When Jfleming posted the photos of the Grow boxes with cold frame tops that her DH made for her, I showed the photos to DSO. Well, he came up with a great idea. He has 6 of these wooden boxes that large equipment was shipped in. They also each have a wooded pallet that goes underneath them. They are 3 and a half feet long by 2 and a half feet wide. They are two feet deep. The pallets are a foot tall and are open in the center.
Here's a photo of the inside. The empty space in the middle of the pallet can be used to store straw for warmth. I could even set the pallets on cinder blocks, which would raise them another foot and basically, I'd be gardening at almost waste level. We have to figure out what type of tops to use. I'm hoping that Jfleming will come back and post the photos of the insides of her cold frames.
Those are heavy duty boxes!! Anxious to see what you decide to do with them :) They remind me of the "box" we had to make to store our Bonsai in for the winters in Maine. When we had the backhoe operator dig the hole he commented that it was the perfect size for a casket! LOL We had to make the hole deep enough so the open bottom box would allow the bonsai to sit on the crushed rock floor below frost level. We used that plastic ribbed roofing for the top and hinged it so we could prop it up to give them fresh air once the weather started warming up. A ton of work getting it installed but at least we we were successful in keeping the Bonsai alive every winter!
Took a few pictures yesterday - here's my "dumpster diving" bent willow chair!
And this is the area for my current project. I'm calling it my "welcome garden" because it's where people enter to visit the gardens :) Right now there's a pile of junk there, huge 8x8 timbers, some rolls of landscape fabric, etc. which obviously all have to get moved :(
So...I figure this is where I'll add my clay pot lady and dog to "welcome" everyone! Moving those timbers isn't going to be easy so I thought maybe I could use them to terrace the garden for planting? Then I thought, why not use a few of them to make an arbor and plant the Wisteria I've been looking for a place to plant? I've got a couple of tall grasses which also need to be planted and this full sun location would be perfect for them! Add some Campanula to "spill' out of the watering can and flow over the edges, then figure out what else I can find for this garden and I'm done! Looks easy enough on "paper" but moving those timbers is going to be tough :(
Lookin' good, RCN. That chair was a great find. LOL, you have interesting junk piles too. You are having a lot of fun with that software program. Makes your dreams instant reality. They should call it dreamware. If it could only move those timbers! What did Rick think?
rcn
I love your plan. Your ability to pull all of that together is incredible. I especially like the potted lady and her companion dog sitting in that wonderful dumpers fine... doesn't it make ya warm and fuzzy to see it all come together like that?
Nice job.
Janet
How come I can't find something like that??? I like your plan it looks good.
How come I can't find something like that???
Deb, I have no doubt that you will!
Deb, I do that, jumping from one chore to the other, not getting anything completed. Just going from the front bed to the compost pile is a distraction, "Oh look there's a weed!" At this point I forget about the front bed and start weeding the side bed.
Can you leave the 8x8's where they are and just design the plantings around them?
Chris, I wish I could but there's probably a dozen of those 8x8's laying there and they have to be moved in order to get the soil tilled up :( We had a couple of projects planned about 5 years ago and got a great deal on the lumber at the local building supply store. We stored the lumber in that spot because at the time the gardens hadn't expanded to that area. Now, 5 years later, we've never used it and the gardens are getting closer and closer and the "pile" has become a real eyesore :( I'll try to use as many as I can to terrace the area once it's tilled but I'll make sure wherever we move the remaining lumber that's it WAY out of sight!
rcn,
I told my daughter how you build a "virtual" garden with some software.
She asked me--to ask you--WHAT is the Software you use to do this????
Thanks. Gita
Gita, I use Photoshop but I suspect most any photo editing program would work. The key is "layers". I collect photos of all the plants I want to use and "erase" all the backgrounds. Then I paste the "borrowed" photos into their own layer so I can move them around and resize them. Most of my ideas change by the time I actually start planting in real dirt but at least it gives me some ideas to work with :)
Here's a pic of my garden boxes. I've recently planted some cool season vegetables in them and so far, it's working!
Stormyla.
Here's another pic!
One more!
Great cold frames, JF! :-)
Jfleming thanks. Your tops are completely removable right? Why did your DH make the tops taller in the back? For rain run off?
Stormyla,
The tops are removable and the tops are slanted for easy rain and snow run off. Now, I'm going to be searching for those boxes you found! Those will make great garden boxes! I have stacks of wood pallets we have saved when we purchased all the field stone for our stone walls. I still am not sure what to do with them. Any ideas folks?
