LOTB Community Container Garden Update 1

I have been wanting to post about my green children participating in the LOTB Community Container Garden project. Fern came up with the idea of selecting a small variety of plants that can be grown in containers in many climates for her readers to give a try. She figured it'd be cool for many people to be able to give input on the same plants to help each other. She also set up a forum for participants to have one central place to post about it.

So out of the five varieties chosen I am growing 3 because I already had seeds for two and I was excited to hear about the other. I already had my tomatoes and cucs picked out for the year.

Here's how my green babies were doing on April 12, about a month after sowing:

 sunflower Sunspot

This was doing so well I had already potted it in a plastic 12" pot I found somewhere

 basil Purple Petra

 garlic chives

On April 22 I planted another of the Sunspots in one of my tompots from last year with some lettuce Marvel of Four Seasons for contrast. I also tucked in a cambridge blue lobelia that had volunteered in another pot.

On April 29 I stopped by home for lunch and to my horror...

 I have no idea what happened

My best guess is it just got so hot that day it cooked :;(

At least it's two sisters have been flourishing. Here's the tompot one on May 2:

Incidentally, somehow during the month of April I managed to grow a very nice set of nails despite all my mucking about without garden gloves... They've since been broken, cracked, snagged, ragged, clipped & etc.

May 8th I was finally able to transplant the garlic chives into the Utility Rack Planter and I put a basil in with my tomato Mexico Midget.

 

Clint Eastwood is bending to greet them hehehe...

 btw, that 13" pot was $6.99 at Ikea..*hinthint*

 the tompotted sunflower and it's lettuce entourage seem happy

the fudog to the bottom right was a Goodwill find :)

  

it spends its days taunting me with the promise of flowers to come...

There is another sunflower I've left in a 1 gal pot because I can't decide another spot to put it right now. I will also probably grow some more the rest of spring through fall.

Oh, and instead of thinning the basil seedlings I managed to carefully separate them so I now have 5 more transplants. I am going to pot a couple of them and if anyone in the LA area would like the others lemme know...

So as of today the sunflowers have still not yet bloomed :( The anticipation is making me antsy :/ I'm hoping by this weekend the chives will be doing well enough I can snip some to put in a meal. I don't think I'll glean anything off the basil for a few more weeks.

And that's it, we're all caught up on my Community Container Garden :) Good luck to everyone else participating too!

Project: Shelving Rack into Raised Planter

 Two weeks ago I finally got around to a project I've been dreaming of for months. With help from my da we turned this:

FREE second hand metal utility shelving rack :)

Into this:

Raised planter!

Over a year ago a friend gave the metal rack to me when he was cleaning out his garage. Originally I'd considered making it a greenhouse for seedlings, or just use it as nice shelves to set containers on ...but it'd been thickly painted after its first assembly and I couldn't get the pieces to budge. I didn't want shelves or a greenhouse I couldn't modify as necessary. So I repainted it from fire engine red to a calmer brown and set stuff on and under it while I decided what to do.

Finally the raised planter idea came. Da helped me get the lumber from a local place he used to use (he was a cabinet maker for decades). Rough sawn cedar. He was being contrary that day and bought it for me ;) Da picked it up when the order came in, John helped me unload at home and get things set up for us to start work.

 My dear Grumpy took over the project almost immediately.

 I am always fascinated and frustrated watching him work.

(he does not like to let me play with use the power toys tools)

There's the bottom boards ready

Rough sawn is cheaper and I love the look, but it is not without hazzards :(

You can see the way the racks are put together makes the bottom boards slope inwards ... perfect for drainage! I cut a coconut basket liner in half and put that inside each end of the planter to keep the soil from spilling out. I also used an old cloth sheet scrap to line the drainage crack all along the bottom to keep the soil in.

 And here's the completed planter!

The measuring, cutting and putting together took less than two hours! We had to split some boards, and re-cut boards by little increments to get them all to fit properly (the rack wasn't put together  perfectly square). The front (long) boards were put in first, then the side (short) ones sandwiched between them at the ends. The L shape of the legs holds the sides up, and the pressure from the soil inside keeps them in place. We used ZERO screws or nails! (not counting the bits attaching the rack pieces that were already there). I thought about painting the outside with Earthsafe paints.... but I love the look of the raw wood :)

After all that was done I used E.B. Stone soil I bought with my Groupon to fill it, took six 20 qt. bags oh my! I used five of the Edna's Best Potting Soil and 1 Flower & Vegetable Soil, and mixed in a few cups of Kellog's organic vegetable fertilizer.

You can see that Felis catus "Oh So Helpful" did her part by keeping the bags from flying away

 Then the fun part came. I transplanted four tomatoes (roots and stems buried 12" min!), three blue annual salvias, two akashiso, two kale Dwarf Blue and a Marvel of Four Seasons lettuce. A few days later I exchanged the kale with nasturtium Alaskas when I was that's a no-no mix in my companion planting guide. There is still some space left along the front. I might put basil or chives from the LotB community garden project there, or onions and carrots... We will see.

I also used some plant markers I found at Ikea for the tomatoes. They are nice, two for a dollar :) I used paint markers, which come off with rubbing alcohol for next season, to write the varieties.

I'm very happy with this project. Thanks Da!

*update*
Here's an October 2011 photo. The fall plants are growing in well, and the cast iron wall ornament I found at a yard sale completes it :)

*UPDATE 1/4/12*
I'm entering this project in the Not Just a Housewife's Best DIY Project of 2011 contest, please click the link below and vote for me!

Built me an LED Grow Box

This is late, sorry, built it about 3 weeks ago but didn't get around to uploading my camera pics.

Anyway, with instructions from The Cheap Vegetable Gardener I made my own LED Grow Box. I recommend following his instructions, they are good. Here are some pics of the construction:

measuring out the size for drilling

 

my spade bit made a nice little collar that helps hold the lights steady w/out glue

almost done with drilling, yes I use unsafe methods...

hmmm, my 70 LED set has 75 lights...

 she's a bit purty in use...

I used LED xmas lights 50% off two weeks after New Year's. I couldn't fin a set of just blue LEDs, but I got a multicolor one which I haven't added to this yet.

So far I like it. The first week I made it I had also sowing seeds indoors and several sprouted within days. It was still in the 40's overnight so I brought them all into the box from about 8pm-7am. I think it really did help, but I can't say for sure it's boosting my babies. Perhaps an experiment with a control set of seedlings is in order...