DIY Garden Planters {Salsa Garden – Part 2}

Well, I guess as you can tell, Part 2 didn’t come out the next day….

Let’s see what happened?? Hmm… worked at the apartments all day on Friday… Went out on a date with hubby… Too tired to work on it then.

Saturday…. Up early cleaning, laundry, paperwork…

Oh… worked at the apartments all day…. Too tired…

Plus, I was leaving the next day to drive 4+ hours

 to pick my daughter up from college.   

So, there you have it….

It’s already Tuesday!  Lesson learned?   

Don’t even hint when another post is coming out…. 

Oh well, that’s what life is like… bumps and turns, hang ups and up hangs…  :)

So, here we go.  

 I’m going to show you all what we did with this…

This is not going to be a tutorial or anything like that.  If you would like more information, just email me and I can give you more specifics.

I have been wanting to do a salsa garden for a couple of years.  When the kiddos were younger we had a huge garden.  We grew corn, tomatoes, green beans, carrots, jalapenos, bell peppers, cantaloupe, watermelon… 

I’m pretty sure that covers it.

It was a lot of fun and a lot of work.  We were homeschooling then and it was a great hands on project for them.  I made a bunch of salsa (which we LOVE!!!) Fresh is best! But I also canned quite a bit too.  We did that for a few years.

Well, hubby and I truly miss having a garden,

 so I suggested to him a salsa garden.   

Of course, he LOVED the idea!   

Small, contained, easy to maintain, that’s what I was looking for.   

So, we decided to build raised planter beds.

They came out soooo perfect!

First, hubby and I felt that we will be doing this for a LONG time, so we invested in composite wood.  It should hold up for 20+ years! Plus no staining, no warping, no rotting.  Sounds like a good thing to me!   

So, you ask, did they cost a lot extra?  I will have to admit yes…   

 But! Hubby likes to remind me that time is money…. He would rather invest in something that lasts instead of rebuilding them about every 5 years, plus the time in staining, etc….  I think you get the picture.

We took a look at our yard and tried to determine where they would look nice and get the most sun.  In front of the shed seemed like the perfect spot.   

So we measured the space and went to building.  

 I thought it would look nice to have two of them on either side of the front door.

Hubby made up some plans and we went to work.

He showed me how to use the power saw.  

Hubby kept saying I looked like Sarah Palin with those my glasses on! Haha!

  It’s definitely not as easy as he makes it look.   

 But I got the hang of it and cut all off the boards, except the top edge.

 Yes, I actually used the saw! The blade is spinning! Plus look at all of the saw dust on me!  I was a mess!

  Hubby said, I did pretty good!

Next, we put all the pieces together.  By the way, there is NOOO way I could have done this by myself.  Composite wood it so much heaver and denser.  You need some serious muscles and leverage to put those screws in! 

Thank the Lord, for my hubby!!

One layer…

 

Two layers… 

 Plus we added a support in the center, so that it wouldn't stretch out with all of the dirt in it.

 I really wanted a top ledge that I could sit on or lay my tools or glass of tea, so hubby cut the mitered corners.

We heave ho-ed it out to the shed…

Let me tell you those babies are HEAVY! 

Can you say gorgeous??

Hubby and I were so pleased with how they came out.  Each one took a day to put together.  Not bad!  Now, I just need dirt, and LOTS of it!

I was thinking of getting some window boxes?   

What do you think? Cute, huh?

You can sorta see how I’m going to plant the garden. 

And in case you are wondering, no, I don’t put zucchini in my salsa….

We love zucchini and I have canned zucchini relish in the past, which is DELISH!  It’s so much better than any relish out there.   

I plan on canning a bunch of that this summer too!

Dirt and plants and we will be good to go!  Can’t wait!