Planter Box Garden
I had enough of building on the sidewalk, so on Tuesday I went over to a friend's house and built another four planters in his basement. Less headache for sure, especially given how it really rained that day. I planted them up with tomato starts, carrots, basil, and green beans. Unfortunately, those green beans are pole beans and I planted them thinking they were bush. It's hard to yank out seedlings after a certain point and these guys are past that point, so I gather I'll stick with pole beans.
I'm not sure we're going to get enough sun in the new side garden for vegetables like tomatoes. When I put perennials in that area, it seemed shady —but it was November. By last summer, those shade lovers were wilting in the sun. By June 21st, I think the 6 hours of sun will max out and then they will see less and less. So it will be an interesting experiment.
This box design is less than perfect —rudimentary in design and construction. However, it was easy to build and that's what I was going for. My original idea was to use 5 gallon pails! That would have been a cheaper proposition. These boxes, had I found more scrap wood, would have only cost me the price of screws. Instead I bought $100 dollars worth of pine planks and 2 x 2s. I made 5 planters from new wood and I expect 5 years out of these boxes, giving each planter a $5/year cost. Every year longer reduces that cost. Of course, if I spent more on cedar, I would have longer-lived boxes. One of our scrap boxes is made out of redwood and that should last a minimum of 10 years.
Its raining today, so happy to not have to water the vegetables in. Unlike my perennial garden, planter-grown vegetables will require watering. I'm not happy about that since there is no access to water, outside. Shrug —at least I'll have my vegetables!
Below are some basic gardening tips to get you started on creating your dream garden
ReplyDeleteGardening Tip 1. Consider your plants health as well as your own. Ensure you keep yourself well hydrated whilst gardening. As most gardening is done in the sun, involves physical labour and is very engrossing, it is easy to work away for hours on end without noticing the time flying by. Keep drinking lots of fluids and make sure you are wearing adequate sun cream and a hat. Your garden will only suffer if you are in bed for a few days with dehydration or sun stroke. Remember, skin cancer is still one of the top killers so dress appropriately.
Gardening Tip 2. Design your garden before you start digging. Your time and energy is precious so don’t start digging holes and planting plants without having a garden design first. You may choose to employ a professional garden design or you may just want to draw your desired garden on a piece of paper yourself, depending on your budget. Either way if you have a plan of what you are doing and what you want to plant where, you will save yourself many back breaking hours digging and planting unnecessarily.
Gardening Tip 3. Make a list of the tools and materials you will need. After creating your garden design, list the tools and materials that are required to create your masterpiece. You may need specialist equipment like heavy earth moving machinery that needs to be hired and booked in advance or you may wish to plant exotic plants that need to be ordered and grown specially. You don’t want to get half way through your project only to find you cannot get a piece of equipment on hire for 2 weeks. When this happens it is very frustrating and can sometimes hold up the entire job.
well thanks for those tips "michael"
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