Progress on Andrus Garden [pic]

Today I bought my first few materials for my 4x4 box. I bought one 2x6x16 and had them cut it into 4' sections. The associate only measured for 3, so the last one is about 1" too big. No problem for my saw!

I originally wanted to get cedar, but they didn't have the right dimensions and I plan on moving my box should a hurricane come through my area. So I got the 2x6 and bought some stain from the paint dept.

Not done staining but I made sure not to stain the inside where my plants will be growing. Also, I may line those with plastic, but I'll see how I feel when I leave to get compost and vermiculite tomorrow.

Note: I was staining indoors because its actually cold here in Florida today!


Materials before I brought them inside. Late in the day.


Makeshift work area in the living room.


Stain: Royal Hayden.

Didn't get the wood for the grid because they had that section blocked off at the moment. I'll grab it tomorrow and stain one side, too.

Lookin good Czarina

Wood... $10
Screws... $2 worth
Acting like Tom Hanks in Cast Away and screaming "I have built a box!" in the middle of the night... priceless.

Mel's Mix tomorrow.

Czarina wrote:screaming "I have built a box!" in the middle of the night...

Finally got to BWI today to buy ingredients for my Mel's Mix. I pulled in there with a Ford Taurus and needless to say when they wheeled my haul out on a pallet jack I had underestimated myself. But after the associate got through laughing at me, he filled the entire car with all my stuff.

I spread out my tarp and mixed only the composts together. I got enough mix for 3 boxes; 4x4, 2x8 and an optional 4x4x12". I'd rather have too much mix than not enough.

Haven't even begun on the peat moss or vermiculite, but I'm glad I got to see my tarp in action! At first I thought it was too big, but after emptying all the composts, it worked out well. I bought a 12x16.


Beautiful day in the neighborhood.


Trunk completely full.


They were out of worm castings. Guano was the most expensive thing besides vermiculite.

Following your first efforts with interest, Czarina, and looking forward to seeing your prgress.

Go Czarina Go !

Czarina, don't forget that most peat moss is sold in 2.2 cu ft COMPACTED bales. Once you fluff them up (technical term) they will expand to about 4 cu ft, which is the measurement you will use. Make sure you break up all the clumps well by either running it through a screen or rubbing the clumps between your hands (wear gloves to avoid irritation)

Looks like a great assortment of composts.

Czarina....I'll be watching your progress. I love when there's a new player who is just introduced to this wonderful growing method.
Go girl, go!

Way to go Czarina

Love the compost haul picture! And great job on building your own boxes! Looks like you're really off and running.

Kelejan wrote:Following your first efforts with interest, Czarina, and looking forward to seeing your prgress.

Thanks so much Kelejan! I hope to do some more updates this week.

llama momma wrote:Go Czarina Go !

I'm certainly trying! Haha

Furbalsmom wrote:Czarina, don't forget that most peat moss is sold in
2.2 cu ft COMPACTED bales. Once you fluff them up (technical term) they
will expand to about 4 cu ft, which is the measurement
you will use. Make sure you break up all the clumps well by either
running it through a screen or rubbing the clumps between your hands
(wear gloves to avoid irritation)

Looks like a great assortment of composts.

The compacted bales I got are 3.8 cu ft and the ladies at BWI's customer
service desk really helped me figure out how much I'd need. They said
it'll fluff to about 7 cu ft and I needed 10 cu ft. So I bought two and
I'm going to attempt to fluff both bales and then measure all my Mel's
Mix by 5 gallon buckets. Whatever is left over I'll have to find
something put it in.

I was nervous about the composts, so your comment really put that to rest for me. Thanks!

I still have to buy wood for my other boxes, and I haven't quite figured
out how tall I want to make them. But tomorrow will be a good day for
doing all that.

nKedrOoStEr wrote:Way to go Czarina

Thanks!

gwennifer wrote:Love the compost haul picture! And great job on
building your own boxes! Looks like you're really off and running.

Thanks, I have to keep reminding myself to snap photos because a lot of this stuff I won't be doing again for a while.

I'm so impressed you did this yourself.

I enlisted the menfolk to build, and my DD and I prepped the douglass fir wood with a termite deterrent.

Keep us posted!

AvaDGardner wrote:I'm so impressed you did this yourself.

I enlisted the menfolk to build, and my DD and I prepped the douglass fir wood with a termite deterrent.

Keep us posted!

