A view years ago my wife came to me with the idea of having a garden. A friend had introduced me to a concept called Square Food Gardening. Immediately I knew what I had to do and that was build some planter boxes. I had some old cedar fence panels left over from a job, perfect! There was my wood. They had to be moveable so I built them on pallets. My wife and I like to have dinner get together’s so I put benches on ours so we could sit while hanging out in my back area.I was even able to reuse the screws from the old fence panels. Everyone who saw the planters loved them and when I explained where the materials came from they liked them even more. As soon I was finished with the first Planter box I realized a business opportunity and my friends reinforced this thought.Ever since I was a kid I have been building things out of materials I found. Over the years I’ve become an expert in finding and reusing things destined for the landfills. I am happy to be able to produce a product that I feel is so valuable to our community. Other then the satisfaction of nurturing our plants through out the summer we also enjoyed our harvest and had our last tomato in December.
Locally reclaimed on the other hand means I receive the materials right before they are on the way to the landfills. I’ve orchestrated an agreement with several companies to let me pick through their wood heading for the dump to find the best old growth Cedar & Redwood.
The huge difference between new fast growth lumber available today and the old growth lumber which we ran out of 20 years ago:
- Old growth lumber is very very strong and durable, lasts at least 10 times longer than new growth
- It doesn’t splinter and the grain doesn’t lift and peel if not oiled constantly
- It is beautiful when planed and sanded
- We don’t need to cut lumber anymore when there are mountains of wood being thrown away daily
- The reclaimed wood we are using came from trees which might have been 1000 years old. Imagine the energy and information stored within it. To be able to assist in using the life of these trees to nurture new life completes a beautiful life circle.
Our standard boxes are approx. 4ft x 4ft and 16 inches or so tall. Custom boxes can be built however you wish using practically any material as long as it is reclaimed. Design is one of my strengths.
Options are priced for standard boxes only (A standard planter box is approx. 3,5′ x 3,5′ and 14,5″ tall with an inside depth of approx. 10″):
- Standard Raised Bed Planter $ 200.-
- Benches $ 100.-
- Skirts $ 60.-
- Planning $ 75.-
- Critter screening optional
