Come let we plant it, plant it, plant it.
I said the Homegrown, Homegrown Come let we plant it, plant it, plant it.
I said, we food , we food, come let we plant it, plant it, plant it.
From the earth to the dirt, come let we till up the soil, till up the soil, from the earth to the dirt, come let we keep planting on a while.
You see the homegrown I said it come from earth.
I say the good food come make me plant me we own.
I say the good food, good food Come let we plant it, plant it, plant it.
I said I food, I food Come let we plant it, plant it, plant it.
Hi, I'm Carlos Robles with the UVI Cooperative Extension Service and welcome to Home Grown.
On today's show, we're going to show you how to construct a box for a box garden.
A box garden is an alternative for gardeners who want to do a little bit more than containers, but don't want the work of a traditional garden.
What I have here is a an example of a 4x4 box that's a much smaller scale.
Earlier today, I had the opportunity to work with some young men at the YouthBuild program to build a four by 12 box.
Let's take a look at what it takes to build a box for a box garden.
With me today are four young men from the YouthBuild program.
On my left car, this nine months next to me.
Before you submit your course, Welcome, gentlemen, and welcome to homegrown Chico Welcome to Homegrown.
We now are going to look at the parts that you need for our box.
We start off with the basic thing, the lumber in front of us.
Here.
We have a piece of two by eight.
It's about 16 feet in length.
But the box that we're going to build today is a four by 12.
We have you.
When you're looking for your choices of wood, you'll probably be given the choice of treated or untreated.
If you can get beyond treated, take the untreated wood, preferably.
Some people have problems with the the things that come out of the products that are used to treat the wood.
And if that is an issue for you, you may want to use plastic to line the inner part of the box or cover the box entirely with plastic.
And then you could put your sign on the inside.
If it's untreated, you're fine and you're ready to go.
Now, let's look at some of the things other than the wood that we're going to need for the boxes.
Brackets pulling the brackets to go.
Generally, what do we use the kind of brackets for the brackets I use to brace the box so that when you put your side into the box and it's not the rather that it expands at all actually separating the box.
Okay, good.
All right.
And we also need nerves.
These are long, narrow Shekhey.
What's his name?
34 inch and four inch nails.
Could we have used two inch?
Means no way between two shot.
Two shot.
Okay, we'll be using a drill today.
This is a special type of job.
Yes, This is a hand hands on.
Just a you power drill or because I was looking for the cord and I didn't see a cord.
Yes.
Is this one doing it in a cord?
We have the batch or whatever.
Let's put it in and we're good to go.
Okay.
And I believe we'll be using the battery to put the hinges and.
Okay.
All right.
And we use in those schools.
All right.
And you can have nails without a hammer, then a special patch.
I must just look like a real expen sieve.
Hammer is a construction hold as a carpenter.
Okay.
So they are carpenters.
Hammer.
So I couldn't go on back.
A carpenter, a real carpenters hammer at the ordinary store.
I don't think you have to go Home Depot for that.
Okay.
All right.
And then we have this.
This kind of saw.
I've seen these kinds of sides before, but I really don't know what they are on the surface.
But I think I saw if they were your hand because this.
You use your fingers.
Okay.
Is that the way that orange part?
Is it is it that if your hands go so far no more, you don't want your hands there like that?
Actually.
Yes, it is.
Okay.
What more could you put?
You know, you can put your hand anywhere close to the blade or where it is going to work.
Mm hmm.
So you might want to just keep yourself and extend your hands if you're going to cut.
Keep the hands here.
And anyway, as far away from them.
Okay.
And what's the plastic for?
It is pressing, basically, to keep your hand from being interrupted.
Okay.
I mean, it also goes up when you put in a wood to the guys out of their hard hat on the face shield for safety.
We have our wood.
It's time to cut wood.
So right now we're going to going to actually the building of the box and how it's constructed.
Okay.
Right now they're measuring the length of the wood just to make sure it's you get what you want, because if you bought a length of wood, you want to make sure that that is the size, length of wood that you get.
And it is a 16 foot length of wood.
Okay.
The sections, we want the box to be about four feet wide.
