Okay, it's not a garden quite yet. But it will be soon! We spent the weekend building these boxes and digging out sod (we transplanted it to the areas the dog has killed - you can see some of his unfortunate effects on the lawn by the boxes). The lawn is sloped so we had to dig out a bit to get the boxes level. Also, it rained like crazy a couple days ago and the sod was wet and heavy with mud. What a lot of hard
work!This is a view from our deck. The grate in the corner is in a neighbour's lot, not ours!
The boxes are made of red cedar, and are 4' by 8', and 11" tall. They are very sturdy with tension bars across the middle (to prevent the soil pressure from bowing out the sides) and supports at the corners and on the sides.
We still have to install some tubes on the side that will hold flexible piping bowed over the tops of the boxes (for bird netting or for climbing plants like peas). And, of course, we have to fill them with triple-mix and seeds/plants!
The total supplies for the boxes came to about $300. We did opt for cedar over pressure treated wood because the chemicals can leach out of PT wood (and into edible plants - yuck). We also opted to go with 4x4" corner posts and 2x6" side boards which will be long-lasting and very sturdy. This was kind of pricey but we are looking at the long-term, growing our own produce is the way to go.
We are the only house on our street so far to put in a veggie garden! Granted, the street is only two years old. But I was surprised we were the only ones out there. A bunch of neighbours came out to see what we were working on (we don't have fences down this end of the street yet). Hopefully we will inspire them!
These are some nice boxes you made! Way to go! I have a vegetable garden, too, but I went the cheap and easy way and used bricks as a border. :D That's funny, when we were house shopping a couple of years ago, hubby and I almost bought a house in Stouffville, but in the end we settled on Ajax. Otherwise we may have been neighbours and could have compared gardens. :)
ReplyDeleteThanks! We put a lot of work in, hopefully it pays off in a huge harvest :) We have soil coming on Saturday ... more digging and lifting (yay... ow...)
ReplyDeleteHey, that would have been fun! We have friends in Ajax - we keep trying to convince them to move up here. It's a great place to live although it is very small town. Close enough to Markham to have everything nearby, though. You'll probably have a longer growing season than we will - seems like north of Markham Rd. there is a climate change. A little cooler, a little more precipitation.
I grew up in Whitby, I think if we had moved to Ajax it would feel too much like I was a kid again, lol.