I am sure they were cute at some point, but I sort of just let the plants die and then let all that strange hay stuff just sort of fall out the bottom. After they looked so lame, I didn't really know what to do with them. That is when Steve and I decided it would be a great idea to make new planter boxes from scratch and plant strawberries and peppers in them! (At the time we decided this, we didn't know that this was an even more ingenious idea because it would keep the strawberries away from the ground where the SLUGS would likely feast upon our strawberries and ruin my vision of hot summer nights eating strawberry shortcake...)
SO... a few trips to Home Depot later - (yes, anytime Steve does a project, there are multiple trips to Home Depot. NEVER just one, nice, concise trip for all the supplies at the same time) - we had the wood and we had adorable little planter boxes!
I am the visionary and Steve is the craftsman!
After they were done, I decided that I should try to stain them or seal them to provide a little protection from the elements. Afterall, you saw what happened to the original little planter boxes without any maintenance on my part! Here is where we got crafty. I wanted to stain the boxes, but didn't want to use chemicals. My thought was that we would hopefully be eating the strawberries and peppers that were going to be growing out of these little gems and I didn't want to add additional bad things.
I searched a lot of "natural stains" on the internet and found that you can make a dark stain with steel wool and vinegar or a blue stain with pennies in vinegar. I didn't try either of these, but was happy to see that there were alternatives to the stuff I would find at the store! My last search got me to coffee. The idea is that you brew a really strong cup of coffee and paint away!
I tried this, but we didn't get the rich brown I was hoping for.
I decided that the boxes didn't need to be brown and then brain stormed with Jen on what else besides coffee might stain the wood. Our solution: RED WINE!
Jen was going to Trader Joe's anyway, so I had her pick me up a bottle of $2 buck Chuck.
Now we were getting somewhere! Evan helped me paint the boxes and while we were slathering them with the wine he said, "Wow, Wine smells good." My response? "I think it stinks," and then quickly ushered him inside.
After the "stain" we decided we needed to seal them. The boxes were going to be outside in Seattle. Enough said. Again, the internet provided some pretty interesting ideas, but the one that I decided I was brave enough to try came from www.themoderndiylife.blogspot.com. It was SO simple:
1/4 cup beeswax (melted in a double boiler or pyrex cup in a pot of boiling water)
3/4 cup olive oil (added to the melted beeswax and stirred)
I, luckily, had beeswax on hand from the homemade lotion Jen and I were preparing to make so I melted away!
After the oil was mixed and started to cool, the mixture became sort of gooey/goopy. I used my hands and rubbed it all over my little planters. I was very skeptical of the whole process as the wax started to harden, but then, after taking an old towel and rubbing away the excess, I was AMAZED! The boxes are beautiful! (and totally rain resistant! - well maybe not "totally," but somewhat!)
I planted my strawberries in one box and my peppers in the other. The strawberries are producing lots of berries and the I-have-never-grown-peppers-and-I-hope-you-live peppers are struggling to ward off what I believe are aphids. The boxes are wonderful! Right now they are sitting on the banister of the front deck waiting for the back deck to be finished. I see them every time I pull up to the house and I am sort of in love with them. I don't have a picture of the finished product right now, but will take one in the morning and update.
Here is the finished one!
1 comment:
So pretty, love how hard you worked to get these done. Also love the little fellow on the edge of this picture!
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