10 more days till fair!

Pls excuse the mess, I just took a break from working and decided to get a photo. You can see the 3 large systems in this pict...

One down, one to go.... tomorrow it's too damm hot!

On another note, my husband is out of the hospital. It's not his heart but they don't know what is causing the pain and breathing difficulty. More tests to follow....

Done!
 

The last one is done! The plants are still pretty shocky but I added some stuff the hydro gal gave me to help them out. They should perk up in the next day or so.
The flowers where also shocky but have perked up today except a couple of petunas. The only thing I have left to do is cover the nute tanks in burlap and finish the education boards.
Today is really windy so I tied the system down with some rope as I DO NOT want to replant the towers.

So I just heard that the local newspaper wants to run a story on the hydroponics. They are taking pictures on Sunday after I set up to run in Mondays paper. No pressure here ;)


I will have strawberries for fair!

It's for sure, photographer will be at the fairgrounds at 11am on Sunday. Sooo nervous.

Looks like there perking up. Don't forget to post the newspaper article on your website. That's great publicity. Have fun at the fair!!!

Well it's all set up and running. Lots of people asking questions and the interview and photo session went great. My cheeks hurt from smiling so much. Tommorow is gonna be a really long day but I will try to get some picts posted.

Link to newspaper article
 

Hydroponic gardening to be on display this week at Benton Franklin Fair | Local News | Tri-CityHerald.com

She didn't quite get it, but close enough that I can work with it.

^^^^Very cool!!!^^^^:cool: