Mid-Atlantic February update

Wow, Jen, your garden looks fantastic already! I'd like to see more closeups of your TT's to see how the legs are hooked into the boxes.

We have just a tiny patch of snow in the front yard. The neighbor's sidewalk... that's something else again: a classic demonstration of surface area vs. melting.

My front yard is just waiting (really need to get some seeds in), and my backyard is a tragedy at the moment. So I am dreaming right along with you, Jean!

I am SOOOOO mad at myself for not taking pictures of the TT box making. Hubby & I did it together and I guess we were focused and having fun and I just didn't get any. I thought I did, but looking through my photos at that time they aren't in there.

For a handy person, it was fairly simple I think (he did most the hard stuff, I wouldn't put myself in the "handy" catagory). I showed him the post from Boffer and we did the legs like the 6th picture down (Boffer calls them tenons)

https://squarefoot.forumotion.com/t297-building-a-table-top-sfgsome-ideas

We had all this left over wood from a failed home project (don't get me started on that) so all I had to buy was the new 4 x 4 posts. Unfortunatly it was treated wood, but I lined the insides with plastic.

So we did the "tenon" method on the legs, made the boxes just like any other box, then added the plywood bottom. Then lined up the skinny part of the leg and marked it out, then DH cut squares in the plywood and slipped the whole box over the legs. Gah... this would be so much easier to explain with pics. I can take a few closeups in the morning to help, but since the boxes are filled you won't be able to see the insides. Since my yard is very sandy, we put the legs on top of paver blocks, but it appears over the winter it seems to be sagging a bit in the middle where the two tables meet. It's not the tables, they are sturdy as a rock, its the sand settling.

I don't know if Boffer reads this thread but I bet he could specifically explain how to make the tenon part. DH did all these cuts side by side then chisled out the slivers.

I did get a chance to come home a bit early today and painted them white. I HIGHLY recommend you decide to paint your TTs BEFORE you fill them, and BEFORE you jam two together. It was a real pain.....

Jean - It will be here before you know it! There is still snow in some shady spots around here, but my garden's been melted for quite a while now being it gets full sun all day long. I do have some MM in a deep pot that is still frozen in the middle.

Your grandson is ADORABLE!! Have fun on your trip

Here I am in West Falls, NY ( 1/2 hr outside Buffalo) with my husband visiting our son, daughter-in-law & grandson for his 3rd birthday this weekend. Of course it has already snowed here again and again and will snow again tom night into Fri.

But....in the meantime I am planning my gardens on paper (whenever my grandson either naps or plays by himself). I am doing research in hopes of trying companion planting & avoiding plants that do not do well together.

I already warned hubby that when we return hopefully he will make the new three trellis's needed along with a potato box.

Our youngest son is getting married mid-March this year, so I hope to order my seeds, compost, peat moss, weed barrier, etc. before then.

Oh Megan, he lives in Washington, DC. He is getting married right in DC and reception in Arlington, VA. not too far from you.

Here's to spring coming.

Dunkinjean