Garden of freestyle delights - Planter for cucumbers

Garden of freestyle delights 

How a scrap wood planter came to be.

The evolution of a patio from a nondescript outdoor space into a garden during this time of quarantine has been a welcome relief. Projects provide purpose. Gardening is known to be therapeutic, and for me, an extra layer of joy is added when the creation of a garden becomes a cross between a freestyle treasure hunt and impulse plant-buying.  In these 'Garden of freestyle delights' posts I'm going to describe different projects that have been part of this garden evolution.

If this space had all been planned - as a whole - from the beginning it would probably look much different and be worthier of Monty Don's approval. As it is, I hope he would appreciate the spirit, the creative reuse, and the adventure of how it has evolved so far. So let's get into it.

It started with finding some free pots set out on recycling night, like these.....

Sturdy black plastic pot

Maroon ceramic hanging pot, upside-down

...and for a while it stayed quite modest.  

A few modest plants hanging out, waiting to see if they would get destroyed by insects, or birds, or the cat. 

Just a few pots on the edge of the patio. 

Nothing special. 

Hardly even noticeable.....

Then I got access to power tools and a whole new world of possibility opened up.

This meant that not only could I use freestyle planters (plastic, ceramic, etc) for gardening, but I could use freestyle scrap wood to MAKE MY OWN PLANTERS!!!!!  

Depending on where you live and the time of year there may or may not be lots of scrap wood out on the sidewalk. But let me tell you, in a warm-weather climate, during a time that coincided with spring cleaning AND a quarantine where people are at home AND beautiful weather for home renovations....

....yeah, there has been a lot of scrap wood out for free.

 If I had a truck to pick it up and a giant lawn I could make raised beds for days. But, as things stand I am mostly only taking what I can carry.  But I digress, let me return to the cucumber box.  I found a slightly rotting wooden table very close to the patio, and convinced a friend to help me move it. In my excitement I didn't take a 'before' picture. But it had two boards across the top, and two rectangles made of 2x4s for legs.

Construction

I realized that I could flip the setup of the existing table, use the table top as a base, and use the leg rectangles - stacked one on top of the other - as the sides for a planter.  I wouldn't even have to make any cuts with my glamorous hand saw.

Here is what the wooden pieces looked like after I removed the legs from the 'table top' pieces and laid them out to see what the planter would look like.  My plan was to secure the rectangles to each other, and secure the lower rectangle to the wooden base pieces using metal L-braces (purchased from a hardware store, using money).

I even saved the screws that I pulled out in case there was a way to reuse them. They were very rusty.

Remember how I mentioned that the table was 'slightly rotting'? Yeah, well, it has clearly been sitting outside for weeks (multiple months?), and there were mushrooms growing in the cracks. 

I took it as a good sign.

Here is the planter box after assembly and placement in the corner of the patio.  If this box were going to be moved often I would add a few more braces and brackets between the different parts, but the current plan is to use this for only one season.

You might notice that the planter box seems to be elevated off the deck. Good eye!  I didn't want the wooden base of the box to be sitting directly on the decking, so I stacked up some pieces of polystyrene to use as 'legs'.  I figured this setup would allow for airflow and better drainage. If polystyrene will last 10,000 years before degrading, then those legs should be able to handle the warm and rainy weather here!

The final step before adding the potting soil was to drill some more drainage holes in the base.  The two flat base pieces already had a slight gap between them from being warped and weathered, but I wanted more drainage. Drainage drainage drainage and no worries about rotting roots.

Since cucumbers are vining plants I wanted to add a trellis. Obviously I did not want to pay for a trellis.  In classic scavenged freestyle beauty fashion I found this pieces that appeared to be an old children's art easel out for the taking. I actually walked by it (along with various other discarded wood pieces) for a few nights before being able to pick it up using a friend's car (separate story there about looking for trellis supplies).  I took apart the V-shaped easel and used one half of it as a trellis base for these cucumber plants. The easel piece was just the right width to fit across the width of the planting box and to sit on top of the little shelf created by the long table-top-turned-planter-bottom pieces.  To give the cucumbers something to climb I added twine strings tied at the top, wrapped around each cross piece on their way down, and tied to another cross-piece of twine at the base. 

