How is everyone's plants coming along? Is everyone ready to plant their gardens because I know I am however it is still a few weeks to early (where I live) before you can plant everything in your garden. On the positive side, it is time to plant your onions, potatoes, asparagus, strawberries, and other underground based plants though because they some of the more hardy plants that can survive light frosts.
Recently I have been talking with people about building garden boxes and how to build them properly; now I am no expert on this matte but I have been letting people know what I have heard and experienced first hand and this is what I am going to be talking about today.
When you are building a garden box, first you must decide either you want to buy a kit or build your own from scratch. Personally, I am fan of building one from scratch because you can build your box any length and width you desire. Before you start building or buying your garden box you must first decided what you are you wanting to grow because that will determine how deep your box needs to be, for example potatoes and carrots need their soil to be deeper than tomatoes or peppers. In my personal experience with growing potatoes you honestly need at least a foot and half of dirt to allow the potatoes to grow properly; however for plants like tomatoes or peppers I have always found that about a foot of dirt deep should always been plenty (I have grown peppers in as little as 6 inches of dirt before). After deciding on what you are going to grow in your box its time to build your garden box to the proper depth, width, and length; be sure and do not start filling the garden box in at this time. This next step with involving everyone's favorite subject weeding, cover the bottom of your garden box with a weed barrier and secure the barrier to the sides of the garden box securely. This will allow the garden to grow however not easily allowing any grass to grow into your garden box from the rest of your yard or underneath the garden box where you are going to have your garden.
Next you will need to decide where you wanting your garden's final location; my only recommendation would be to to try and pick a place that doesn't get a lot of evening sunlight. This is because in the summer time (July an August) its the evening sun that causes the plants to burn up and die. After you have decided where you are going to put your garden box then the final step is filling in it with soil. My recommendation for this is to check with your local city or county to see if you can buy their top soil/compost because it will be a lot cheaper than it would be to buy individual bags at your local gardening store.
Once your garden box is filled with soil its now time to start planting your more frost proof plants and preparing to plant all your other plants.
Good luck gardening.
Sunday, March 18, 2012
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