So we look for our four foot piece, took about that would be the edges of the that would be the edges of the box.
Now we have the width of the box, which is about with four feet wide, and we're going to make out the length part of it.
The 12 foot long.
We're going to be putting the four foot piece on the inside instead of outside, we added.
So we're willing to move on the hammer.
You know that the box is basically put together.
Now we have a side ruislip on the top as well as on the bottom.
If you don't have a drill to use, the screws you guys use means as well.
We're not all we finished for the brothers and top.
We have to flip the box over and four brackets.
Same thing again.
My medicine.
And this Chiko is just primarily to make sure that this box isn't going to move.
And it's there.
Secure it.
Exactly.
Because if he brings us the top and you want brings the bottom the so just push over the bottom.
So that's a good layer.
All right.
Yes.
Okay.
Now, I'm ready to to do is about this length.
You could take a piece of two by four inside and you can press the middle of the box inside as well.
Okay, so then what?
Okay, well, we finished this box.
And one of the tips I want to leave with you about putting in, I you saw the guys are putting in the nails and they may have had some challenges.
One of the things that you could do is to drill a pilot hole with a screw.
That's a little bit smaller than the whole of the name itself, and then come behind and put the nail right in that would make it go in a little bit smoother, because I know for some, a four inch nail may be a challenge.
But again, if you're not building the box and you have a carpenter who's building the box for you, somebody who's into woodworking, they may be able to do it a lot more smooth and efficiently.
But if you're a do it yourself.
So that tip is going to help you out.
Some of you watching may feel a little bit overwhelmed with all the steps that we have to take and all the pieces of equipment and then all the hard hats and all that kind of stuff.
If you have some lumber already in your yard, you might want to take it to your local lumber supplier and they can actually cut it for you.
Some do it for free.
Maybe you meet for a fee, I should say, but you may even find a local carpenter or maybe at one of the trade schools in your area that you can go and do actually cut the pieces for you if that's still a little bit overwhelming for you.
It has gotten to the point now in the gardening business where you could actually purchase a kit just like this one.
You can go to mail order catalogs, can go online and actually order a kit that looks just like this one that's already pre-made or comes already in a box that you can assemble right in your area.
There are some things that you need to remember when you're building your box.
And it's best to use, for example, pressure treated wood.
And with pressure treated wood, some may have some concerns with the type of material that they use to pressurize or to treat the wood.
So in that instance, we will use plastic to line the inside.
And in looking at the way how we did this one, you can actually take the plastic and put it along the inside of the box, around the wood on the inside and let the edges hang over.
Or you can take it just like this and have one about the size of the box and a little bit over and how you have it hanging over the edge.
And then your soil will go in here.
And the one good thing about having a box with the liner on the inside is that you don't have to worry about weeds coming up through it as much.
The only thing I would recommend with this is that you would have to put holes in it for drainage so that the water can run up.
But there you've covered the inside of the of the wood.
You don't have to get it to worry about the lumber and it may be leaking and having those concerns if that is a concern for you.
And also you now have some area in here where you can put your customizer, this will ensure that the wood will not will not be susceptible to insects.
The other elements, the area where it decides to put your box should be level.
Okay.
So when you look at this one, it's on a nice level area because you don't want on even watering in your plants.
You don't want the box to be leaning on one side because again, if it's leaning too much on one side, when you do water, it's going to go in that direction.
So as much as possible, try and see if you can get the box on a level ground.
You also want to have enough space where you can walk around on either side of the box.
With this box, you can reach the center and get your your whatever you're harvesting.
If you're growing herbs, if you're growing tomatoes, anything that you're growing, you can get them right into the center.
And so those are some things that you need to think about.
A plastic liner at the bottom of your box will help with weed control.
As I shared with you, just as we did in this whole process here, some people will decide to go organic.
I may choose not to use this and you may just have an open space and again, just lying on the inside.
But again, get some consultation.
You could always call the Cooperative Extension Service in your area.
You can call the local Department of Agriculture and you can get more information.
This is some of the soil that will be going into the container.
It's already, even though this is a particular that's just type brand, this is a nice quality soil.
