I thought about giving up on my garden this year. We started our first one three years ago and my husband and I thought we were master gardeners our very first year. We thought we knew what we were doing when we didn’t even know what we were doing!
And then the following two years were a bust. I know all of you gardeners are going to tell me, ‘Oh, but the past two years in the Northwest have been horrible for every gardener.’ Yes, I’ve heard that, I was still just ready to make it into a sport court and call it good. Not that we could afford that, but still. Sounded good.
Well, I’m happy to say that we are going to try one more year to see if we can get our green thumb‘s’ back. But, before I decided to plant in our ‘big’ garden, I had already planned and in the process of planting these wine boxes.
I figured that I could at least grow some things in a box right? Plus, I wouldn’t have to deal with the bunnies and deer coming all the way up to my deck to eat my veggies. Hopefully.
Lucky for me, my little sister recently started working for a wine distributing company. On her very first day of work I asked her to see if she could get me some boxes. Being the nice sister that she is she scored and got me four boxes! I’ve heard that some wine shops will give boxes to you if you ask them. Wouldn’t hurt to try.
I read somewhere that it is very important to stain your boxes first so that they don’t start rotting through the wood. I used two coats of a natural danish oil on my boxes.
Aren’t they pretty?
Once they are dry (or you could do this ahead of time) drill enough holes in the bottom of the boxes so that the water can drain.
I have to admit that I had fun drilling the holes. It’s amazing how much I am starting to love tools. The saw my husband got me for Christmas has been used multiple times and I now have other tools on my wish list.
Once you are done staining and drilling, then you can start adding your soil and plants. Since we have decided to do our ‘big’ garden again I plan to mostly put lettuce in my boxes so that I can keep them somewhat in the shade. They don’t like too much sun. I am also going to put strawberries in one box to see how well they do.
If you don’t have a lot of land to start a garden, then planting in wine boxes is a great way to grow your own veggies.
I also plan to try this watering globe method in my boxes found here at Rad Megan. How cool is that? And it’s free!
At some point I will show you what we are doing with this puppy below. It’s one of the reasons I am excited to be doing my garden again this year. It’s so great to have such good friends and neighbors!
Don’t worry mom, I didn’t drive it. Although, I did think about it.
~Jenny
