Friday, May 11, 2012

Well I have been not updating my blog as my only follower may or may not have noticed!! Spring is here and we have already planted new flowers and things in our front garden. I have also built, with Zoey's help) a second gardening box for our vegetable garden. A very easy project and I think I wrote about it last year. The only things you need are:

6 - 6 foot fence boards
1 - 8 foot 2 X 2
1 - package of outdoor deck or fence screws 1 5/8 length

I used wood glue last time I made this but didn't this time because I forgot. Wouldn't hurt to use it but not really one of those things that will make or break the project. Take the 8 foot 2X2 and cut it into 8 pieces. You will have a 9th piece left over that is smaller than the other 8. Place two boards side by side and use the total width as your guide which works out to be about a 10 or 12 inch piece of the 2X2. Then use that to make the marks on the remained 8 foot 2X2 and cut your pieces. They will be used for middle support and end attachment of you boards. Cut two 6 foot boards in half as these will be the ends. I drilled pilot holes for the screws in my boards which does make it a lot easier and you can place your screws and then come back and drill them all in. When you screw everything together you will end up with a 3 X 6 garden box that you can use for flowers or veggies!




This is not the one I made but should look similar. This one is made with 2X4's and it was dug into the ground. You can do that also but I just placed mine on the ground and am going to fill it with topsoil.

The girls picked out seeds so we will hopefully be growing corn, peas, cucumber, carrots, radishes, watermelon and sunflowers. I also bought a strawberry plant and red pepper plant that we got from Walmart. I also planted herbs in a small planter that consists of dill, chives and sweet basil. I am going to try and grow garlic and jalapeno's if I have enough room. I may make a third box to plant the rest. I found out last year that big and tall plants and vines need a lot of space or they won't let anything else grow. I am carefully planning my boxes so I can maximize space and not have the taller plants block out the smaller ones. Last year the cherry tomatoes took over 50% of the box with the pumpkins take 40% leaving very little for the other things we planted. I am a little worried about the corn and watermelons. Not so much the size of them but the timing. I want to pick them at just the right time so I am following the chart on the package which gives the growing time from seed to harvest.

I will be documenting the progress to see how the garden grows. I have started the seeds in jiffy pots we bought at the dollar store and it worked great last year. Only time will tell. You can cheat and buy the plants at Canadian Tire, Walmart or any store that sells vegetable plants so you are already 3 weeks ahead of waiting for the seeds to sprout. I like the seeds because it was my care and watering that I was able to grow from a seed!

Cheers!!