Raised bed garden boxes from wooden pallets

Well I won't promise a full resumption of blogging (after all, I am the World's Worst Blogger), but here's a post for you! We decided to create raised bed garden boxes from wooden pallets. I saw this idea on pinterest, but it just used one pallet. I was concerned that wouldn't off enough soil, especially for deep rooted plants like tomatoes, so we figured out how to put two pallets together to make it deeper and allow for more soil.  One benefit of using pallets is that the slats make it a nearly weed free garden.  Anything that cuts down on the laborious task of weeding is a plus in my book.

We took two same-sized pallets and started by sawing off all the middle slats on one side of each. Then we placed them together with the "empty" sides together to form the box. We then used the slats we had sawed off and cut them to size and nailed them all around the box to hold it together. We had some larger pieces of wood in our garage and my husband used those, too.

Next, we stapled garden cloth to the bottom of the box.  This helps contain the soil.

Then we flipped it over and moved it into position, and filled it with 10 40lb bags of potting soil.

It makes perfect rows!  Here are some pickling cucumbers come up. 

Those are pumpkins that the kids planted at Purdue University's Spring Fest.  I transferred them to the box and they're all over the place now!

Since we built the boxes one at a time over a period of a few weeks, things were planted a bit haphazardly.  I have three boxes right now (we'll put together the fourth box next season).  One has green beans, green onions, a couple cherry tomato plants, and pickling cucumbers.  Another has zucchini and pumpkin, and the last has green beans and tomatoes.  This was a relatively easy and cheap garden project.  I've seen raised beds sell for hundreds of dollars, so recycling wooden pallets definitely saves you money.

I had my garden tilled last week, and picked up some seeds today.  I'm hoping for a break in the rain so the soil can dry out enough to plant sometime this week.  This year I'm planning on potatoes, onions, green beans, pickling cucumbers, zucchini, and tomatoes.  And of course, I have my peach and cherry trees (which are blooming and look so lovely).

Dh's boss verified that he will be hiring him on permanently after his ManPower contract is up.  He'll be first in line for the ax if business slows down a lot, though, so prayers that business stays good for them!  Thank you to all who have prayed for us during this time, we appreciate it greatly.

I could also also use some prayers for my mental health.  I have been feeling a familiar darkness coming on, and I'm not sure if it's postpartum related or my old issues surfacing.  Either way, prayers are appreciated!

Dh informed me today that our cherries are ripe!  He picked a big bowl so I can make him a pie (after I go get a cherry pitter; I pitted by hand the last time and I won't be doing that again).  I should also have enough to make a big batch of cherry preserves. 

Our green beans and corn were not fairing well.  The green beans didn't come up at all and only about half of the corn came up, so we tilled and replanted today.  Hopefully second time is the charm!

Everything else is doing well, though.  I caged most of the tomato plants and the peppers are doing fine.  The cucumbers are doing great, we'll wrap a trellis around the mounds soon so they can grow up onto that.  We did that last year and it worked well.  I finally got the herbs planted (in planters) and they're starting to come up.  I decided to do a little watermelon and canteloupe in round planters instead of directly in the garden.  Hopefully that will work!

Oh, and the chickens should start laying in the next few weeks, so I need to get a couple nesting boxes for their pen (we still don't have a proper coop built, that will get done in September).  We've been letting them free range during the day, but they've started getting into the garden, so they'll have to stay in the pen for awhile now.  At any rate, I'm very excited to start getting eggs :D

Baby tomato plants

I can't tell you how excited I am that spring is finally here! (Okay, I know it technically doesn't start until this Saturday, but it's 70 degrees here today, so my heart says SPRING!)

Spring brings so much joy, doesn't it? I love the hope and promise of new life all around me. I could do without the mud, but the fuzzy little buds on my peach tree (which is in desperate need of pruning) and daffodils pushing up more than makes up for it.

For me, one of the big perks of spring is getting my garden started. Now that I have a few years under my belt, I'm feeling more ambitious. I've tried to keep it relatively small and simple as I learned to garden and can the fruits of my labor. I'm ready to kick it up some! So, I currently have 36 baby tomato plants growing in front of the window on my kitchen table (see how they reach towards the sun? Kind of a neat little anecdote to humanity, isn't it? That we're hardwired to reach to the Light. God is good and His touch is everywhere!) Mostly globe tomatoes, but a row of cherry, too (both heirloom). I've always bought pre-started plants from WalMart or Rural King, but it's a bit pricey if you want more than a few, plus the satisfaction isn't quite the same. And of course, it's a great little science lesson for my 2nd grader.

36 plants is a lot! It looks like most of them are going to be keepers, too. I'll have my work cut out for me, but I plan on turning a good number of them into plain tomato sauce (something I use frequently). Some will be canned whole, after being peeled, and some will become salsa (I need to start some peppers and onions, too!) I love opening a jar of whole tomatoes in the middle of winter, it fills the whole kitchen with smell of summer. And of course, many will become fried green tomatoes, my favorite garden treat.

My friend and neighbor's brother, who's a farmer, will till for me, and I'm going to have him put in some new rows. I'm going to need the extra space, no matter how big the bare plot looks, it's never big enough! I finally bought a pressure canner, so I'm looking forward to learning how to use that and making good use of my veggies (I HATE frozen vegetables, and we can only eat so many fresh green beans before we can't take it anymore!) So we'll have green beans and corn, some to eat fresh and some to can for the winter. And pickling cucumbers, of course. I've become so spoiled on homemade pickles that I can barely stomach the commercial kind. My mom offered me her kosher dill from her deli sandwich and I was horrified at how bland it was! I couldn't even eat it.

I'm skipping the zucchini this year though, I think. I made the mistake of planting two rows last year and by the end of the season I wanted to cry every time I went out, zucchini was everywhere!! I still have many bags of shredded, frozen zucchini. So I'm taking a year off from it.

I may try carrots again. My ground was too rocky for lovely carrots the first couple of years, but now that it's been going for 5 years, I think a good portion of the rock has been removed. So hopefully we'll get some nice, straight carrots this year!

Anyone else planning their garden? If so, let me know what you're growing!

Garden planning

Spring has really crept up on me! Now that's it's May, I really need to solidify what I want for the veggie garden and get it tilled, fertilized, and planted by the end of the month. Embarrassingly, this will be my 4th year gardening this plot, and I never have fertilized it! I do leave all the plant matter to decay in the garden so I suppose that "fertilizes" it to an extent, but I have a bucket of compost and I need to pick up some manure as well and get that on the garden. So far my lack of fertilizing hasn't hurt my veggies, but I might not be so lucky this year! Actually, my total lack of gardening knowledge in general hasn't seemed to affect my "crops!" Praise God for that one, I suppose. So anyway, this is what I'm thinking of for this year-

• Zucchini
• Pickling Cucumbers
• Tomatoes (globe and cherry)
  
• Green Beans

I'm not sure if I want to do anything else or not. I mostly want to can or freeze it all to have through out the year. I might do some lettuce though so I can have some salad! Sadly my soil is way too rocky for carrots, I might have room for some type of berry, though!