Earth Day :)

Since today is Earth Day I want to share our recent “good for the environment” project.  Followers may recall that a while back I was trying to convince Bob to dismantle the swing set. It had served a good purpose and the kids loved playing on it for many years. But time to move on. So Bob took it all apart and we discovered that the redwood was still in very good shape…even all these years later. What to do with it?

Watching those DIY (Do It Yourself) shows finally paid off and I convinced Bob that we could cut up the 4×4’s and make a raised bed garden. If you want details, like measurements and how it all fit together you’ll have to ask Bob. My job was to sand 20 years of green paint off the boards after they were cut. In any case, Bob came up with a plan and I expect when he was young he played with Lincoln Logs because the pieces all went together just like he planned.  After the first box was finished we (meaning he) dug out the grass, leveled the ground and set it in place. I did help hold the weed barrier while he stapled it in place. It was easy to then fill with dirt and mulch and add some vegetables.

In fact, it turned out to be so good looking we decided to make a second box. But we were short wood to complete it.  We talked about buying more redwood but the whole idea was to recycle and reuse. Then Bob checked out Home Depot. In their cut wood section were a whole stack of 4×4’s that had been 12ft but someone had them cut to 8ft. (Don’t ask me why, it didn’t make any sense to me either…) But the 4ft sections were exactly what he was looking for and were a whopping .50 each!  Okay, so technically it maybe was not recycling but we were not letting them go to waste by using them. Keeping with my save the environment theme we found a guy close by who was changing his landscaping and getting rid of dirt. When it turned out to be too filled with grass we used it anyway to fill in some low spots in the lawn. Don’t ask me where we ended up getting our dirt. I can’t tell you…but it was recycled. I also discovered seeds from my last garden attempts (they were dated 1996!).  The Swiss chard from back then is actually growing!

The first box is filled with cauliflower, assorted leaf lettuce, carrots, and tomatoes.  Box number two is Matthew’s favorite watermelons and cantaloupe plus garlic and green peppers. I think we were too early for Arizona summer gardening and too late for winter gardening but we have already had a number of salads, that included radishes, tomatoes and even beet greens.  If you are not sure you’re up for a garden but have kids I really recommend throwing some radish seeds into a pot. In less than a month they are ready to eat and they are so pretty.

Below you can see the final product.  Not sure whether we will attempt to grow anything (other than the melons that are just peaking up through the dirt now) during the hot summer but as soon as it cools down we have a whole list of things to grow.  My mom used to talk about the Victory Gardens grown during WWII.  In our case, it might be more appropriate to say that it’s a Victory It’s a Garden!