My family and I, We try to be as self sufficient as we can be.
However, we only have a quarter acre to do so.
Sometimes that means making sacrifices. Like not being able to free range our chickens
as often as we'd like.
It also means not being able to plant rows and rows of food crops.
But small spaces aren't the only reason you may want to grow vertically.
Jullianne from Dirt Patch Heaven has stopped by to share some of her thoughts.
Thank you Stan. For those of you who would be new to my channel you would not know something
about my soil. My soil is poisonous and where it is not poisonous it's just cobblestone.
And so most of our growing that we do in our garden is in a raised bed of some kind. Right
now we are experimenting with doing a hot bed raised bed system in our greenhouses using
rabbit manure to get all of the bacteria growing. In order to plant outside I've just been planting
in cardboard boxes. I've put my planting medium in and then some rabbit manure and then I
dig a hole, put the cardboard box with the planting medium with the plants in it and
then cover it back up. It would be so nice to have a planter that I didn't have to reconfigure
as it starts to melt and fall apart as I water my plant. Now in a greenhouse situation it's
nice to have a vertical planter because if you have something like a fig or a kiwi that
can't survive outside. But would be able to survive in a greenhouse situation it means
you can take it outside and let it grow during the summer and flourish and be beautiful and
then you can pick it up in that planter and put it in your greenhouse for the winter.
Where you would have quite a few degrees warmer. For someone like me that lives in a very cold
environment. Having something like that that could be moved is just absolutely vital. Thanks
for having me on and I hope all of your will come and check out our channel and see what
we do to be self reliant and we'll talk to you later.
Thanks Julianne, lets see what we can come up with to help both of us.
You know how every project starts with. We get a materials and cut list from
Simply Easy DIY dot com
and cut all our pieces to length.
Now the base portion of our vertical planter boxes is as simple and
easy as I can make it. Some 2x3's. Lay those out.
Place our 1x4's across them.
Flush them up nice and straight.
It is beyond the scope of this video to talk about what materials you should or shouldn't
use for your planters.
That's your business. Whether it's Pine, cedar or Pallet wood. No matter what you use your
for sure going to have
to do some maintenance somewhere down the road
When I am designing and building an outdoor project
such as this vertical garden planter. Thats where my thoughts
are, so If any part of this planter fails or needs
replacing. I can simply remove the screws and replace the boards.
That's one side. I'll simply repeat the process for the other side
Then those should stand on their own.
Yep, ok.
Now I can attach the boards for the third side.
Alright, their is the base of my planter. Time to start on the vertical planter boxes.
Lay out all my pieces.
Flush them up.
I need to mark an inch and a half overhang on the ends of the rail pieces. Two boards
the same thickness as the material
I am using for the project placed against a third one like so, allows me to mark the
line with no measuring.
A line of wood glue. Make sure it's rated for outdoor use by the way. Even then I'm
not a big fan of using
glue for projects like this. Their is a reason for that and their is a reason for this. I'll
talk more about that on the blog post.
Simply easy DIY dot com. Check the description. I'll have all the links including a special
Extended Bonus footage video of this project over on my second channel. Simply easy Homesteading.
For the shorter ends of the vertical planter boxes. Just line everything up and attach
in the same way.
No overhang.
Time to assemble the planter boxes. Two longer sides with the overhangs are outside the two
shorter ends.
Couple clamps to hold things together till I show you...the back of my arm. (Sigh)
Hear let me fix that for you...ahh nope that probably won't be any better. Hear I got the
perfect idea. Why
don't I just put the camera right back in the same spot that I had it before. Yeah,
that'll be a whole lot better.
(sigh) Sometimes I don't know what to do with past me.
Anyway, there we go.
Now if you'll notice on these planter boxes any one of these sides can be replaced by
simply removing the screws holding it in place.
Attach the ledges for the bottom slats.
Other side.
A few holes for drainage.
Continuing the theme of simple I cut a few ledge pieces from left over 2x3 and attached
those to the vertical planter posts.
The boxes will sit on those and be secured in place with bolts that will go through the
posts and the planter boxes.
This allows for the boxes to be removed and relocated in a green house or a cold frame
during winter months.
Additionally a bottom could be added to the base planter and with the aid of two people,
could be moved to a greenhouse as well.
I made sure the deminsions would allow it to fit through a standard size doorway.
Live in a condo or an apartment? This would be great for a small balcony or patio as well.
Thanks Julianne from Dirt Patch Heaven for helping me out with this project. Be sure
to stop by her channel and say hello.
She's got all sorts of videos to help you be more self sufficient on whatever size homestead
you call home.
Hey thanks for watching, don't forget to check out the extended bonus footage video over
on Simply Easy Homesteading.
here's a link for ya.
Until Then.