Well even if the menfolk were around here (3 brothers), they are way to lazy to help with such a project as this, lol. Gotta do what I gotta do!

Seed Haul!

Okay, so I didn't get to mix the rest of the vermiculite and fluff the peat moss this week, so that still remains to be done. Along with the rest of the wood buying. Oh yeah, and chicken wire (so much to do!).

I've had my head in this seed catalog for the past few weeks trying to determine what exactly I want to grow. Finally this week I made an Excel spreadsheet and listed everything and the prices. Then I located the bag of seeds I bought last month from Home Depot (where I've re-placed that bag I've no clue!) and scratched some things off the list.

The company seeds I was looking through was High Mowing Seeds and some of the prices were stretching the budget. The corn is sold by seed count. The ones I wanted were 75 ct./$2.75. This corn you can put 9 per sq ft. so I would need more than 75 to fill my 2x8 box. Then they had some sweet peppers 10 ct./$8.00+!!

So after shopping around here's what I ended up buying:

High Mowing Seed Co.

SKU	Product	Price	Qty	Total
2200	Maxibel Haricot Vert Bean Options: Unit Size: 1 OZ	$2.75	1	$2.75
2335	Cosmic Purple Carrot Options: Unit Size: 1/32 OZ	$2.75	1	$2.75
2520	Lacinato Dinosaur Kale Options: Unit Size: 1/32 OZ	$2.75	1	$2.75
2783	Magnum Orange Habenero Pepper Options: Unit Size: 1/64 OZ	$2.75	1	$2.75

Sub Total w/shipping: $14.95

Osbourne Seed Co.

Item	Qty	Price	Total
Pepper, Oranos F1 Certified Organic 25 seeds	1	$14.10	$14.10
Pepper, Atris F1 1/10 M	1	$10.05	$10.05
Corn, Luscious Certified Organic F1 SE 1/2 M	1	$6.70	$6.70

Sub Total:
$30.85

Ended up saving $92.86 from shopping around! I have to pick up a few more seeds from Home Depot then think about buying some transplants. But for now, this is what I've got and I am super excited

Czarina, all your building, progress, and planning is fantastic I have really enjoyed following. Great job. There is no doubt in my mind, you will have a fantastic garden this year

nKedrOoStEr wrote:Czarina, all your building, progress, and planning is fantastic I have really enjoyed following. Great job. There is no doubt in my mind, you will have a fantastic garden this year

Thanks, that means a lot!!!

Last weekend I converted my 4x4 into a 4x8 with 12" sides. I completely took the 4x4 apart and used the pieces as sides. Bought some 8 foot 2x6s and 2x4s from the 'B' pile (they were much cheaper), but I'm paying for it. The sides aren't level and when stacked on top of each other they aren't flush.

Anyhow, I put the entire box together but it's uneven and I ran late into the night on assembly. So tomorrow I'm going to take the longer sides apart, cut and level them, then put the whole thing back together. I'll post pics, I took a bunch on my first assembly.

Thanks everyone who is keeping up with the progress!

So sorry you have that extra work, but you will be happy once your box is completed.

Waiting for more progress reports.

Czarina wrote:Last weekend I converted my 4x4 into a 4x8 with 12" sides. I completely took the 4x4 apart and used the pieces as sides. Bought some 8 foot 2x6s and 2x4s from the 'B' pile (they were much cheaper), but I'm paying for it. The sides aren't level and when stacked on top of each other they aren't flush.

Anyhow, I put the entire box together but it's uneven and I ran late into the night on assembly. So tomorrow I'm going to take the longer sides apart, cut and level them, then put the whole thing back together. I'll post pics, I took a bunch on my first assembly.

Thanks everyone who is keeping up with the progress!

That is what cursing is for. Remember that you are putting it in the ground and filling it with dirt (s**t even). It is not a precious piece of furniture. OK, it is, but it need not be perfect.

Chopper wrote:That is what cursing is for. Remember that you are putting it in the ground and filling it with dirt (s**t even). It is not a precious piece of furniture. OK, it is, but it need not be perfect.

Chopper, I'm making it a tabletop so I don't have to bend so much to get all the veggies. My corn box (which is yet to be built) will be lower to the ground so I won't worry as much about it being even.

But you're absolutely right, no need for perfection. Found that out right after I took everything apart again and was cutting the sides, haha!

OMG! I love it. They are absolutely beautiful and I love that you are doing table tops. If I ever land somewhere I am doing them next.