Growing plants of any kind against a surface such as the side of a garage is
difficult because of the heat factor. The sun dehydrates the plants rapidly.
I had this experience once. If your at home all the time its ok, you can
water several times a day or if your not at home you will need some sort of
drip arrangement for those hot summer days.


"Timothy" wrote in message
news
On Wed, 23 Apr 2003 21:25:35 +0000, OhSojourner wrote:

I have a small yard bordered by a couple garage walls and I was trying
to
come up with creative ways to grow flowers, fruits or small vegetables
with the limited amount of space available. One idea I had in mind was
to
construct some wooden planter boxes that could be bolted or set against
the garage walls, big enough to grow strawberries, small carrots, etc.

I realize that if such a pre-manufactured box exists, they would
probably
be expensive due to size. The other alternative would be to build the
boxes. Is there a type of wood that would be well-suited for this sort
of
thing? I know that construction pallets are made out of some kind of
cheap, flexible wood that seems resistant to warping and rotting, which
might also seem like a good material to use for this sort of project.
Anyone know what this is, or where I can obtain old crates made of
similar
material?

Another creative garden solution in regards to what to do about limited
space and having to look at the neighbor's blank garage wall would be to
construct a trellis or some sort of scaffolding-type structure against
the
wall and grow a vine (grapes, roses or some other type of flower) or
even
hang some planters from it. Would any gardening centers have a kit for
something along these lines, or again, is this something I would
probably
have to make myself? I can't bolt anything to the side of the
neighbor's
garage because it's vinyl siding, so I'll have to use some innovation,
here.

One planter that I've seen was a set of stairs that was salvaged from the
dump. They were put up against wall and boxes were built right on top of
the stairs. You could make your own planter rather easily. You should be
able to purchase stair risers (think that's what their called) at most any
lumber store. If you could afford cedar to build the boxes out of great,
but you could make them out of pine and still get 8+ years out of them.
I'd say 3 risers, 13 2x8x12 pine/cedar boards, a pound of nails and a
strong wall would make a good planter. That would make four 6 foot
planters. You'll need more lumber if you wish to make it free standing.

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