Fitzy and I dreamed of creating a garden space that would be large enough to produce some serious crop yet small enough to easily manage. We did our research and become enchanted with the container garden concept. What a great way to utilize space while creating an environment that was not easily contaminated by whatever may be in our current soil. It was important that we kept the garden as clean and near organic as possible. We found some amazing sheds on sale but decided to wait until this side of the garden was completed. I didn’t want to bite off more than I could chew and this project took a little longer than I expected anyway. A friend of ours did offer to help us with our garden maintenance since she just finished a similar project not so long ago. She told us about a site (learn more here) where she found leaf blowers that helped her to get leaves out of her garden so she could prep her garden for the project. We were grateful for her help and we couldn’t wait to start our project!

We started by building 3- 4×8 boxes. Being new to this whole blogging world…we didn’t do a very good job of taking pictures through the building phase.

To add a little extra detail we used a circular saw at a 45 degree angle to shave the tops of the 4×4 end caps. This is a an easy step but really changes the look of the container beds.

Next we utilized a simple pallet to create the fence for our garden. We were fortunate to have a great neighbor that supplied leftover pallets from his business warehouse. As you can tell, we’re quite conscious of sustainability and recycling. We’re considering getting recycled plastic fencing in the future; eco fencing means you never have to replace your fence again. The pallets were two sided so the first thing we did was pull the two sides apart. The next thing we did was cut the pallet in half along the center support. This created a pallet height of 22 inches. We still need to paint the new fence the color of our main fence. Luckily, the fence in this area of the garden is in pretty good condition. Exposure to the elements have left the reft of the fence looking a bit battered so we may need the Austin Fence Company – Fence Repair & Installation.

We used a standard 4×4 for the posts. Our 13 posts were placed 36 inches apart on center.

We even created a little gate so the kids could easily walk though. Garden rocks were purchased by the bag to use as a ground cover to prevent weeds. To eliminate the need to worry about watering, we ran a watering system kinda like this one. With the use of a timer garden maintenance continues to get easier.

For a fun detail Fitzy surprised me by creating a ‘Mom’s Garden’ sign from an extra piece of left over cedar. He used a chisel to hand draft a rustic looking message directly on the wood.

Now look at all the wonderful goodies that are starting to come out of the garden. We are so excited to go out to the garden to hunt for the latest ripened treasure. Some of our favorites treats are tomatoes fresh off the vine. It does a momma’s heart good to see her little ones enjoy fresh fruits and veggies right out of the garden cause we all know it can be a struggle to get the kiddos to eat the veggies off their plates.