Easy gardening idea: Lettuce beds from scrap wood

It's been a while since I posted! I'm currently working on a schedule for posts that is more predictable and organized. More on that later. For now, I have a fun project to share. Springtime is upon us, and my partner Dustin and I have been trying to figure out what foods we would like to grow this year. Two weeks ago, we planted peas, kale, beets, and a few other spring crops in his workplace community garden (in the picture at right).

We're very lucky to have this space, and I know most people don't have yards or property that allow them to have a full garden. So, I wanted to share this easy and cheap way to grow salad greens anywhere! All you need is some scrap wood, a few tools, and a sunny place to store the lettuce beds. We got the idea from Grow It Organically, which has a lot of great gardening resources. For more specific instructions on building the beds, visit their website. I'll give a few details here, so you can get an idea of how easy it is!

First, you need some wood. No need to buy expensive wood at the hardware store. We called the feed store down the street and asked if they had any leftover wooden pallets (like the one below). Sure enough, they had plenty stocked in back of their store, and let us come take one free of charge.

Dustin used a hammer to pry apart the boards, so he ended up with loose wood. We then borrowed our neighbor's saw and cut them to the right size. For one lettuce bed, you'll need two one-foot boards and two 18-inch boards. Use nails to hold the boards together. You'll end up with something like this:

There are a few more steps on the website that you need to follow, including adding hardware cloth to the bottom of the frame, then laying window screen on the bottom of the tray to form a base. Then, pour in some soil and plant your lettuce seeds!

After a while, you'll have some beautiful greens growing in your backyard. We planted spinach and a variety of lettuce seeds. Total cost for this project was less than $20, and we'll have salad all summer long.

After two weeks

After a month

Delicious!