Project: Box Garden
Over the past several weekends we've put together our first box garden! It's a single box, but with this setup, we will be able to expand out with multiple boxes each year.
The box itself is made from 8' x 4' x 1" untreated pine. This stuff is pretty cheap, and we went with untreated so to avoid any chemical treatments leaking into what feeds our plants (and thus, what feeds ourselves!). We figured the boxes will probably last 5-7 years before needing to be replaced, but that's just fine.
The soil is a 4 layer mix of organic top soil, cow manure/soil mix, pine needles, and more top soil. All together we put in 27 bags of top soil (each bag being 0.75 cu ft). Tiffany worked tirelessly hand-tilling the soil to work it into a fine consistency.
On Thursday (May 24) she planted Blue Lake bush beans (greenbeans) in this box, and by Sunday we had our first sprouts!
The fence was an idea we learned from a friend of Tiffany's (plug for Whiteville Farms) to use wood pallets as a base for building fence walls. After looking around, I called up our local seed and supplier (Martin Seed & Supply) and they sold me pallets for $2 each! (They said they normally take them to recycling, but would sell them to me for the same price that they get for recycling). Very nice!
I used spare wood I had lying around to bridge each pallet together. The total perimeter distance was roughly 50 feet, so at 4 foot in length per pallet, I only had to buy 12. I also used extra pine strips (super super cheap at menard's, also left over from a previous project) to fill in the larger gaps between the pallet boards.
I then put an extra bottom border around the base to provide extra protection against rabbits and to help hold the pallets together.
The door I made from spare wood and it slides into three brackets I put around the opening. There is a metal mesh (hardware fabric) that will keep critters out.
This corner is closest to where the garden hose will be coming from, so it makes it easy to water!
Over-all we're very excited to have our first box garden started and will be posting updates as our little beans grow!
The box itself is made from 8' x 4' x 1" untreated pine. This stuff is pretty cheap, and we went with untreated so to avoid any chemical treatments leaking into what feeds our plants (and thus, what feeds ourselves!). We figured the boxes will probably last 5-7 years before needing to be replaced, but that's just fine.
The soil is a 4 layer mix of organic top soil, cow manure/soil mix, pine needles, and more top soil. All together we put in 27 bags of top soil (each bag being 0.75 cu ft). Tiffany worked tirelessly hand-tilling the soil to work it into a fine consistency.
On Thursday (May 24) she planted Blue Lake bush beans (greenbeans) in this box, and by Sunday we had our first sprouts!
I used spare wood I had lying around to bridge each pallet together. The total perimeter distance was roughly 50 feet, so at 4 foot in length per pallet, I only had to buy 12. I also used extra pine strips (super super cheap at menard's, also left over from a previous project) to fill in the larger gaps between the pallet boards.
I then put an extra bottom border around the base to provide extra protection against rabbits and to help hold the pallets together.
The door I made from spare wood and it slides into three brackets I put around the opening. There is a metal mesh (hardware fabric) that will keep critters out.
Over-all we're very excited to have our first box garden started and will be posting updates as our little beans grow!
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