This message was edited Nov 4, 2009 3:18 PM
The end of fall is very near. I am down to half a dozen patio pots that need to be cleaned and put away...........and just one I wish to go bulb hunting in to see if there is anything there worth saving. The hummer feeders are all in and done. The snow shovel has been located and translocated to a spot near the back door. My son has put half a deer in our freezer. I am just about ready for winter. Now we need to make arrangements for snow removal. LOL
Real nice job on the posted cold frames. They should serve their purpose for quite a few years. I have a real nice brick cold frame. Anyone want a half ton cold frame I do not use anymore? I might throw a pack of onion seed in there to see what happens.
jfleming, when Ric gets his computer back, I'm sure he'll have good ideas for the flats. I'll ask DSO what came packed in those boxes.
Doc, Holly might want that cold frame. Can you get a photo? If you need some bulbs, I can spare some. Glad you were able to get your "stuff" inside.
Jfleming, Those wooden boxes had xray machines shipped in them.
This is the inside of one of the pallets. This isn't actually a true pallet. It is actually the bottom of the box. The box itself was just a big lid. There are 2 x 4's on the other side of this base which would raise the platform 5" off of the ground. This inside section is where I would put the manure & straw. So, It would be a grow box on an insulated platform.
Now to get the tops made.
Stormyla,
Home Depot is calling your name!
Jfleming, Is that where you got that corrogated plastic? Do you know what they call it?
stormy--
That "corrugated plastic" might be what HD sells for patio covers or car-port covers. I believe it comes in different colors as well. jfleming--is that where you got?
Call your local HD and ask for the Pro Desk.
G.
We did get it at Home Depot and it is used for carports and patios. On another thread at DG someone posted pictures of a greenhouse they constructed using corrugated plastic. This is where I got the idea to use corrugated plastic rather than using old windows. I had some old windows but they just didn't fit and would have given my husband, " fits" attempting to make it work. Using the corrugated plastic made it a quick and easy job of assembling the garden tops for the boxes
RCN, That tank looks great. I remember seeing it rusty and didn't think it looked too bad as the rust color did blend in. But I really agree with LadyG that painting it changed it from looking like a discard to a purposeful item. Love the pot people and the new project idea.
LOL, What was that comment? Rick groaning. Thinks I've gone off the deep end. Another unfinished project. Wait a minute are we talking about your house or mine. LOL
Jfleming, I really do love those cold frames. Lets see about those pallets. We used pallets for a lot of things around here. Besides using them to stack wood and other things to give a somewhat neater appearance and easier to mow around. We stand them on edge to make fences, line stalls, and my favorite a compost area. Stood on their edges you can nail them to posts, put a pole in the ground and set them over it or just wire them together depending on how permanent or temp you want the wall to be.
Stormy, Great crate. Ric and Jamie go up to the Army base and for $5 you can get a load of scrap lumber. Quite often there are really good crates we have used them to build coal boxes, playhouses and my chicken coop. All the exterior plywood on the 2 story part of my home is used packing crates we got from my Dad's moving business. The crates were built from 4 X 8 sheets of exterior plywood there are addresses stenciled on most of them.
Doc, Ric would like to see a pic of that cold frame if you still have it and can post a pic. LOL
Holly............I posted that offer more as a jolk than anything else. It would take heavy equipment and some pretty good jock strap engineering to just get it up out of the ground. There are several hundred mortered brick in the cold frame of mention. Then after it was removed I would have lawn work to fair the well rebuilding the truck and equipment damage. Not sure but the gross weight would likely not be safe on a pick up truck. It's a white elephant. Don't even think it would be a fun move.
LOL Doc, Doesn't sound like something we can just drive by and throw into the trailer.
Whew, it's been over a month since I've been posting much but I've been busy! I was waiting to post an update until I had photos and in the meantime I've finished not one but TWO "unfinished" projects! It's been exactly two years since I started "My Weekend Project" http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/782277/ !!! We ran into a problem with the bottom half of the steps on the slope and other projects moved to the top of the priority list because finishing the steps was going to be a MAJOR hassle :( With all the beautiful weather in October the steps finally made it back to the top of the "list" and I started digging to remove the soil necessary to get the steps level - almost a foot deep and 3' wide :( Then the tree stump that I thought the steps would clear proved to be an obstacle and I finally had to sweet talk Rick into helping me with "my" project! The digging took a day, sawing the stump, getting the stringers attached and more digging took another day, and the third day the treads were finally nailed down and they're done :)))) Over the course of the next week I dug like crazy trying to terrace the slope and transplanted two conifers from containers and two more from another area to plant on the sides of the steps. The two at the top of the steps weren't exactly "easy" - they were planted as stock plants in our arboretum 8 years ago and it took me about an hour to dig up each one and now I'm just keeping my fingers crossed that the stress won't kill them over the winter. Then I went looking for something else to anchor the corner and decided to dig up a Hinoki Cypress that was planted 12 years ago. It was planted by the front corner of the house and the past few years had begun to suffer because of too much shade so I decided it would be the perfect anchor and hopefully will appreciate me giving it a much more appropriate site :) Unfortunately it took almost 3 hours to dig and safely get it out of the ground without doing too much damage to the roots but I was on a mission and by the end of the day it was planted in its new home!