I when I read the ingredients, it already has some fertilizer in it.
It's great, has good organic matter.
And this is something that you would want to put in your box.
You can go and get this from a plant store, hardware store, garden center nursery, and in some instances you can actually find these in a three cubic yards compressed pail that actually has more soil in it.
The downside to many of those is that they don't have fertilizer already added to them.
And so you may want to add your own fertilizer to that soil mix.
So you would take a soil bag just like this and you would pour it in to the box.
Okay.
And then as you continue along, you smooth it out and you continue to fill it up all the way up to about one inch below the top of the box, you've now seen a box garden constructed using lumber.
We're now going to see how we can do a box garden or bed, as is sometimes called, using cinder blocks or cement blocks.
We're here on the island of Saint John at the home of Betsy Melnick.
And today we're going to be using her garden and a small space that she has to show you how to build a box garden using cement blocks.
Betsy.
Hi, Carlos.
Hi.
Welcome to my house.
Good.
And welcome to Home Grown.
Thank you for allowing us to use your space.
You have a lovely view here in Saint John.
This is absolutely gorgeous.
Thank you.
What made you decide to choose this one?
We thought it was the best view on the island, actually.
And I think you're right.
It is an absolutely gorgeous view.
You've been doing a little bit of gardening here.
I've looked at your landscape and you have some appropriate plants for this area.
Your area is dry, Betsy.
Very dry.
Very dry.
It's also very sunny.
Hot.
Mhm.
It's also very windy.
Yes it is.
It's salty and salty.
Right.
Some of the most inhospitable conditions for growing the type of vegetable garden that we normally think of.
But what our challenge is today is to see if we can do it even under these conditions with what we have here.
Good.
I'm looking forward to the help.
But one of the things I noticed first off is your soil.
It doesn't look the most appealing at all.
Is this the bottom?
This is the bottom.
And this is raked.
Okay.
This is usually more like it or what it looks like.
Okay.
And it's really light in color.
Yes.
I see you attempted to do some things in here, but what have you tried to grow in previous time?
Cucumbers.
But I didn't have it shaded.
I did beans.
Okay.
It didn't do very well.
Very well.
They weren't shaded.
And I did have a pan.
Your peppers, which I got a little bit of fruit from.
Not much.
Okay.
I did cherry tomatoes in packs down by the house and then the birds took them.
Oh, so you have a very problematic.
Yes.
Okay.
And a goat problem and a donkey problem.
Something.
Okay, well, at least this class could help with some birds.
We'll look and see how the plants respond.
This is one way.
As a home gardener, if you want to protect your plants from some of the pests, putting a shade cloth over it would help.
You'd have to learn the various types of blocks there, percentage of black sun blocking that that occurs with these various types of shade cloth.
And we look and see how these plants respond under these kinds of conditions.
So then let's get to to your raised bed, your box garden that we're going to use cement blocks with because we're we've already started part of the frame here as as you look at how we do this, as you saw with the wood, the wood, we want to get one this is about six inches high.
And you can get them as high as eight inches high.
These are blocks, some of them you can get wide.
And the wider ones have the distinct advantage that the larger holes can actually be used as planters.
You can actually plant things like chives and some small herbs in those holes.
In fact, chives are small enough.
If Betsy can put some soil in here, I have something here.
Cut chives and scallions that you can place in there.
See the big.
Okay.
Yeah, exactly.
Exactly.
The big blocks like those that you can use.
And they now become a planter as well.
So you can have your frame and you can have your plants inside, as well as having some guys going right in there.
What you would want to do with that, in some instances, depending on, well, you don't have much of a weed problem here, but you would put something under the bottom so that when the soil goes in, you don't have any weeds growing up to the bottom of the plant.
So there's a tip that you can use if you're you're considering using blocks as a really bad guide.
What can you put underneath?
Would you put like that Pelham the Pelham cloth?
The same with any newspaper, newspaper or anything that won't allow any penetration from another plant to come up through the bottom.
Okay.
Black plastic, anything again that won't allow any water, any.
But if you put plastic, then there's no drainage.
Yes, you fill it out because remember the blocks aren't absolutely solid.
