indigogirl17
Pro Member
Blazing here again...90's and dry after aq period of 3 weeks of solid rain a few weeks back. .
Posts: 191
Zone:: 5b
Favorite Vegetable:: sweet corn, collards, turnip greens, yellow wax beans, Cherokee purple tomatoes
Joined: March 2011
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Post by indigogirl17 on Dec 1, 2011 12:12:15 GMT -5
Last spring, during big trash day in town, when all the college students move out and leave the stuff mommy bought them on the curb, I went around and collected 8 dressers, took out the backs and drawer slides, leaving me with a box. I turned them so they were laying down, filled them with compost from my own pile and planted lettuce, tomatoes (5 or 6 varieties), peppers, yellow squash, and zuchinni. I had bumper crops of all but the zuchinni. I froze many quarts of rartatouille and curry. This spring I will be adding more dressers to the back of my yard (the only place I have sun and trying cucumbers and collards, more tomatoes, squash, and peppers. Total cost last eyar was $10.
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Post by stratcat on Dec 1, 2011 23:43:40 GMT -5
Good catch, indigogirl! I'd love to have you for a neighbor. Take some of the heat off me. " What are they doing? Whyyyyy?" Nice to see you posting.
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Post by izitmidnight on Dec 2, 2011 2:10:04 GMT -5
What a terrific way to garden! WOuld love to have you in my neighborhood as well. Although my neighbors are finally starting to warm up to my style!
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Deleted
Posts: 0
Joined: January 1970
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Post by Deleted on Dec 7, 2011 20:31:32 GMT -5
What a great way to recycle! It's hard to imagine so much stuff just thrown away. Glad you found a good use for it. Do you have any pictures you can share? I'd love to see them! Lynn
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kathyd
Junior Member
Posts: 19
Joined: December 2011
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Post by kathyd on Dec 8, 2011 10:54:30 GMT -5
I live in a college town too...I'll have to drive around this year when they leave. Great idea.
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Post by stratcat on Jun 18, 2014 12:04:22 GMT -5
indigogirl17-Last night my next door neighbors put a dresser on the curb and that gave me ideas. I had wild thoughts!
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Post by timothyt on Jun 18, 2014 13:20:55 GMT -5
indigogirl17-Last night my next door neighbors put a dresser on the curb and that gave me ideas. I had wild thoughts! Were any of those wild thoughts garden related? <grin>
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Post by stratcat on Jun 18, 2014 20:02:55 GMT -5
Why, yes they were!
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Post by bestofour on Jul 3, 2014 7:57:28 GMT -5
Yesterday Johnny brought home a picture of a wooden pallet that was painted red, turned on it's side, filled with dirt, and had herbs growing in it. One of his customers had it in her yard hooked to a wire fence. I can't tell exactly how it's working from the picture but it looks pretty cool.
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Post by stratcat on Jul 3, 2014 12:14:30 GMT -5
I have friends in town that stood up a pallet, put in a landscape cloth liner, filled it with soil and are vertically growing some tomatoes, greens, etc. in slits out the sides. First time I heard of that one.
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Post by bestofour on Jul 10, 2014 21:39:43 GMT -5
I have 5 or 6 pallets so I need to come up with a plan to use them.
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indigogirl17
Pro Member
Blazing here again...90's and dry after aq period of 3 weeks of solid rain a few weeks back. .
Posts: 191
Zone:: 5b
Favorite Vegetable:: sweet corn, collards, turnip greens, yellow wax beans, Cherokee purple tomatoes
Joined: March 2011
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Post by indigogirl17 on Jul 11, 2014 10:25:04 GMT -5
Thank you for all the encouraging comments.
I am lucky to live in a neighborhood that is fdownscale enough that people don't ask why? hahahahahahahahaha. My yard is actually an upgrade to the ones surrounding me. I learned long ago that i don't belong in a fancy neighborhood. All of my vegetable gardening is done in my city backyard. My son and I fenced with 150 fett of 6 foot cattle fence, because at the time, we had a cocker spaniel we rescued who should have been named Houdini. I actually saw him climbing over the 4 foot old style granny fence that was there when i loved in. he could also open the gate by himself.
At the time we fenced Charley in, I also fenced in a big area for compost, which I think is illegal in our small city, but most of of the gardeners do it anyway. So with a lot of leaves, vegetable matter, eggshells, coffee grounds, etc, I get enough compost every spring to fill my scavenged student dressers/raised beds. Pretty economical. usually I buy tomato and pepper plants, but this year, I raised a bunch of Brandywine tomatoes in my office, which has florescent lighting, which plants seem to love and they actually did well.
The front yard is given over to flower beds and some lawn. I do have a colleague in town who blithely took out her front yard on her corner lot and put in raised beds made of concrete blocks. The code enforcement officer (yes, we have one) will probably get after her, but she lives in a simlar neighborhood to ours, and so far no one has complained.
