My garden is going green. No, not that kind of green, although I appreciate the optimistic thought. I’ve got things sprouting, but there’s still a fair bit of barren soil going on. I mean green as in good for the environment. That seems kind of an oxymoron, saying a garden is good for the planet, but if you honestly look at some gardens, they are anything but, what with all the wasteful spending and chemicals. Since today is Earth Day, I thought this would be a good time to share how we have gone green in our little patch of the planet.
When I started on the project of a container garden, I hadn’t really considered the cost all the way through. It’s much more expensive than just turning up a patch of ground and dropping some seeds. Planters and containers, my friends, are EEE-XSPEN-SIVE! For the naïve beginner like me, who started a small forest in her kitchen from seeds, buying enough planters to transplant my babies to would cost me hundreds of dollars. Add to that all the seeds I wanted to start directly outside, such as radishes and green beans, and I was quite dismayed. I drive around and see houses sporting these ginormous containers on their front porches, overflowing with flowers. Those containers can be upwards of $50 a pop and these places can have several going on. Add to that all the requisite “Welcome to our Garden” plaques, various garden gnomes, and fake mammalia in grazing poses, and they’ve spent a small fortune. And some people buy all new every season. I’ve picked up gardening magazines that honestly promote this spend-apolooza, which is discouraging. Now, there are people who can afford it, and that’s just fine, but I’m on a “gainfully unemployed college student” budget. Plus I can’t throw things away, just because they’re so last year. I have a little ceramic hedgehog that I got on sale a couple of years ago. He’s chipped and dented from Ozzy knocking him off the porch every other day, but he sits faithfully among my plants. I just can’t discard him for being homely. Ditto for my battered planters.
We are allowed to have white planters after labor day, aren’t we?
The answer came from the most unlikely source: a man. More specifically, my man. Yes, I was in the midst of a mini meltdown, fretting about planters and what not, when Fearless Leader interrupted to inform me that I had planters all around me. I swear he stopped just short of throwing in a “duh!” which is a good thing. I gave him a blank stare (worthy of a double “duh!”) so he continued to patiently explain that I had an assortment of plastic bottles and containers all over the kitchen. We’ve been trying to separate our recyclables, despite the fact that our town doesn’t collect them. We save our empty dog food bags and fill them with cans, glass, and plastics and take them down to the recycling place ourselves. He pulled out several Ocean Spray (trademark thingy here) bottles and milk jugs. I have to admit, it hadn’t really occurred to me I could use those things. I sometimes have problems looking outside the box. After a thorough search through the trash, recycle bags, cupboards, the neighbor’s trash (him, not me, they already think I’m nuts), and under the seats in our car, I had a small arsenal of planters. I now have radishes flourishing from cranberry juice bottles, peppers sprouting from plastic coffee containers and milk jugs. I really like the built in handles on the milk jugs; I cart them all over the porch just cuz I can.
My motley assortment of containers. Those are radishes flourishing in the cranberry juice bottles. The coffee containers are exceptionally sturdy and have green peppers currently budding. The only restriction with using plastic containers such as these is that they dry out a little faster than traditional planters, but I keep them where they get a little more shade than the plants call for, and give them smaller drinks throughout the day, rather than one large watering.
More bottle plants. The water bottles have green onions, and that large plant hanging on the left is F.L.'s beloved habanero plant. He broke the original pot it was in. We tried the milk jug, but it needs to stay very hydrated, and the milk jug wasn't deep enough, so it's since been retransplanted to an actual store bought pot. Sometimes you just have to do what's best for the child, er, plant.
But the story doesn’t end there. Nosireebob.
F.L. has really gotten into this gardening thing. I have to keep reminding him that this is my hobby, and that his role is supposed to be the long-suffering man who humors me with thinly veiled disinterest. He ain’t cooperating. On a trip to the local colossal-mart, he fell in love with a habanero pepper plant and adopted it. He has fawned over that thing like the fate of the world rests on its little green shoulders. Well, on that trip we came to the decision that we needed more space for all the things we wanted to plant. There simply isn’t enough room on our already crowded porch, so I brought up the idea of building a raised bed on the tiny strip of earth next to our front steps. They actually sell these plastic doo-hickeys that you assemble into a raised bed, a notion we immediately discarded. They are expensive as well, considering the “duh!” factor (I’m like the word “duh!” today). I’m not a fan of buying “ideas.” As we pondered the concept, trying to figure out the cost of wood, etc. to build our own, a light bulb came on over his head. It was blinding in its brilliance. He said, “all we need to do is find some wooden pallets.” I didn’t realize by that he meant drive around and nab a few unattended ones, but that’s what ended up happening. I hid under the dashboard and practiced my best “but, but, BUT Your Honor, it’s for the planet!” Just kidding. Seriously, though, I never realized how many discarded pallets there are just littering parking lots and empty land until then. It’s rather wasteful and decidedly environmentally unfriendly.
On a side note, F.L. is the Pallet King. He seems to think there is nothing that can’t be built out of pallets. There is a table in my kitchen right now that started life out as his desk. It is so rickety and uneven, it makes Appalachian rustic décor look downright Martha-esque. He went so far as to stain it (at least the parts he thought were important). It serves its purpose, and I will admit it’s growing on me with its distinct hobo charm. I guess that’s the whole looking out of the box thing I’m not so good at. Back to the topic of discussion.
The raised box thingy ended up being a more labor-intensive project than I imagined, since we were kind of making it up as we went. Basically, we started by removing the slats from one of the long sides, keeping the end ones on until last so the whole thing would stay stable. We used the slats we removed to build up the sides of the box, then removed the slats from the opposite side, and voila! We slapped it in on the ground, filled it with soil, and planted away. I’m happy to report onions and radishes are already sprouting. And I didn’t have to remove a bush of ornamental grass that was already there. I just positioned the box around it, so the landlord can’t complain that we undid his pathetic landscape work. When it’s time to move on, it can be removed or left behind without much trauma.
Here's the finished result of our pallet box. You can see the ornamental grass in the upper corner. I have onions planted along the back, and down the middle you can see radishes just starting to sprout. If you notice, there are a couple of gaps in the wood along the front due to the design of the pallets. We used some plastic to cover those up so soil wouldn't spill out.
If anyone wants to try this, one tip I must pass along is to pre-drill your holes. The pallet we got was rather well-worn, and the wood tended to split. The extra step of pre-drilling saved a lot of frustration and time. We had some old wood that we used to brace the corners and to connect the slats on the sides. There really is no right or wrong way to do it. As long as you come up with a vaguely box-shaped structure and have fun with it, you’ve accomplished your task.
It’s a good feeling when you can find little ways to make a difference in the world. Repurposing things saves the planet and the budget. I find myself seeing all kinds of things that can be used as planters. Actually, I see all kinds of things that can be used in alternative ways, like the dog food bags. They are large (at least for us), virtually puncture and moisture resistant, and retain their shape, so they’re ideal for handling recyclables. We’ve embraced the going green idea, and it’s had some healthy repercussions as well. But I’ll save that for next time.
Until then, happy gardening!
The Awkward Gardener
