Here we are again. :)
How was your weekend?
Ours went by quickly as usual. MJ and Bug buzzed over to Wisconsin for family function while Sweet J and I hunkered down here together for a friend’s milestone event near home. It was a hot one both places but it ended with a spectacular rain storm. Our little gnome friend was still a little damp this morning. Don’t look too closely at the plant in this pot.
My mom is coming today! She is kindly lending her services of caretaker, cook and homemaker for a few days while I work on art pieces. My art show opens in less than two months. Eek! Thanks Mom! I’m so glad you’re here.
Summertime means gardening to me. More gardening struggle for me personally. Ha! My mom is a master gardening and thoroughly loves doing it. Thanks to her I have a general idea of what I’m doing. Oh, and she shares cool plants with me.
Because we can’t put veggies in our front garden (association rules), in summers past, we’ve had a garden of potted veggies on the patio. This is not an ideal option since the pots are too small to accommodate the root systems and they dry out quickly due to the small amount of soil. This is doubly bad because I am just horrible at remembering to water them. Many a plant has died due to dehydration.
This summer, we wanted a better place for the plants to live and grow so MJ and I planned out and, on Memorial Day, built a vegetable box. With advice from Mom and PC, we settled on dimensions. To fit the nook on the patio, we chose a box 2 feet wide and 6 feet long. Our ‘advisory board’ suggested a depth of around 30 inches so we went with that.
As I’ve mentioned before, I’m cheap. This affects all areas of my life. Because this box is a temporary solution to our vegetable garden dilemma, we chose to use inexpensive boards to build it. Someday, we may build raised garden beds again in a more permanent setting and at that time, we will choose to use higher quality boards.
Back to the current situation. With our dimensions, we corralled the children and headed off to Home Depot where we chose and had our boards cut down. For the long side, we chose a notched board which, when stacked, fits together. We used bargain bin plywood for the ends and bargain bin 2x4s to connect the sides to. Green marks = bargain.
Like I said, the notched boards stacked on each other like so. MJ and I had a barrel of fun getting them together.
Once they were stacked, I attached them to the 2x4s with screws.
Then I finished off the box by attaching the plywood sections to the ends.
The sides are uneven due to some miscalculated measurements. Not only are the notched boards not the width we thought (Rookie mistake! I don’t think any of the boards are the width they say they are.) but we didn’t take into consideration that the boards and their notches. Live and learn I suppose.
The bottom of the box is open to allow for draining. But, to keep all the soil from washing away, we stapled in some burlap at the bottom. Water can get through but not so much soil.
Then it was filling time. And wow did it take a lot of soil. We filled it with a mix of compost my dad shared with us, compost from our county’s free site, some inexpensive bagged soil and then topped it all with two bags of the premium soil.
After the soil was in, we were quick to fill it with plants.
Most of the plants came from my mom. In the early spring, she starts her little seeds and gets them to grow under grow lights. It’s always amazing how such plants come from such little seeds. Through her and PC, we get cool plants like a Red Zebra and Green Zebra tomatoes and a Red Cheese pepper.
As for markers, I liked an image I came across on Pinterest using old knives as markers. I picked up some interesting knives at Goodwill and borrowed a letter punch set from a friend. I like the touch of fancy.
I really like the vegetable box. I like that our plants have room to grow and that the need to water isn’t so constant because, let be honest, some people just don’t get it. :) An unrealized perk is that I don’t have to crawl around on the ground to tend to the plants. I like that I can stand and survey our growing crops.
Now, barring any unforeseen extreme neglect on my part, we are looking forward to enjoying our garden bounty in a few months. Please pray I remember the water.
Have a great day.
Take care.
