Non-quilting: Building Garden boxes

I've always loved growing vegetables. When I was younger, my parents didn't have a good backyard to grow a nice veggie patch, so I contented myself with growing tomatoes and beans in pots. In college, I expanded those pots to backyard porches and also grew cucumbers and squash using the back porch railings as trellises. Now that I'm grown up with a house that has a nice open backyard, I decided to grow a lot of veggies this year.

Only, I don't have a lot of money, and garden boxes are expensive.

However, there is this great place about 30 minutes from me that buys and sells old wood pallets. You know, the kind on which big stores get their shipments? So I cleared out the back of the mini-van and got about 5 of them for $5 a piece. Not too shabby.

Then I used a pry bar, hammer and reciprocating saw to break them down and build them into garden boxes.

I also used 2" square wood dowels as corner pieces for added stability and screwed the boards two deep into a square shape. They turned out pretty well.

 

So far, I've planted tomatoes, winter and summer squash, kale, peppers, okra, cucumbers, onions and beans. I'm also growing borage, thyme and sage as ecological pest controls. They're supposed to repel or confuse a variety of garden pests. Sunflowers and morning glories also are great at attracting predatory bugs which will eat the pests. I used this book to make sure everything was going to get along in their new homes (example: onions and beans don't go together). In fact, if you're planning on making a garden plot, I highly recommend making sure all of your plants will go well together. It will save you a lot of hair tearing-out in the future. I'm looking forward to a tasty summer!