I think the biggest joy of growing a garden for me is actually seeing the items grow and thrive. Of course, having the veggies to eat is nice, too, but I get such a kick out of seeing everything grow.
My life has been one long process of things going wrong, evaluating and redeploying differently and in between things went right too.
We all do that and, hopefully, we learn and grow wise from it. I remember, as a boy, when Things Went Awry, I would get discouraged and stop. Of course, hindsight is much nearer to 20-20 than current-sight to a child. If there is one thing I could teach my younger self it would be to make more mistakes, not less, and really learn how shit works. I try to impart this upon my own offspring to limited success; parents since the dawn of time have attempted to pass their wisdom to their children and, throughout that history, their children have thwarted them at every possible instance. At least I know I'm doing that right!
So, since I'm making this comment all about me at this point, I'll offer up that next year's garden is going to take full advantage of "old time" gardening techniques. I am going to plan corn, beans/peas, and squash in one mound. The corn will grow tall, the beans/peas will use the corn to grow up upon, and the squash is apparently used to combat weeds.
You mention that you're setting up irrigation. Are you cheating and not performing a daily manual watering?
My father used to tell me that each failure prepared me to be the right person to accept success. It sank in and I had/have a fail often ethos. Seems like your kids are on the right track.
Interesting about the old-school methods huh? Mostly forgotten now, cast aside for more productive methods in the pursuit of revenue. I like old things and ways.
The nature of the pods is that they self-water to some degree although I'll be out there daily. This is designed as a hobby for myself, no different to building Lego, shooting, off-roading, camping, hiking, kayaking and so on. Just another in the list and one I'll actively engage in.
Now that's a pretty awesome contraption. I have crap for soil in the ground so have been growing above ground; to help me out I've been using the big plastic pails that cat litter comes in. I've drilled some holes in the bottom for drainage and each holds close to a cubic yard of soil. What they dont' have is a canopy or irrigator (which I play the part of). But... I have at least a dozen of these pails, they're solid, and I hate throwing them out. They do make good growing containers.
Whatever works and how awesome was it devising your beds? I'll answer my own questsh...Awesome!
This is about fun for me and I'm already having it, including chats like this which have added a new dimension to my hive-time. Thank you.