The tarps were used to cover all the soil I dug for the terracing of the slope so the rains wouldn't wash it away! I continued to plant a few more things that don't show (Hostas, etc.) because they're dormant but then I was interrupted with another project - more on that in the next few posts! We added four posts along the steps (railing be added later)and I ordered two solar post caps for the two lower posts and bought wooden caps for the top posts. I didn't bother to order four solar lights because I don't think there's enough sun at the top of the steps to charge them! Instead of spending a lot of time every morning on DG I was busy planning the "design" with Photoshop :) I've made a few changes to the "design" but this is the look I'm striving for! I'll be spending time collecting rocks over the winter and finish off the terracing in preparation for the final planting in the spring and hopefully find enough flat stones to finish the area in front of the steps :)
Oops, I meant to post the "before" picture - here's what the slope looked like when I started this project two years ago :)
Now....the "project" that interrupted my planting! Remember when I started working on a copper arbor for the sitting deck in March of 2008??? http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/fp.php?pid=5638333 Well, progress was slowed on that project when Phoebe got sick, then the heat of the summer kicked in, then the winter passed, was too busy with other projects in the spring and more summer heat and by October this year the arbor still wasn't done :( I had problems with the soldering of the joints and when I found out Larry was looking for work (a friend of ours who has experience soldering copper), I finally bit the bullet and hired him to help me get the arbor done! I told Rick to slap me the next time I decide to tackle a project of this magnitude, it was MUCH more difficult than I thought it would be! Of course, if it had just been a "simple" design and not as wide I probably could have accomplished it by myself but when I changed the design everything got a little more complicated :( I worked with Larry for two full days sanding and soldering the joints and we still weren't done! One more afternoon and it was ready to move into place. THEN, after all my careful planning and measuring I didn't notice that there were cement blocks under the corners of the sitting deck that interfered with installing the four corners - it wasn't wide enough :( So, after heating the joints and inserting 1.5" sections to the four spots where it was needed, the arbor was finally ready to install - one more "unfinished" project DONE :)))
It's a little difficult to see, here's a closer look :) What I didn't realize was that I'm going to have to "clean" all the joints because the heat oxidized the copper and I won't be able to achieve the patina look I want unless they're cleaned :( Oh well, at least it's done and now I can decide what I want to plant in the spring to climb up and over it and I'm already beginning to plan more "new" projects!
WOW RCN you rock!
They both look wonderful. I noticed the solar post caps right off and thought they have a similar look to the oriental lanterns on the post near the black bamboo lattice. Boy that looks so good. Oh digging up those trees. I can't even image digging up something that established and moving it. Digging in your ground isn't exactly easy either.
Cu-dos on getting that copper trellis finished as well. Not only does it look great but by finishing it you have removed the clutter of the unfinished project. I'm glad you mentioned that it was harder than you thought it would be. Sometimes those type of projects don't look very hard until you are knee deep in them and then think what did I get myself into. LOL
RCN, Awesome job! I love the design of that copper arbor. It's very beautiful and really fits well in that spot. That photo program is wonderful for design. That garden will look wonderful as planned. What back breaking work you've done. You are amazing.
AWESOME, I love it.
I noticed the solar post caps right off and thought they have a similar look to the oriental lanterns on the post near the black bamboo lattice
Another Photoshop "project" and I need your opinion! Now that the steps are done I'm hopefully going to be tackling extending the bamboo fence to wrap all the way around the back of the pond and connect it to the arbor. It's only going to be a couple of feet tall, just enough to give the walkway a border and just high enough to discourage the dogs from charging down over the slope and into the field. They'll have to control themselves and use the steps like everyone else! So...here's where I need your opinion. I'm thinking about staining the risers and stringers of the steps, using clear poly on the treads and leave the arbor natural. I "painted" everything with Photoshop and added what I think the bamboo border will look like. I'm just nervous to actually start staining because I don't want the steps to look too 'busy', what do you think?
