It's Saturday. Let's take a break from politics.

Elly and I live in a townhouse with a very small back yard. Two months ago we had our deck and fence built, partly so there would be some protected yard to let the dogs out in, and partly so we could start gardening for the spring.

The problem was, in order to comply with Shepherdstown's zoning regulations, we couldn't build the fence out as far as the end of the property line - indeed, we had to come about ten feet in - leaving us a yard space of about 20' x 12'. Inside this space there is also a large air conditioning unit that takes up about a 4' square area.

In order to garden, we would have to take up almost half of this small yard... and, since the back of the house faces due east, the garden would take uo a large area closest to the deck in order to get at least 5 hours of sun for the plants (the shadow of the fence would cut the sun out at least half of the morning if the garden was at the other end of the yard.)

What to do? We needed a space for our two dogs... and a space where we could picnic outdoors and enjoy the summer - and we wanted to grow our organic vegetables and decorative flowers.

The solution we came up with was The Bucket Farm.

Given the increase in grass and food costs and the fact that we both work at a Community College (Elly full-time, me part-time), not a high-paying employer, the budget for our garden endeavor was rather low. We had built the fence and deck out of money that had been allotted to house construction, so I won't count that. However, we spent around $300.00 for all the necessities needed to create the Bucket Farm (31 buckets, dirt and fertilizer, seeds, hanging brackets for the buckets, etc.) Elly had created her garden at the Hagerstown townhouse in wastebaskets and other containers last year... so she knew this concept would work (we had tomatoes, cucumbers and fresh basil into the mid-fall last year).

We decided to plant everything in white, five-gallon paint buckets from Lowes (we ruled out the similar buckets from Home Depot because they were orange and, hey, we're designers professionally and color coordination is important to us.) Four drain holes were drilled in each bucket about 1 1/2" up from the bottom. Then two inches of small stones went into each one followed by a mixture of earth, perlite and fertilizer. Seeds and small plants were then put in.

We set brackets along the tops of the two sides of the fence which would get the most sunlight in the morning (south and east sides). Since the buckets were hung high, they caught the light without getting shade from the fence, giving us at least 5 to 7 hours a day of sunshine. We also hung buckets along the deck stairs on the west side of the yard, which caught the most sun from top to bottom all day. This was very important for the tomatoes which need lots of sun.

On the north wall of the fence we hung our flower starters in cut-open plastic soda bottles and gallon water jugs. When these come in it will be a colorful background for our outdoor table and chairs. In front to the air conditioning unit, also along the north side, we set up a trellis (made from a left-over piece of railing that had originally blocked the sliders that go from the kitchen to the deck before the deck was built... this had been put in by the contractors and we had no other use for it after the deck was built) with buckets along the bottom in which we planted morning glories and cucumbers whose vines could climb up the strings.

All that's left to do is water the buckets every day, thin out some of the plants (maybe adding more buckets) as things grow in, and sit back and enjoy. The advantages of the bucket farm is that there is no weeding (because you have complete control of the soil in the bucket), the buckets and soil and brackets are good for years (so next year we'll only have the expenses of starter plants and seeds), and most of the yard space is available for the dogs and, of course, for us. And in about a month or so, we'll be eating vegetables from the farm (we've started eating lettuce, which we pick leaf by leaf, already).

OK, now we can get back to politics. Print Add a Comment Back to All Articles