Our summer garden & the perfect pallet upcycle!

As you can tell from the general content of my blog, I love DIY projects and saving money. M and I really love to eat fresh food, especially in the summer time, so every summer, I plant a garden. Not everything grows perfectly here in Georgia, but over the last three years, we have figured out what works and what doesn't. We grow what we can, and we buy what we cannot grow. We have found that squash, tomatoes, cucumbers, herbs, and all sorts of peppers grow really well down here. I would like to add that we cannot currently grow squash because our first year growing vegetables, we had a horrible squash bug infestation. We got a lot of squash out of our plants, but they died as a result of the bugs. I have read that once you have an infestation, you should not plant squash for three years. Bummer!

Planting our own vegetables and herbs saves us money and hassle during the summer (and in some cases, in the other months too!), along with being healthier for us, as we do not use any sort of pesticides. One of my favorite things to grow is basil. I routinely prune my basil plants and make batches of basil-walnut pesto. It is so good! I put it into meal-size containers and freeze it for later use. M loves whole-wheat penne with pesto and grilled or pan-fried chicken, and so do I. What a good summer meal!

Below are some pictures of our summer garden, but first, I must tell you about our pallet upcycle!

A friend and I jacked two pallets from [location withheld] (haha), and they were originally intended for a different purpose, but when we realized how heavy they were, that kinda went out the window. She said she had heard of using them as a raised bed garden, which I thought was an adorable idea. We needed some extra space for planting, so I went ahead and dragged one of the SUPER HEAVY pallets to the back yard. I made it, and with only a small scratch and a few splinters.

Since I know you're dying to see photos, here they are!

Ouch! 

Here is the pallet, before I did anything to it.

And here is the pallet after I cut some random boards I had around here, and nailed them to the sides to close it in. After this, I filled it with potting soil.

 

I then planted four cayenne pepper plants and two basil plants in it. Voila! So cool. And now the pallet has a purpose and we have a neat little planter.

 

Here is our raised bed. I took this before I planted the cucumbers at the end. Growing here: tomatoes, tomatillos, green and red bell peppers, jalapenos, serrano peppers, and dill. 

 

We also grow herbs and some more compact veggies in pots: porch tomatoes (cherry tomatoes, the sweet & neat variety), basil, strawberries, Thai basil, oregano, thyme & grapefruit mint.

Here are some more cucumbers that will be planted in a few weeks. 

 

In addition to all of these, we are growing citronella plants and lavender. I hope you enjoyed seeing our summer garden. Do you have a green thumb? What do you grow? I would love to hear about it!