This year, I have harvested, so far, lettuce, rainbow chard, yellow wax beans and cilantro and my dogs have harvested the first two tomatoes. next fence goes around the tomatoes:)
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Post by bestofour on Jul 11, 2014 15:24:31 GMT -5
My sister and her husband lived in Indiana for a while in a new development where everyone could see everyone elses back yard. My brother in law made raised beds and because of the wind he made hoop houses over them in the winter. He shared his vegetables and strawberries with anyone who wanted any but they complained to the HMO anyway and he got several citations before they moved. I'm sure they would have made him take everything down in the end. It wasn't unsightly at all. Looked better, to me anyway, than plain, bare yards where the grass wasn't even coming up. I don't understand why people are offended by flowers and vegetables in the yard.
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indigogirl17
Pro Member
Blazing here again...90's and dry after aq period of 3 weeks of solid rain a few weeks back. .
Posts: 191
Zone:: 5b
Favorite Vegetable:: sweet corn, collards, turnip greens, yellow wax beans, Cherokee purple tomatoes
Joined: March 2011
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Post by indigogirl17 on Jul 12, 2014 13:29:46 GMT -5
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indigogirl17
Pro Member
Blazing here again...90's and dry after aq period of 3 weeks of solid rain a few weeks back. .
Posts: 191
Zone:: 5b
Favorite Vegetable:: sweet corn, collards, turnip greens, yellow wax beans, Cherokee purple tomatoes
Joined: March 2011
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Post by indigogirl17 on Jul 12, 2014 13:32:42 GMT -5
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indigogirl17
Pro Member
Blazing here again...90's and dry after aq period of 3 weeks of solid rain a few weeks back. .
Posts: 191
Zone:: 5b
Favorite Vegetable:: sweet corn, collards, turnip greens, yellow wax beans, Cherokee purple tomatoes
Joined: March 2011
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Post by indigogirl17 on Jul 12, 2014 13:35:17 GMT -5
Above are some pictures as requested of my "liberated" from the trash r4ecycled dressers/raised garden boxes. i simply take out the drawers, knock out the back and lay them on the "back" and fill with compost and plants and/or seeds
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Post by bestofour on Jul 12, 2014 22:20:44 GMT -5
is one of those pictures garlic?
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indigogirl17
Pro Member
Blazing here again...90's and dry after aq period of 3 weeks of solid rain a few weeks back. .
Posts: 191
Zone:: 5b
Favorite Vegetable:: sweet corn, collards, turnip greens, yellow wax beans, Cherokee purple tomatoes
Joined: March 2011
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Post by indigogirl17 on Jul 13, 2014 14:28:03 GMT -5
actually you may be seeing the flowers of milkweed, which are volunteers and which i leave for the monarchs
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Post by bestofour on Jul 13, 2014 22:59:16 GMT -5
yes thank you
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Post by stratcat on Jul 14, 2014 1:09:29 GMT -5
Thanks for sharing, indigogirl17. Nice pictures. bestofour, I don't know why people are offended by my flowers and gardens. I even had someone talk at a town meeting to make me stop. Our neighborhood is not ritzy at all.
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indigogirl17
Pro Member
Blazing here again...90's and dry after aq period of 3 weeks of solid rain a few weeks back. .
Posts: 191
Zone:: 5b
Favorite Vegetable:: sweet corn, collards, turnip greens, yellow wax beans, Cherokee purple tomatoes
Joined: March 2011
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Post by indigogirl17 on Jul 14, 2014 10:26:05 GMT -5
That's outrageous....it would be one thing if you were accumulating trash in your back yard or junker cars, but vegetables and gardens? And it's pretty chicken @#$% to say it at a public meeting rather trying to have some adult discourse. I am so sorry this happened to you. Move next door to me, baby, we will put the GROW on! Fortunately, in this town, gardening is encouraged and we have two community gardens also
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Post by bestofour on Jul 15, 2014 15:02:19 GMT -5
what can I do with my 5 wooden pallets?
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Post by stratcat on Jul 18, 2014 10:53:19 GMT -5
That's outrageous....it would be one thing if you were accumulating trash in your back yard or junker cars, but vegetables and gardens? And it's pretty chicken @#$% to say it at a public meeting rather trying to have some adult discourse. I am so sorry this happened to you. Move next door to me, baby, we will put the GROW on! Fortunately, in this town, gardening is encouraged and we have two community gardens also I'm telling you, we WOULD have a time of it! Like-minded, nice people go a long way. And you even have two community gardens. The jerk at the meeting also was circulating a petition against me. I went to the Chief of Police and he pulled out the ordinances. He simply said, "Don't worry about it. As you well know, there shall be no ordinance prohibiting gardening." Yeah, I certainly had looked up the ordinances beforehand.
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Post by bestofour on Jul 18, 2014 16:41:54 GMT -5
A petition? You're in the big time.
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