I've been wanting a way to grow greens earlier in the spring, and later into the fall. I had been trying to figure out how to get a covered planter box built, and trying to figure where to locate it on our mostly shady property. Then, two back to back miracles happened.
First, I happened to acquire 3 free wooden palettes within a week. The following week, I saw a large sheet of plexiglass (5ft x 3ft) on the side of the road, set out with somebody's trash. Perfect for a greenhouse lid! Armed with some youtube videos on how to turn ugly pallets into beautiful yard decor, I presented my plan and stash of free materials to Sean. He thought he could make something that looked nice, and set about sketching plans.
First, let me explain Sean and his woodshop. Sean loves order. Unfortunately he married me and suddenly had 5 children. So, "order" is a rare thing in any aspect of his life. Last summer, he decided to make a wood-working shop (AKA organized man cave) in the back of our shed. He built a dividing wall, partially insulated it, and then proceeded to custom build holders for his tools.
He found reasons that he needed a table saw, and built a custom table for the small area to put it on.
With his table saw, he proceeded to make shelves for the shed, an end table for the side of his bed, and a small carpentry stool for Ephraim.
Most recently it came in handy when he made my planter box. But.. of course he wanted to build this planter box with Japanese Style Carpentry. This is a type of peg construction (not screws or nails) that the Japanese have been using for hundreds of years. So.. he would obviously need a drill press.
The other thing about Sean you need to understand, is that he loves high quality tools. When the UPS worker almost died trying to haul the 51 pound drill press up our steps, I knew Sean had been buying tools again and I was witnessing the arrival of some very intense equipment.
Sean and Ephraim figured out how to work it together. Ephraim loves building. I can see him becoming an engineer someday, if his careers as a heart surgeon or ninja don't work out.
Sean got all the holes drilled, pegs glued, and stained the boards. This was the most time consuming, because we've had two weeks of rain, and the short breaks between rarely conincided to when Sean was actually home to paint. Finally they were stained and dried, and Sean could removed the sod from the area I wanted it installed.
He had to dig down a long ways into the Wisconsin clay, in order to make room for the bags of topsoil he would fill it with.
Ephraim loved playing in the piles of excavated clay. He spent hours making various things from it, including pots to hold flowers from our yard.
Ephraim put a "Do Not Touch" sign under them while they dried. This clay is actual pottery clay. We have a high school ceramics teacher three houses up the road, who used clay from his yard to make pots and fired them in a kiln
I tried growing some starts for the first time this year. I had 6 week old tomatoes and peppers to plant in it.
The final product was beautiful I love the color of the stain, and the simple design. We now have happy tomatoes and peppers in the ground, with a row of salad greens and spinach along the edge.
Little do people know, when they walk by and see this beautiful new planter, that it was made with ancient Japanese carpentry skills! Maybe I should put a sign up.
Multi Cultural Planter: "Made by Amazing Husband, of Northern European descent, using Ancient Japanese Carpentry Techniques, to house Noble Vegetables of South American origin".
The plexiglass lid is a project for later in the summer. We don't need it until the fall, after the tomatoes have been harvested, and I pull out the cages. Then we'll seed it all in greens, and cover it with the glass, to catch the fall and winter sun. We'll see what happens!
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