Conclusion

There you have it, a freestyle scavenged scrap wood planter box and trellis. The only costs for this project were the L-shaped brackets, the twine, the potting soil, and some small cucumber seedlings -- all from the hardware store.  Check back for other posts about creating a garden on the freap (free+cheap).

Happy freestyling and gardening.

"He that plants trees loves others besides himself."

--Thomas Fuller

Garden of Freestyle Delights - Hanging Garden Using Leftover Mesh Produce Bags

Mesh of a bag

Single use plastics are generally bad, and yet really hard to avoid.  One specific type of single-use plastic that seems ripe for re-use is the open-weave mesh produce bag. You know the one I'm talking about. They look like discarded fishing gear (big problem, separate topic) but contain something delicious like avocados, oranges, or onions.  To open the bag to get at the delicious delicious food you usually have to cut or rip open the plastic mesh, leading to plastic bag bits everywhere. Then what to do with this meshy mess? Can it avoid immediate transportation to 10,000 years of landfill time?

The idea

At some point a dim dim lightbulb went off in my head and I realized that if these mesh bags were rated to hold 3 or 5 pounds of produce they could also be used to HOLD PLANTS AS HANGING PLANTERS.  So. Obvious.  I just had to see if I could get rid of the labels without destroying the mesh.

Here is an example of what I started with.

Produce bag about to start a new life

Hanging garden of (something that was) eaten

After accumulating a few produce bags (shockingly quickly) I carefully removed the labels. Some brands have large labels that are just a tag on top (nicer for this project), and others like this citrus bag have big colorful plastic labels that are bonded along the whole length of the mesh. I'm sure there is a reason for this related to processing efficiency, but this style was much harder to remove without either leaving little bit of the label on the mesh, or tearing the mesh.  Good thing it was free.  Below is an example of what I ended up with.

 

Mesh bag post label removal

I had saved a set of four small hooks from some trash pile (I think they are the kind usually used to hold an over-the-door mirror if I had to guess) and they were the perfect size to fit over the fence cross pieces.  However, you could also use some string or twine to suspend these from a hook. I had some small planters that fit stably into the mesh and hung them up along the fence. Simple as can be.  The cut ends of the mesh were a little messy looking, so I gathered and folded the edges in a bit to make it look neater.  In case you're curious the plants are from left to right: begonia seedling, zinnias growing from seed, begonia seedling, nasturtiums growing from seed. If you're going to use your own mesh produce bags I'd suggest using square plastic containers instead of round ones, because you can poke the corner through the holes in the mesh to help secure the plant pot a little better.  Maybe this only matters if the hanging garden will be subject to gusts of wind. I think the blue bags came from onions, and the orange bags were from citrus purchases.  

Hanging garden, no tools required

So that's my first attempt at making a hanging garden out of leftover mesh produce bags. It keeps smaller containers away from foot traffic and adds some plant love to this awkward fence section.

Happy freestyling, and don't be afraid to experiment to make your own scavenged beauty garden setup!

The Perfect Patio Set in Boldest Yellow

The Find

With so much time spent at home, and the arrival of spring, I decided it was time to have a proper dining table and pair of chairs on the patio. Naturally I turned to second-hand sites on the internet because I'd rather buy local than have something large and heavy shipped for afar.  The tricky limitation was the size of the available transport vehicle, a small 4-door car.  I was searching for bistro sets when I came across a listing for two metal chairs and a table -- I was over the moon. They were painted bright yellow and so cute! So garden-appropriate (there wasn't much of a patio garden at that point, but that's a story for another post).  I set a pickup time, and the seller sweetened the offer, without any asking on my part, by simply giving it away for free. So lovely!

The Transport

Luckily the pickup was not too far away, but I was still worried about it fitting into a small car. But one of the chairs (So. Heavy.) folds up and fit in the trunk, and somehow the table and other non-folding chair fit into the back seat.  Here is a photo I took from the front seat.
Tip: always bring towels or some sort of padding when you are picking up furniture, you never know where you'll need cushioning!

The Joyous Use
Once the patio set arrived in its new home it got a bath on the lawn to wash away the dust.
















After that all we had to do was let it dry and carry it up to the deck and sit down for a snack to enjoy the new dining space.

Conclusion

Thank you person who gave away this patio set!  Your generosity is appreciated every single day whenever I look out the kitchen window, sit down for a meal, or just step out onto the patio.  I'm still pinching myself at my luck.

Happy freestyling!