So some water so some water will get out underneath from under the blocks.
So but here's this is the workspace and here's where you want to fill up the soil inside of the box.
So again, we've started our cement block frame.
I know now we're going to begin to bring in the soil to backfill into this area.
So we need to get our wheelbarrow and start loading in the soil, in the blocks.
One of the other things and these blocks are loose, but if you wanted to have them more permanent, if you're going to have them in a place where there's a lot of activity to children, dogs running back and forth, you may want to put some water in between the blocks to keep them in one place.
All right.
Now let's get the soil and begin loading our bed.
Now, there are a lot of things that we can't put in here because of the depth, so.
Right.
Yeah.
You won't be able to grow carrots.
Well, you can grow the short carrots.
Those are the ones that are the chance in a variety.
They generally grow about this thick.
Oh, I, they are maybe seven or eight inches long, but for your home consumption you won't, it won't be a problem.
There are some champions now that have a high beta carotene level in them.
So if you're looking through a seed catalog, look for the champion eight types or they're even some Tom Thumb ones that are just this small baby carrots, baby carrots.
So you can grow I mean, this soil is loose enough to grow baby carrots in, but not like I have seeds and started already.
Not the choy what do you call the radishes that are white?
Oh, the daikon.
Okay.
Yeah, it depends, because some varieties of daikon.
Some varieties of daikon are more than seven inches long.
Yeah.
Okay.
What will eventually happen to them is that they get to the hard part of the soil and turn right or turn left.
Oh, so I could put them in?
Yeah, you could put them in.
Oh, good.
It'll just not be as long.
But you'll still have the fruits.
I mean the root that you can eat.
Yeah.
That's part of the soil.
Okay.
And again, you just simply creating a frame with the blocks that the soil can come up against and now should you put maybe like a tunnel with a shovel or something underneath, I mean before you start doing that, you can do that.
If it were, if it, you know, you've got an uneven ground.
Okay.
But once this gets the soil gets established and it settles in, it'll pretty much like everything into place.
Okay.
So go ahead and smooth it out.
Okay.
Now, with regard to the topsoil, does it have enough nutrients in it?
No, it probably doesn't.
And I you can't tell just by looking, but it's always a good practice, especially now.
We've just added the topsoil and we're getting ready to plant into it to put on a broad spectrum fertilizer.
You can either put on a general ten, ten, ten fertilizer, or you can add your cow manure as your.
Goldman, your yours composted sheep manure.
So any composted material to begin adding nutrients to the soil, there may be a certain level of fertility that's in there already, and a soil test will be able to tell you that.
Unfortunately, we don't have any soil testing companies in the Virgin Islands.
But there are some off campus that if I know on the mainland that if you call the Cooperative Extension Service Office, we can give you that number and we can they can arrange to get your soils up and have it tested.
There is a fee.
I'm not sure what the fee is, but there is a fee for having your soil tested.
But either which way, even if you don't have that, a general all-purpose fertilizer added during the the vetting process and bed preparation is always a good fit.
It's always a good habit to do.
When you said about the manure or my compost, how much of that do you add to this?
I'm not talking fertilizer, but what generally was the recommendations I've read and we encourage as well is maybe about an inch, half inch, two inch spread across the top of animal manure each year.
You add that into it because you want to add and build the organic matter that helps to retain nutrients in the soil and increase the water holding capacity of the soil as well.
So adding an inch thick of manure in here each year will help to improve the quality of the soil.
And again, you can every soil can be improved and the campus to compost the same thing you don't you you can do it all throughout the year.
Okay.
But then again, if you have if you have space to put it in with your plants growing, then go in and do what we call a safety dress.
You can have your tomatoes or your other plants in there and then you could just put the compost on either side.
Or as you're getting ready to plant, you can dig a trench in through here all the way up the mill.
Put your complex down the middle here, cover it over, and the plants will go right into it.
Okay?
Okay.
Okay.
So that's another way of doing it, especially if you don't have a large volume of compost or manure.
If you want the roots to have access to it as it's growing, you can just open up a space down the middle or in any area and just pour it in and then cover it over with the soil.
