Complete Hack Makes A Diy Planter Box

Great hobby to get him started in, for sure. Radishes are a winner - they grow fast and will keep his attention. Lettuces are also great since you can start eating them as micro-greens (as you thin them) and will continue to grow as they are consumed. Intensive gardening is great for max yield, but you have to keep things watered nearly every day, and I'm guessing it would be a bit more tricky. Oh, and beware of deer if they are around at all. They'll eat every thing you are just about to enjoy. They got me 2-3 times before I fixed the fence situation. Birds will also steal things like squash just as they start to grow. Netting and/or chicken wire fencing will handle it all.

If you care to read up on gardening via crusty old-guy advice, Steve Solomon's book "Gardening When it Counts" is a winner.

Bon appetite.

-Ryan
 
Thanks to all the replies!!!
i have made a modification at T's Bredehoft's suggestion, a pair of aluminum plates to keep the screws from pulling into the wood!
a couple more pictures!

Planter%2BBox%2B7.jpg

the boy wanted to help so he was on the drill press' lever- he got a little heavy on the second hole to the left. the second plate was much better.
i think i have another metal maniac on our hands!

Planter%2BBox%2B9.jpg
Planter%2BBox%2B8.jpg

Planter%2BBox%2B10.jpg

thanks for reading and commenting!!!
 
Veggies!! Great project and great that your son has an interest in gardening at his age. So what's on the menu?
 
Well, I am glad to see that I am not the only one that has little trouble with metal but tend to pull my hair out when working with wood. I currently have a project on the horizon to make a nice wooden box for my rotary table. I suppose I can do a build thread on it when I get that far. Cross yer fingers!
 
Rick Leslie said:
Veggies!! Great project and great that your son has an interest in gardening at his age. So what's on the menu?
Click to expand...

Hello Rick,
we have watermelon, blueberry,red pepper,cherry tomato,heirloom tomato,sweet basil.
the 2 that aren't planted yet are cucumber and yellow squash.

when selecting the plants my son threw a couple in the cart that i was not sure of, but what the heck it will be fun to see how it goes!

i read somewhere that you don't want to put a squash plant next to a watermelon-
you'll get a cross fertilization that creates a weird hybrid that doesn't taste like melon or squash.

does anyone know more about things like this????
 
Uglydog said:
Very nice work!!

Helped me to recall my 14year old daughter telling us that she wanted to make the unfinished walk out basement her bedroom. My immediate thought I'm not going to allow a teenage daughter to slip out a basement walk out door in the middle of the night (I used to be that old).

In an attempt to diffuse the request, I countered with sure, not a problem, if YOU do the work then we can make it happen. I thought the whole notion would be immediately stopped. She asked how she should begin. I told her she would need to create a bill of materials to frame the walls, insulate, and wire. The next day I was given a bill of materials and a hand sketched blue print. Arrgh.

Ok, so we went to the lumber yard and picked up 2x4s. She learned how to select them for straight etc. She did most of the lifting and loading, I helped and paid. Then she wanted to use the chop saw to cut them to length. This will stop her! Nope, over the weekend she cut everything to length. I was pretty sure that hand nailing all those nails would stop the project. She bent alot of nails. But, learned to hammer. a month later. If you want electricity you are going to have to drill the studs. She isn't very big but she handled that 1/2inch drill well. At this point I know that I lost the wager. You can guess the rest. Now she is 22years old and in Madagascar. Evidently, everything turned out all right.

UlmaDoc, be careful where the wild dreams of youth go! You might end up with an vintage tractor in your yard!

Daryl
MN
Click to expand...

Well Daryl,
your daughter's independence was in no small way shaped by your actions.
once people do and accomplish things they have never tried, it only leads to greater success.

Like you,
i'm on a mission to teach my son to be a free thinker, to walk the fringes of the box that encapsulates the uninitiated.

thanks for sharing the story, you are obviously a great dad!
 
Nice work metal guy. I completed the same project last year with my son and daughter. The kids enjoyed it immensely and it teaches great lessons about how much work it is to produce food. I also found that there was no waste at dinner time when it came to the veggies they worked so hard on. Growing up we had a two acre garden that provided a years worth of vegetables and fruits for our family for a year. My brother and I spent many hours pulling weeds, thinning plants and harvesting. I hated it at the time but now look at those times with great fondness.
 
Two years ago I planted zucchini and yellow crook neck squash closer together than normal. At the end of summer I tilled it all in so that winter could do its work on the plant parts. Last year I had several squash plants come up from the left over seeds I tilled in. They were doing great so I adjusted to keep them in the garden. They grew a yellow and green stripped mostly zucchini variety. Decent tasting but a lot of large seeds to them that we just scrapped out before eating. I suppose it is possible that they cross breed but I think they would have to be in the same family of plants to be compatible. I don't think you could cross breed a blueberry bush with an apple tree. I do plant several varieties of melons together but never got a cantawaterloupemelon.
Dave
 
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