Arts & Entertainment
'Salad Stand' Is Fit for Small Spaces
The backyard "salad stand," an alternative to the traditional vegetable garden, takes a minimum of space and can be put on a deck or small balcony as long as it drains properly.
When gardeners get together, they love to share ideas. As summer starts to unfold, gardeners' dreams often turn to vegetable growing.
Unfortunately, many of us lack the space to grow veggies, or if we do have space, we may have the wrong exposure. My friend Elaine Davis, a fellow gardener and avid do-it-yourselfer, has a delightful solution she calls her "salad stand." The idea is a variation on one she remembers from an Ortho garden book.
An alternative to the traditional veggie garden, the salad stand takes a minimum of space and can be used on a deck or small balcony as long as it drains properly. If you are really handy, you can put your box on wheels and move it to maximize the changing seasons. Elaine built it herself with a drill, a saw and an electric staple gun. I have built simple garden boxes myself, but I’m not good with a saw. Home improvement stores will gladly cut lumber for you, so all you need to do is screw it together.
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The stand pictured is 3 feet wide and 4 feet tall. Elaine says that next time she will make it only 3 feet tall so it won’t be so top-heavy. It is 1 foot deep. To build your own salad stand, build a box of redwood or other weather-resistant wood that is open in the front and on top. Cut four 2-inch PVC pipes an inch or so taller than the box. Also drill random drainage holes every 3 or 4 inches along the pipe so the water will easily reach the bottom rows of the box. Buy four caps. Our box is made from 1-by-6 redwood.
Drill six to eight drainage holes on the bottom, and cover the holes with screen or weed cloth to keep the soil in. Elaine also counter-sank her PVC drainpipes in the bottom to keep them steady.
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As you can see from the top photo, Elaine also reinforced her planter top with two-by-fours. She used deck screws to assemble the whole box. She also painted the top and PVC pipe brown for aesthetic effect. The caps just lift off for watering.
Position the box for maximum sun. Do this before you put in the soil. Insert the PVC pipes. Staple tarp cloth to the open front of the box front. Staple together a wooden trellis to make planting holes that are about 4 inches by 4 inches. Elaine makes her own trellises. You may be able to buy the appropriate size. Staple all but the edges first, then attach the grid to the box.
Fill the box with regular potting soil up to the level of the first row of lettuce. Cut a small X in the tarp to insert the lettuce. Make the opening as small as possible so the little plant will stay in. If the hole turns out to be too big, you can shore it up with brown masking tape after the plant is in. Elaine’s husband liked the red lettuce so much that he wants her to plant all of that variety next time.
Pony packs of many leaf-lettuce varieties are readily available from local nurseries. Continue up the rows until you lettuce stand is filled. Elaine also used spinach for an early season crop.
When you compare the amount of space used in traditional veggie gardens with planting vertically, the obvious choice for small-sized gardens is to go up.
The vertical trellis in the back of Elaine’s garden will produce cucumber, zucchini and peas on a very small footprint.