Up and away!

  I am tired of fighting critters!  It so seems like a losing battle at times. Termites, fleas, ants, grasshoppers, voles, squirrels, coons....the list is seemingly endless!  The buggy critters are in the process of being controlled but those furry fellows are still being quite naughty.  Every night, the coons and voles wreak havoc on the garden.  The coons have great fun pillaging the above ground parts while the voles are happily munching my roots.  Nothing gets in the way of their tunneling!  So I have decided to go a different route.  My choice is the path less traveled!

  Mark made some great planter boxes for me this past month.  We used cedar fencing boards to make the boxes to help prevent rot and perhaps keep the bugs at bay.  The boxes are raised above the ground to keep ants from claiming squatters' rights and to prevent the voles from honeycombing the soil with their tunnels.  Ahh, yes!  I am beginning to like this container gardening idea!  The true test, however, is whether the plants will do well in six inches of soil.  I set to work filling the boxes and sowing the seeds.

  Now after just a couple of weeks, I am happy to say that the plants are flourishing!  The beans are growing by leaps and bounds and the squash are a dark, healthy green!  Bell peppers and herbs seem to fully like living in the boxes.  When Mark built the boxes, he followed my instructions for the corner boxes.  I wanted to try something a bit different.  I requested that he make four boxes as squares but deeper...far deeper, than the others.  These I would plant with potatoes. I put about six inches of soil in the bottom of the box and planted four cut potatoes in each box.  That gave me sixteen potato plants in just a small space.  As the potatoes grow, I can add more soil which amounts to "hilling" the plants. Hilling being adding lots of dirt around the stalk of the plant.  I have already had to add another six inches of soil to these boxes as the plants are doing so well.  Mark left an area on the top so I could add one more round of boards if necessary.  (I think I might just have to do that!)

  Time will tell if the box gardens do as well as my regular "in ground" gardens have done pre-critter times.  If they do produce well, the building supply places better stock up on cedar fencing!  I will be adding more boxes!