After weeks of ridiculous business and schizophrenic weather, today has finally come. I have worked all night, so after a quick nap I am going to hit the garden store and get what I need to get my garden in the ground.
Since my husband and I went our separate ways and I now live in the city temporarily, my garden area has been dramatically reduced. After quite a bit of brainstorming and number crunching, I am only going to be able to have a wee little 4 x 4 garden. I am hoping to do more with containers since I have a large deck at this house.
Since I am only renting this house and don’t want to spend money installing raised bed gardens or dig into the lawn dramatically, I am planning on doing a cinder block garden this year. I haven’t ever experimented with cinder blocks, have you?
Look at how cute these gardens can be…
(Image from http://www.botanical-journeys-plant-guides.com/raised-bed-garden.html)
I really like the inexpensive factor of these gardens. It is also great that you can utilize the squares for extra planting space. You can also paint the blocks to make them more cutesy. There are some concerns that the cement leaches out into the soil, but from what I have read from a few online sources, you can use cardboard or weed fabric to keep this from happening.
Gardening in the city is definitely a change of pace. I am not sure what type of pests and critters I will be up against in this area, so we shall see how successful this season will be.
I will let you know this weekend how the cinder block garden turned out. Have a wonderful rest of the week!
Until next time…
Homestead Redhead 
I have done the wooden square foot garden and it produced an amazing amount of food. However, the next I will use cinder blocks since they dont require anything to hold them up. You will enjoy it.
Good to know-it is definitely a change of pace to have such a small garden this year. Thank you for being a part of the homestead : )
Last year I grew garlic in a 3×6′ cinder block garden and carrots and beets in a 3×3′. They are great! Less weeds, more veggies per square foot. Stacking them 2 or 3 high makes it easier on the back too! Compost is cheap up here ($20 a truck load) but, if you do stack and want to conserve soil you can use sand or rocks in the bottom portion.
Wonderful! Thank you for the great info
thanks for the great idea and let me know how it works!
Last summer I planted tomatoes in tires. I painted them. They worked fine.