I concede, gardening is better - so far
Especially if you have help.
While I was at Walmart buying the lovely tomato, jalopeno, bell pepper, mint, okra, and chive plants that you see here from left to right, top to bottom, my sons looked up the box gardening site and made me this frame and lined the bottom. You can see the contrast between the Miracle Grow Garden Dirt for Vegetables which I thought matched Mel’s Mix closely enough, and our total clay native-to-the side-and-back-yard soil. The more elevated front is sandy for some reason. I tried to mix the clay in a little, but the gloopy globs would not give in, so George picked me up some more MGGDfV at Walmart on his way home to make up the difference. I think it could still use another bag. So far this garden has cost $50, not counting the lumber and liner we already had. I hope it will yield enough delicious fresh, natural vegetables to make it worth while.
I probably overcrowded it and will have to thin it out later. I also wonder about the tomatoes having enough depth, the soil they came with which had roots sticking out of it only has a thin layer of MGGDfV under it. We couldn’t tell if the boxes had bottoms so we lined it with weed preventative liner that I had laying around. And now I just found that if you put it over grass, all you need is cardboard or newspaper between, which would have bio-degraded. Oops. This year is experimental, I’ll fix it next year if there’s a problem. I started a compost pile a number of months ago that may be ready to use by next year too.
I didn’t time how much direct sun it gets. In that location to the side of my house, it will get at least a few hours of afternoon sun. It is also right next to our limestone wall and concrete driveway which I think will reflect extra rays. At my previous pecan tree shaded house the extra Texas heat and reflection from the white sided walls provided enough radiation for my tomatoes and okra. Seeing the already budding yellow tomato flowers yesterday brought back memories.
I looks lovely! I hope it yields a lot of tasty veggies.
It’s so beautiful!! The box frame reminds me of this hay feeder Ana and I had to contrive once for our goats and sheep! Yes, gardening, although I have always resisted it, is a lot of fun. We had a big vegetable garden in Georgia and Ana and I would go spend weekends with our godparents and help plant flower beds.
For the roots, I think it helps a lot to turn (or rototiller [if you have one... which we never did]) the ground under the box before you plant so it is looser and the roots can grow down farther easier, just for future reference… it takes a lot of work though, to hand turn hard, clay dirt (the dirt in our yard in Georgia was pretty red from the clay there and it wasn’t called ROCKdale county for nothing…).
We would grow all sorts of things, but among the most memorable are the sugarsnap sweet peas. We would pick them and eat them raw when they were young and tender… Good luck with your growing!!