Okay, So we have got a good level here.
Okay.
To probably pull some back away over there, but we've got there.
What can I ask you one other thing about the manure, because someone told me that goat manure really is better than donkey.
I shouldn't be putting dunking manure.
I don't know.
Horse manure.
They're okay.
They are all fine.
I don't know why they would not recommend donkey.
All of them, if they're getting their manure or getting their feed the grass from just around the area, they're probably going to be picking up wheat seeds that don't get destroyed in their digestion process.
And so you're going to have to kind of watch out for weeds.
And that's why occasionally, if you can afford to buy composted manure in a bag, generally they're weed free and so you can incorporate that.
But if you don't want to go to that expense and you don't mind having the animal manure is around, those can be included as well.
All the manure can be composted.
Yeah.
Which generally destroys the seeds and then add it to your bed.
Oh okay.
Okay.
Okay.
Yeah.
Once the composting is done right and it gets up to those high temperatures of of 60, 70, 80 degrees, it generally destroys all the wheat seeds that are in the pile, in the manure.
And then that could be incorporated and added back into the bed.
Did you see that visited last night?
Yes, I saw coming into the driveway.
You had some they left their calling card all over the driveway.
Now, if and again, for those of you who don't want to add synthetic fertilizers, again, you can add your manure through a compost if you choose to add a a synthetic fertilizer.
Again, you can follow the recommendations on the label.
In this case, we're going to be using a timed release fertilizer And Betsy, show me that to there are many types of time release fertilizers on the market and this one is just generally based.
They all have the same principle.
You spread them in the soil and as you water, it releases the salt and releases the fertilizer into the soil.
Over time, when you buy your time, release fertilizers.
They generally come in maybe three month or six month duration.
That is taking into consideration that if you have a winter in your area, have you seen it snow in the Virgin Islands lately?
No.
So we don't have a winter here.
So generally what we recommend is that you cut that time in half.
So a six month time release fertilizer generally boils down to about three months of availability and then a three month time release.
Fertilizer is about a month and a half.
And so after a month and a half, generally, you may need to just add a sprinkling a bit more, depending on on the crops that you are growing and the condition of your plants, because they may be able to they may be thriving and doing fairly well with what's available in the soil, the nutrients that are available in the soil to them.
The recommendation for this particular one was about a cap flow for three cubic yards.
So I'm going to put some in.
I think we have here we go, and I think we have about four cubic yards in here.
So Betsy, start on that in and just broadcast it.
That's a general term for what we're going to do with the fertilizer broadcasting.
It.
And I never did this before.
I would do it after.
The plants are in good.
Okay.
We generally do this because this once the plants get into the soil bit, they already have a nice nutrient dinner or a lunch depending on what time you plant them in already ready in the bed for them.
Okay.
In the morning.
Aren't you supposed to plant in the morning?
Not necessarily.
You can plant in the afternoon.
In the afternoon in the heat.
The one thing that has to be regular and consistent is the water.
Water.
You have to have the water on your side of the island here in Saint John, where you get this constant breeze and sun all day, even though you're going to be using the shade, you still need to have a regular supply.
The water needs to be regular and consistent.
That's for all plants.
Now, Betty, he's adding the final touches to the bed.
She's raking in the fertilizer, just combing it in over the top.
And this bed, for all intents and purposes, is finished.
This is a cement block raised bed or box garden completed here in Saint John.
We're going to meet this challenge here in Saint John with full sun and salt exposure.
And we're going to come back and visit Betsy at another time.
Her next step will be to install the weed barrier, then the drip irrigation system.
Then the second most fun part, which is installing or putting in the transplant over the various crops that she's going to grow.
And then comes the eating.
I'm Carlos Robles.
Thank you for joining me on Home Grown, and we're looking forward to see you on the next show Come let we plant it, plant it, plant it.
I said the Homegrown, Homegrown Come let we plant it, plant it, plant it.
I said, we food , we food, come let we plant it, plant it, plant it.I said, Your food, your food Come let we plant it, plant it, plant it.
From the earth to the dirt, come let we till up the soil, till up the soil, from the earth to the dirt,
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