I grew up with grandparents and parents who enjoyed gardening. It was a big part of our summer. Well, at that point it was a big part of their summer. Haha! I loved the fruits of their labor, but the weed pulling was not my favorite. My husband grew up the same way, so we have enjoyed passing down this life skill to our kids.
About 5 years into our marriage, we had a HUGE garden! We had 2 high tunnel greenhouses and an acre garden. We did organic community sponsored agriculture (CSA) shares and boy was that a lot of work. Our backs still tighten up thinking about it!
This is our Everbearing Strawberry box. These are perennials and come back each year. Our daughter painted rocks red before the berries grew. Now the birds fly in, peck the red rocks, and don’t bother our berries!
My dream is to one day have our garden contained in garden boxes. While we have a great setup now, I look forward to less bending over, less weeding and smaller scale produce. We only have a few years left with our kids at home, so I think it’s time to consider going a bit smaller. My husband and daughter built our two garden boxes, but there are multiple “containers” you can keep a garden in! Below are a few different containers we are currently using this year.
Our daughter is on a mission to have a cut flower assortment. So she planted about 10, 15-inch pots with various cut flowers. Then she planted the sunflowers in this water tank.
I enjoy container gardening because there is less weed pulling, it’s more contained, fewer garden pests such as rabbits and it’s much easier on my back! Of course, there are cons to container gardening. Unless you have a whole bunch of boxes or containers, you will have less produce because of the smaller space. But, if that’s what you’re after, this could be a pro too.
The garden boxes were about $250 a piece to build so it’s an expense on the front end. If you purchase garden boxes, that’s great, but make sure they’re good quality! These boxes have lasted 4 years and are still going strong. Some of the store-bought ones are not as sturdy.
Another great thing about garden boxes is that you have a place to put your great compost from all that chicken poop! Our gardens flourish now because of the rich chicken poop compost. Read all about composting and how Coop to Garden™, a compost accelerator, makes composting easier!
Feeding our family healthy food is important to me. That’s why I started this backyard chicken journey to begin with. Gardening is a fun way to get your family involved in knowing where their food comes from. Container gardening is a great way to start as big or as small as you want.
If you have any questions on gardening, container gardening or even how we brought our kids into the journey feel free to reach out!
Until next time,
–The Wing Lady