A Time to Plant

   2012 has been a year for setting high temps in the month of March.     The weather has been fantastic and one has to wonder what is in store for us gardeners as the season progresses.    Typically, one in our area does not start putting in a garden until the later part of April, but with the weather that we have been experiencing this spring it is hard not to want to get an early start.  

 This week's project was a little fun thing.    I saw it in one of the wood working weekly e-mails that I receive and thought I would give it a whirl.   The goal was to build a seed starter box  (You know, one of those planter boxes that you can buy in Walmart for $2.99).     The plan suggested that you should make this starter box using a hardwood such as white oak but I don't have a lot of white oak scraps around.   I do have a lot of green pressure treated wood scraps laying in the pile so I decided for my first time doing this I would use up some of those.   What I did was rip-saw several thicker pieces that were sized from 3/4 inch material or were from 3 1/2 by 3 1/2 inch posts.  

    The picture to the right shows the materials cut to make up one box.    The sides were 1/2 inch thick and the bottom and the dividers were 1/4 inch thick.   All the pieces were cut from pressure treated wood.   This wood should be able to handle the moisture from watering the seed, but it will be an experiment for me to see if that treatment affects the plant as it starts to grow.   (A lot of flower beds are surrounded by pressure treat wood boarders so it should be okay - another experiment I guess.  There are so many I should document some of this stuff.)

   I ended up making three boxes.    The picture to the left shows a couple of the boxes.   (The third was used to take the picture above.)    The plans did call for a handle to be built on the middle divider, but I oped to leave that out.   I'm hoping that when done, I would be able to store them a lot easier if that handle is not in the way.   The dividers fit loosely in the box.    I am thinking that once the plant has developed a root system then all one has to do is to lift out the divider section and each little cube will stand on its own.   (Another experiment to take place - I guess.)

  To the right is one of the boxes already at work.   Soon there will be little tomato plants growing in each section.   (Who knows, I might have the first ripe tomato in our community because everybody else will be trying to get their plants started using those $2.99 plastic things that Walmart sells.   Hmmm - game on.)