Earlier this year, we decided to give up the battle against the slugs and snails in our garden for fresh leafy salad. Seedlings stood absolutely no chance against the evil pests and we couldn’t stand the thought of throwing tons of chemicals down just to let the lettuce survive. So we came up with the idea of growing salad in our courtyard.
We have a lot of space there for an expansive container garden but didn’t want to spend a fortune on huge pots…or have plastic ones everywhere. Then we came across the salad table instructions from the University of Maryland. Here’s what our finished salad table looks like now.
We’ve grown tons of lettuce in there this year already and love that it’s sitting right outside the kitchen door. But with winter setting in, the growth of our salad has really slowed which has led to us building a cold frame for the table. Details are coming soon since we’re still building it. Check out our Facebook fan page for a sneak peak at the first phase of building.
They’ve also got some cool portable salad boxes that we’re planning to build for herbs. We’re still thinking up ways to modify the plans so we can grow all sorts of other vegetables in the courtyard. Something along the lines of what I found at on Windowbox.com where they have a pretty nice planter for a big space. But we need something longer and narrower in our courtyard so we can still drive in and out when we need to (like when we finally lay down gravel paths in our garden).
very nice~!! will keep bunnies out for sure! saves on the back too!
like your new look.
Absolutely no risk of bunnies getting up to this level. Deer maybe but we don’t have those problems at the moment. I can actually see the table from my kitchen window so I always know just how the salad is coming along. We’re so glad we built this table!
Thanks for the comments on the new look. I’m still playing with things (as you may have noticed) but hope everyone enjoys it. Hopefully easier to find your way around too. Blogging…it always keeps you on your otes 🙂
This looks like a good idea! Did you go with the mesh bottom as the U of Maryland described the design? Do you have any issues with it drying out too quickly? – though it may be late in the growing season for you to know how it would perform in your summer.
Hi Steve. Yes we did use the mesh bottoms and it does dry out rather quickly in the summer. On the hottest of days our lettuce would get pretty wilted if we’d only watered the night before. We’re working on a way to use a solar powered drip irrigation system for the table and the rest of our container garden to curb this issue. I assume you could set up some inexpensive plastic containers with drip holes in the beds also to keep them moist when it’s really warm…but of course you loose some planting space since you’d probably need at least 2 in each bed.
Thanks Tiffany. My partner is originally from Maryland and she says it’s hot and humid there in the summer, so this design might be best suited for those kind of climates. If I make one of these, I think I would make it with a solid bottom drilled with some holes in it or else have it plastic lined with some holes for drainage and have the sides be higher to hold more earth and therefore retain moisture longer. Also it wouldn’t hurt to mulch the soil even in raised gardens like this.
The solar powered drip irrigation system sounds interesting. Since we collect rainwater in a barrel, I was thinking of designing a gravity fed drip irrigation system which hopefully would not empty the barrel between rainfalls. Looking forward to more on this but I realise it might not be until your spring now!
Love the new look – keep up the great blog.
We used 2×6’s for our salad table to make it deeper. We also stapled landscaping cloth to the bottom before attaching the mesh bottom. This slows down the water loss, and keeps the table from losing soil. We also extended our timed drip irrigation system to the table. Thank you for your video about building a cold frame for your table.
That’s a great idea about the landscaping cloth. We’ll have to try that when we make more tables.
Glad you enjoyed the video. I’m still working on the write up about all the pieces and putting it together properly. Must make more hours in the day! 🙂
Beautiful. I love the three of varying height. Here is the newer link to the instructions from the U of Maryland http://www.hgic.umd.edu/content/documents/HG601SaladTables_SaladBoxes.pdf
I know this is an old thread, but….
I made a similar table, about waist height for my wife. Believe it or not, but ground hogs can climb those wooden legs and eat the plants. I have seen it happen! Ground hogs are not your friends.