Spring has sprung!

And it's lovely!

I built my first planter box. I used 30 pieces of 6x12" pine (that were intended to be broken by martial artists, but the lumberyard cut them with the grain going to wrong way) and held them together by 1x2" I saved from a studio project back in design school.

Materials

Finished box

I put a bit of window screen (left over from making lightsabers for Halloween) in the bottom since there are some fairly large cracks and I don't want to lose all my soil. Then I filled it halfway up with paper bedding for small animals. (I had to change and throw away my guinea pig's bedding anyway, so why not put their waste to my use.) So I won't have to fill the entire thing up with soil. That'll save me some money.

1/2 full box

I also got a 3 more dishpans and filled them with soil - they'll be for my snap, snow and garden peas. I also got a trellis rigged up for them that's made from scraps from that same studio project.

While I was at the garden center getting bags of soil (which were wet and very dirty - not fun to carry) I picked up a few violets, pansies, and hyacinths. I potted a few of the violets in a pot in my bedroom and they seem to like it, at least they've kept blooming. They hyacinths will stay outside until they bloom, then I'll bring them in so I can enjoy the fragrance.

I have lettuce and mesclun in 2 dishpans. I'd take a picture but they're just bitty seedlings now. The peas are pre-sprouting in the fridge. And the stevia is getting started in old egg cartons in a plastic bag. A couple have sprouted, I'll post a picture when there is a bit more of something to look at.

I wonder when Burpee will send me all my plants!?