With the success of garden box one (above), I decided to make a second one. Well, that and I wanted a squash plant. Okay, I HAVE a squash plant, but it's dead, or dying, depending on the day. I figured everything's been happy so far in the garden box so I'll make one for a squash plant. According to Mel, squash need a 3x3 square which is more than half the box so I decided to put a trellis on garden box deux to maximize space.
I enlisted the help of my friend, Erin (see lesson 3). As Erin demonstrates, enthusiasm is key!
The supplies I need to make a box are 8 pieces of redwood, 8 corner anchors, 4 tie plates, and some nails. I actually recommend screws but that requires drilling holes first and getting new screws and that's just too much trouble for me! Actually, I recommend going to Walter Anderson. They sell garden boxes for about $5 more than it cost me to make one ($69 vs $65). That's what I'll be doing next time.
I use the corner brackets inside each corner and build two boxes. These are expensive parts and account for $18 of the total cost. There are less expensive ways to do it, like using pieces of wood in each corner instead, but I wanted everything flush on the inside.
Then I line up the boxes and nail the tie plates inside the center of each side, attaching the boxes together. One problem with using the nails is that, if you make a mistake and have to take something apart, the nails can be a bitch to get out. This happened to me when Erin and I lined up the two boxes and one of them was bigger on one side than another...ooops!
To fill each box, I use five components - compost, manure, peat moss, vermiculite, and soil.
I added a trellis and planted the plants. Each got a tablespoon of organic fertilizer and a good watering every day for several days. Here's the finished product, complete with a makeshift doggie fence (we're watching Sierra, a plant eater - plus she and Woody both like to eat the dirt). I planted squash, sugar tomatoes, heirloom tomatoes, and four cucumber plants.
