Note: this is not a sponsored post. I just wanted to share this product with readers!
Charlie (my husband) and I spend a lot of time together. I work from home and he’s retired, so it’s not unusual that we are together 24/7 for a few days in a row. Now mind you we aren’t “together” together in those 24/7 days because I have a home office and Charlie spends a lot of time outdoors, tooling around our property. So, surprising each other is a challenge, especially if it is something that is delivered.
But, surprise me Charlie did! One day a few months ago, several large boxes arrived via a large truck (in other words, not via UPS or FedEx!). And, even though I was in my office, working and oblivious to the delivery, Charlie couldn’t contain his excitement and came into the house asking me to come outside. Even though is was several months BEFORE my birthday, he said proud as a peacock:
“I got you an elevated garden for your birthday!”
If you are a regular reader of my blog, you know that we live on 8-acres. So, why in the world would be need an elevated garden?
Gophers and Bunnies
Not only are we overrun with swallows and other birds, we are overrun with gophers and bunnies! Every single blessed time that I plant something, one of those adorable creatures demolishes it!
A couple of months ago I came home from the garden center with a few new hibiscus plants. We have several hibiscus plants already, all mature and over five feet tall (I know because I’m 5′ 2″ and they are all taller than me!), but they are all the same color pink. And I wanted orange, yellow and red too! So, I bought a few in one-gallon pots and one in a 5-gallon pot and lugged them home.
A few days later, planted in the ground, I was a happy girl.
Within a few days, they were gone. Demolished. Only a twig left sticking out of the ground {sad face}.
I can’t even imagine how many times this has happened over the 25 years+ that I’ve lived on this property: I bring a plant or two home, it gets planted and it gets eaten. Charlie is pretty much sick and tired of me spending money on plants that get eaten by bunnies. For 25+ years, he’s been hammering me {grin}, telling me, “I don’t know why you do it! Why you buy stuff that you know is going to get eaten!”
Well, here’s the thing: I don’t really know, for sure, that it’s going to get eaten by the bunnies. Because we have lots of plants they don’t eat and we’ve learned this from 25+ years of experience planting stuff and holding our breath.
I can tell you this much: my bunnies don’t like geraniums, plumbago, birds of paradise, Mexican birds of paradise, Cape Honeysuckle, iris, lilies (like calla lilies), Bougainvillea, Lily of the Nile, Kangaroo Paws – we have been able to grow all of these without them becoming bunny salad!
The gophers, too, wreck havoc on my garden, but they take a little longer. They love roses. Most of my rose bushes have a gopher pile next to them. Most of them will not survive. Next time I plant rose bushes, I’m planting them inside a wire cage {grin}!
I’ve wanted to plant an herb garden for the longest time, but didn’t want to go to the expense and effort of doing so only to be thwarted by one or the other of my furry friends. You see, neither Charlie or I are handy with major tools (nor do we have any major tools, like a saw, for example) and we felt we’d need to make elevated gardens for any herb or vegetable garden to survive out here PLUS we’d have to build a fence around it to keep my furry friends out. And, since we can’t do the work ourselves, we would have to hire someone and that kind of expense is not in our budget right now!
So, Charlie surprised me with this heavy duty, steel-framed LGarden and we spent an afternoon putting it together (about the extent of our “handyman” expertise).
Here are the boxes – semi unpacked. A heavy steel frame and lots of wood!
Here’s Charlie bolting the sides together. He’s handicapped and uses a mobility scooter, so he is sitting on his scooter. We did this in the garage because it was too bright and sunny outside. We even had to close the garage door because the sun was beating down on us!
Charlie, grimacing, as he attaches one of the wheels…
The completed frame…
Adding the wood slates and the plastic liner…
A trip to the garden center to buy potting soil and herbs…
Fully planted with herbs and a tomato plant!
LGarden along the edge of our driveway in the late afternoon sun. You can see some of our acres of dirt in this photo!
It took about 3 hours for the 2 of us klutzy, inexperienced “handymen” to put this together! I’m sure that someone with experience could do it quicker. However, you do need a helper to put it together. Or, one person could do it with the right equipment, like clamps, etc.
Here’s what I love about my birthday surprise:
- It’s off the ground, away from pillaging bunnies and earth-moving gophers
- Like the box says, it’s easy on the back and good for the soul
- It’s on wheels, so we can move it anywhere with ease (2 of the wheels lock into position)
- It’s made of heavy-duty steel and is quite substantial
- I have an actual herb garden and I can go outside and pick fresh herbs for my recipes!
- And, Charlie surprised me with a wonderful, thoughtful gift!
Stay tuned for future posts to see how my garden grows…
Tootles,
Related Posts:
(other gardening posts)
What a great present!
I know! It was a complete surprise and we have fun putting it together.
We’ve had to build fences around anything we want to grow, veggies, flowering perennials, trees…because of deer. So I feel your pain. Thank goodness Mike is very handy, and we recently replaced the fencing so it’s not unattractive to look through to the plants. I love having flowers to cut and bring in the house, but it can be challenging in the foothills as in your beautiful valley. Love to you and Charlie.
Me, too (love having flowers to cut), but it’s a continual struggle {grin}. I’ll be reporting back on the success of our little herb garden, so stay tuned. Love to you and Mike, too (for readers out there, sweet Anna is my cousin-in-law, married to my cousin, Mike, who is a very talented craftsman!).