Luna Moon

About two years ago I was recommended a video about using storage totes to make a raised bed garden. I was actually in the process of cleaning up the house at that time, so I had a couple large totes that had been emptied out. My first try with them I made one and tossed some sunflower seeds in it, and they did fine. Last year I had two raised tote planters. This year I am expanding! I thought it would be fun to share how I set them up so that maybe you can try doing something similar in your garden! You should be able to source most of your supplies for this for cheap or free. ( Supplies you will probably need )

Today we needed to grab some feed for the chickens, and ended up grabbing a few herbs and vegetables as well. I still need to sit down and plan the garden out further, but this was all stuff I knew I would need. I have a container with basil and oregano growing together. There is also planters with lemon thyme and a large rosemary plant, and a hanging planter with some cherry tomatoes. And that plant growing all over the raised bed is chives that has been growing in there year after year for about 30 years.
This is all at the base of our stairs. I thought it would be nice to have for quickly grabbing something for cooking. I also would like to have a sage plant here, but I didn't see any at the store we stopped at. We also grabbed a couple other cherry tomatoes, peppers, and a pumpkin start. I am hoping the pumpkin can do well in one of the 16 gallon totes. It is one that grows the small, decorative type pumpkins. 
It is small, but I am already really happy with what I have so far! I love gardening so much, so I am really happy to be out there!!

- Luna

It is still a bit cool where I am to put in the garden, but some of my plants from last year seem to be coming back. This is an upcycled 16 gallon storage tote that I used last year to grow an eggplant. I also kept in the container a separate pot that had mammoth dill growing in it. It looks like some seeds got spread and now I have a bunch of dill growing in already. This is mammoth dill, which was the featured seed last year in Michigan's One seed, One state program. This year's seed was little finger carrots. I am sad I didn't get to my library in time to get some, but I did get some scarlet nantes carrot seeds from the seed library. I haven't grown carrots before, but I might try growing them in buckets (I can easily get some free from work). I didn't do my best collecting seeds last year, but I am hoping to let the dill here spread throughout the whole container and just grow a bunch of dill to collect and give away. My wife has been including dried dill in my scrambled eggs lately, and I really like it. Today I grabbed some of the fresh dill and I am excited to see if I notice the difference. update: yeah 11/10 they slapped <3

My wife and I are going to be working on cleaning up the yard and getting the garden in this week now that we are on vacation. It is still a bit cool out, but it seems like we are out of danger of any more frosts at least. My garden this year will be focused mostly on things I can dry and preserve to use over the fall and winter as well. Herbs, peppers, potatoes, a modest amount of tomatoes, and beans are all my list. I have a bit of compost I need to move around. This year I am going to try going out with a notebook and making myself a drawn out of map of the garden and then sit down with that to plan what I want to grow in each space. I often run into the problem where I either buy too much for my space, which I especially don't want to spend any more money than I need to right now. Or I underbuy and by sometime in mid July I am disappointed and wishing I had more plants to attend to and harvests to collect. Thankfully I have a rough idea of it in my mind already. I don't have the space to start seeds indoors, so I usually buy started peppers and tomatoes from greenhouses. I guess prices for flats this year really will determine how much I grow there. I have enough compost and dirt from last year that I should be able to mix it with some bagged stuff from the store.