If you are like me and have nary a nook or cranny to exploit for gardening, you turn your attention to another method of gardening – Container Gardening.

For several years, due to lack of physical in-ground space, I plant flowers, herbs and veggies in planter containers of various sizes and shapes.  They function extremely well if devised to hold enough water in between watering periods.

My Self-Watering Planters that hubby made for me last year were simply awesome.  This year one has peas planted in it and the other has 2 cherry tomato plants.  I also have 5 long window boxes that I fashioned into self watering containers by placing a smaller ‘insert’ window box into a slightly larger one and drilling a hole through one side of the larger one about 3 inches up from the bottom for overflow.  I placed rocks in the bottom of the oversized one, then put the smaller, dirt filled insert inside and voila! instant self watering container.

All that was left to do was sow my vegetable seeds and wait for Mother Nature to make them sprout.  2 became home for beets, one for radishes, one for Romaine lettuce and one for a mixed mesclun/green leaf lettuce salad bowl.

Now that all the hard work of filling and planting was done, it was time to cage them in as the Homestead here is full of critters that love to dig.  There are Chipmunks and Red Squirrels that if not barricaded, will soon be uprooting all your hard work in search of the perfect hiding place for their food stash, like a college kid’s dorm room.

So hubby devised a steel mesh cover that fits over the top of each planter made from 1/2″ square steel mesh.  You can purchase a 5′ x 3′ roll of the stuff at any hardware store for relatively cheap $$, well worth it in my opinion.

Now all my precious seeds can sprout without me resorting to eliminating the critters for trashing my garden boxes.  You have heard of Pheasant Under Glass?

 How about Veggies Behind Bars?