Welcome to All Things Plants, Craig ( @grdnguru ) !

What a great find with the free cement blocks -- plenty of ways to use those things

Great score, Craig! And welcome to ATP.

I would use cinder blocks if they were cheaper and narrower, of if I had more sunny space in my yard. Right now, every square inch is precious.

>> I need to get some pictures of the beds but I need to give the soil a little time to dry out after all the snow and rain we had the past few days.



It'll be great to see someone else's engineering / gardenscaping.

Craig, to ATP!

Great find from your neighbor. I had a similar experience. My next door neighbor passed away and the crew fixing up the house to sell for the son (who inherited it), got rid of about 60 wall blocks by illegally throwing them into the vacant lot next door. They go for about $1.85 each at Home Depot. Unfortunately, they broke several of them by tossing them on top of each other. And we even approached them weeks beforehand and asked them about the blocks and they did not respond. When the supervisor of the crew came to inspect the work done, he was mortified to find all the blocks piled up in the lot next door. So he came knocking on our door to see if we were still interested in them. He didn't have to ask us twice. We pull our old van right up to the vacant lot and started loading the blocks into the back of the van. I managed to almost complete two small oval raised beds with all those blocks. Looks really nice!

Love freebies like that! You can see those raised beds in the article I wrote here on ATP. They are photos #10 & #11 in this article: http://garden.org/ideas/view/b...

I have many new additions to my garden this year. I just kind of acquired them over the winter at various "antique" shops and at a garden store that closed. I can't resist a good deal and now, as the weather has turned, I'm faced with getting them in place for the new season. I am determined to get them completed so it will take a little elbow grease and some cooperating weather for sure.
I seriously have to sit down and map out my garden plans as an unplanned garden can get out of control very fast. I start a majority of my own plants from seeds since I tend to like varieties that aren't necessarily sold in my area. I love to start plants as it is, for me, very rewarding to go from seedling to a maturely grown plant. One of my best from last year was the watermelons I grew. They were the best we had all season. I took one to a family picnic and it was a huge success. People are starting to ask me what I am going to be growing this year and whether I think I will have excess this or that. I tend to share my bounty with others but this year, my wife and I are going to attempt to preserve our crops for over the winter. So this year is going to be different than most.
Well, I've digressed here a little. Hope everyone has a great week. Happy Gardening!

Hi Craig! Welcome to ATP.

Congratulations on your vegetables getting requests for encores! I hope some of your neighbors start growing their own. Maybe you could "farm out" some of the work by giving away some seedlings.

Are your additions garden art, or plants or walls for raised beds? Just curious.

RickCorey, my new additions are prospective plant stands of various sorts. Just an eclectic set of different things I picked up over the winter. Just have to take advantage of the predicted 65 degree weather on Sunday. If that holds, then I will have tons to do which means I will be busy Saturday getting the things I need to do what I need to on Sunday. Just lots to do and very little time to accomplish everything. And yes, I would love it if the others would start their own gardens and I would gladly help them do that but they seem to like the idea of getting my overruns. If I plan it right, there won't be many of them after we put up the excess for the winter. We shall see for sure.

>> but they seem to like the idea of getting my overruns.

Oh, well. Maybe the next year after they can't mooch off you, they'll grow some of their own.

Here's a guess: after you tell people that you don't have extras because you are canning them, some people will ask for your canned vegetables for free!

Good luck with Sunday weather!

As promised, here are pictures of my various plant stands I acquired over this past winter.
Here is my 36 pot plant stand that was a garden seed packet holder in its past life.


And here are two stands that were used to hold bulb packets.

I lacquered both the stands and the boxes that go in them so they might stay in pretty good shape out in the weather. I'm going to use the small pot stand for a mix of smaller plants like herbs and them intermix flowers into them. The wooden stands are going to be used to grow lettuces, spices and perhaps peppers in bigger pots which I have accumulated over the years. Well, that's three of the six "stands" that I have so obviously, I have a lot more work ahead of me. But, it sure felt good to get out in the sun and work on the garden Sunday afternoon. Happy Gardening everyone!

Those are cool!

Love all your creative re-purposing!! Question about the rr ties... is creosote (sp?) still a concern with them?

Craig - Love the 36 pot plant stand. That's really neat!

Thanks all. I love to re-purpose much to my wife's chagrin. Although, on these two, she was a lot more receptive. I don't like to buy something that I can get much cheaper by this method. And this keeps my mind active. My wife and I were at what I would call a semi-antique mall one day and I looked at a 5 gallon coffee urn made of plastic. I walked away and she went back to it, looked at it, and then we moved on. A while later she looked at me and said - "you know, you could use that plastic urn for a compost tea maker." Well, I made a beeline back to it and just stared at it and Yup! I figured out how to use it for that purpose. $25.00 later I had it. Funny thing was, when I took it up front to pay for it, the woman behind the counter sighed that she didn't see this out on the floor. When I looked up the price, it was retailing for about $100.00. So I asked my wife if she wanted it for our family picnics. Thank God she said no! I would have been a little disappointed. I'll take a picture when I bring it out to use.
And DJINNEVADA- unfortunately yes, railroad ties are not suitable for edible gardens from what I have read. I am a scrapper and I have to be careful when I am around construction sites to make sure what the items I am looking at were used for. It does matter. I look for older, weathered items usually. Well, everyone, that's all for now. Happy gardening everyone!

Swiped from facebook

The first would be perfect for beach gettaway

Love to see the second all grown in

I almost hate to admit this, but I used pressure-treated wood for my original framed beds 20 years ago and the same when I rebuilt them 2 years ago.

But I really did a lot of research, and I became convinced that the chemicals in new pressure-treated boards just don't leach into the soil to any significant degree. If they did, they just wouldn't last long, would they?

I'm 66. If I was 20, I might worry about it more and use cinder blocks or Trex lumber.

The construction was straightforward; 8' 2x10s two levels high 3' and 4' widths. Easy to build.

And then I completely enclosed it all in chicken wire on PVC pipe. Keeps the critters out but lets the pollinators in.

The door was the hardest part. I set 4"x4" posts down 2' deep and screwed in angle braces. To this day it keeps shifting slightly. I adjust the latch to work one month and it is loose again the next. I suppose it will all settle in someday, but for now, I have to keep a cinder block in front of the door to keep the groundhog from nosing in,

He can't dig under the fence; I extended the chicken wire 2' out onto the lawn at the bottom all the way around. I see him sometimes pulling at the fence. It does him no good, but I really need to kill that big rat (he eats my wildflowers when he can't get at my garden).

It sure baffles the squirrels. I haven't had one find a way inside yet. I even put dabs of peanut butter of some of the frames and they never got touched. And no squirrel will pass up peanut butter.

The enclosure still needs work. I have nylon pull-ties every 2' holding the strips of chicken wire together, but I need to "sew" it with thin galvanized wire to really secure it.

If you think I'm overdoing it, you haven't had squirrels eating 3 successive plantings of corn or possums taking bites out of every tomato.

I need that

I can send you my general plans if you want them...

Hell no...I need for someone else to build it.

but I appreciate the offer. It looks very functional.

Any "handyman" could build it. I slid conduit pipe into the pvc pipes for strength and set the uprights 2' deep. The pvc connectors are easier than finding conduit pipe connectors and corners and 4-ways.

But really, anyone can build it.

Then that's what I need " anyone " I am all small jobbed-out this year..fixing sunken brick..laying walkway, painting, establishing new beds, cleaning the pond, blah..blah...

Check Angies List for a well-rated handyman, show him my enclosure and ask for a bid. It's not tricky work, just labor. Best of luck. And looking forward to a picture of your future enclosure...