Small Space Garden

Michelle Kirstein
by Michelle Kirstein
6 Materials
$100
2 Days
Medium
Don't have a lot of space but want to try out your green thumb? Here's an idea that makes use of an area that is all too often overlooked.
This is the space I had to work with. A 14' by 12" slice of horrible clay earth between our fence and the cement slab. First things first, that dirt had to go, so I dug it out and discarded it. Now I could have filled the space with quality soil but I had another idea. I filled the area with sand that we had on hand from another project. This made for a nice, level surface plus it got rid of that sand that had been hanging around forever! Win/win!



Next, I built a super simple box with two 2x8x10's and some wood screws. Clearly, Paulie thought it was for him, so I had to act fast. icon


The hardest part was navigating the indent in the fence so the box would lay flush all the way across. In the end I cut one of the 2x8x10's in half and fit a piece of a 2x4 in to create the corner in the wood that would enable the box to fit in perfectly. Then I stained the box with the left over stain we used for the fence.



Oh, almost forgot, I did staple both weed block and some mesh to the bottom of box so the good soil would not mix in with the sand.
Then I flipped the whole thing over and filled the box with almost 9 cubic feet of cactus soil icon . I was really surprised it took as much as it did. A math person would have figured that out... my talents lie elsewhere icon . Then I just started planting. For me, I chose succulents.


You could use this space for flowers, strawberries, herbs, tomatoes or whatever strikes your fancy. Pole beans would work great here too!



I decided that the space needed a little more pizzazz so I bought some little crates at Joann's and stained them the same color as the box and attached them to the fence with wood screws.



I also bought these little shelves at Joann's. They didn't come with the mounting pieces, so I had to get creative at my scrap wood pile.


Then I started decorating and adding some fun garden and fence art.


This is the finished space. From boring and blah to beautiful and functional.
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  • Sherry Sherry on May 19, 2021

    Could you please post a photo once your plantings are mature. Know it will be gorgeous. This is such a good idea!

  • Beth Beth on May 18, 2022

    I am confused as to what shelves you got at Joann's -- all I see are boards.

  • Carmela Carmela on May 19, 2022

    Love how it turned out! Beautiful space!

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