The Plant Boxes

I didn’t have the money to buy proper plant boxes with all the dough i was spending on obtaining my own ppe, food, medicine, feed for the animals, and tylenol. Everything was more expensive than it should have been. Produce was marked up so much a potato was a dollar. You could spend 50 bucks buying a bottle of Tylenol because everything was on back order and only the poor sobs that actually needed the stuff to keep them out of the ER and at the job site once a month would pay the mark-up criminals that amount of money for 1 bottle on ebay or amazon. Masks were similarly available, for a pretty penny.

The financial toll wasn’t the only reason i didn’t want to buy proper planter boxes. I had a gazillion termites and carpenter ants spread across the 2 acre property. I knew wood would be consumed quickly by the little pests. I went to the dollar general and picked out some plastic toy boxes. They wouldn’t be tasty to the termites and they were much less expensive than real planter boxes would have been. i drilled numerous holes in the bottom of each box for water drainage and vwalah! Once i was done making my boxes i had to fill them. I cringed at the cost of filling each box with potting soil. The boxes held more soil than i anticipated and the amount of bags i would have to buy was rising. Instead of buying the proposed mountain of potting soil i cheated a bit. I filled half of each box from the mulch pile on my property and only shelled out for enough dirt to cover the top third of the toy boxes. As i watered the plants, the nutrients from the soil would move down amongst some of the mulch layered underneath it. It wasn’t ideal but then, what was ideal at this point? 2020 wasn’t really shaping up to be a marathon of perfection if you know what i mean.

After each box was filled i set it inside the greenhouse.

It was finally coming together. Oh! I skipped a huge bit! I let the chickens loose in the greenhouse before i filled it with boxes. It was their first outing and at first they didn’t know what to make of the grass. They huddled together and stood absolutely still. Pretty soon natural instinct took over and they began to scratch and peck as all grown chickens do. I was so proud of them. They were engaging in real chicken behavior. As i had hoped, they went after all the grasshoppers that had been hiding in the greenhouse and after a couple hours there wasn’t a bug in sight. I shuttled the chickens back indoors and continued to set up the greenhouse. The chickens had done me a huge favor since i could never have rid the greenhouse of the little chompers so thoroughly.