A Pest Resistant Frost Protective Container for Vegetable Gardens

How to a create pest resistant, frost protective container for vegetable gardens. This container method is best used for outdoor seed sowing and transplanting small, young, tender plants. With this container you can grow close to 2 square feet of vegetables. That’s equivalent to 16 radishes and 16 short-n-sweet carrots in one container. That’s a lot of food!

Timestamp:
00:00 – Intro
00:28 – Why cover containers
00:56 – Supplies
01:53 – Container Bottom
02:21 – Container Lid
07:41 – Prepped Container
08:23 – Chair Problems
10:32 – Filling the Container
13:13 – Buy dry bags
16:27 – Keep birds out
17:12 – Frost protection

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#smallspacegardening

These are my 18g totes with protective Lids if you want to see how I made them stay Tuned Hi friend I hope you’re doing well today we’re outside it’s a cloudy day and I thought I’d take this chance to show you how I made my 18g totes with the protective Lids on them these lids come in handy because it protects from um any insects and if

You’re planting something from seed then it helps protect the seeds from any birds that might try to get in and eat them but this is how I started my garden with these 18 gallon totes it started a couple of years ago I think I only had

Five at the time and it’s grown since then and it’s worked out well for me you are going to need to get a tote with the lid go you are also going to need to get netting and I’m just using tool that I got from the fabric store a drill Apple stapler

Stapler that’s a stapler it’s a stapler stapler staple is what goes in it but you need a staple too but well you need more than one but you definitely need a stapler with Staples in it how about that what is this thing called I think it’s called a soldering iron or

Something like that I’ve seen people use heavy duty scissors but I don’t have any heavy duty scissors so I’m going to plug this baby up to some electricity and use this let’s start with the base because it’s the easiest I’ve seen a lot of people drill the holes in the bottom but

I don’t want to drill mine in the bottom I I like putting mine on the side so we’re going to come in here and this is the drill that I’m using just H this baby up there we go and then flip it around and put two more on the other

Side and that’s it for the base now let’s move on to the top which has the most work to it and I this is where I tested it to make sure it was hot enough but you see how the lid has this the little crease in here coming all the way around all

The way around we’re going to follow this crease with the iron to cut out this middle part oh and make sure you don’t have your hand in the back where the iron is going to come through either cuz it will burn at this where you can

See nice and hot get that hole started it’s easier if I stand it up trying to make sure I can get it where you could see you see just let it melt on there is my room in the way here we go and the hotter the iron is the easier it is to

Go through and the quicker it is to go through and this is what it looks like from the opposite side as it’s coming through okay so I’m going to finish this I’m not going to bore you with me going through the whole thing but I’m going to

Continue to go all the way around and I’ll be right back seriously I got to tell you I wondered why it was moving so slow and why it was taking so long it was because I didn’t have this on the highest setting but I’ve got it going

Now and I’ve got it on the right setting so it helps to move faster if you’re using one of these if you have it on the highest setting so let’s finish this up now that I can see see it moves a whole lot quicker once you get it on the right setting

Which I did not do it first almost there almost there almost there almost there almost there and N little bit more just got to get this littley piece there we go now we’re done there we go the lid is all off now now that we have that off

Like I said be careful not to touch the edges because it’s hot don’t throw this away we’re going to keep this because I’m going to show you how this comes in handy later you also want to make sure that you use some sort of coverage on your table because the plastic has

Melted on the table so if you don’t want to mess up something use some kind of covering all right next we’re going to move on to the next phase of the lid next we are going to grab our netting place it over the lid oh wait this is double we don’t need

It to be doubled but you can if you want it extra sturdy but I want to be able to let as much light in as possible while keeping the bugs out and the beauty about doing this is it doesn’t have to be perfect you just want it to serve its

Purpose now I’m going to take my scissors and cut off the ends y’all I cannot see in a straight line at all with or without my glasses it doesn’t even matter I think I’m going straight and the next thing you know I’m just this crooked as all good I was

Going to try to rip it but can’t do that either all right well I didn’t go too crooked now that we have our netting all sized up turn it around so I just did that one backwards but you really want to turn it around so that the um rough edges of the

Staple are on the the inside and not not the outside just put that in and just go all the way around oh no Staples don’t know what happen with that one and this is just a regular household stapler fancies my heavy duty missed that all the way

Around but if you want to get it perfect that’s okay too I’ve got a little bit of a gathering sometimes it not go in all the way you may have to press it down a little bit to make sure you’re okay with it if you see any little gaps that you

Want to go back on put back in papap in the gaps like this one now we have our protective cover that will protect any seeds from the bugs no got a big hole that’s why it’s always good to go back and inspect it let’s do another staple all right let’s

Check it get one more time make sure do another one there check make sure more gaps that’s ugly but that’s all right I think I’m going to put one more here right now we can trim it trim off the excess Fabric and I always like to

Wait until the end before I trim it you know in case I find some really bad gaps that I’ve done all right again it doesn’t have to be perfect just so that there’s none that’s going to be hanging over the edges this and this is our finished product

These are our tote with our holes inside protective lid and we have our extra insert that we’re going to keep now let’s take this bath boy over to the garden and I’ll show you a cheap and easy way to fill it before you start filling your tote I

Recommend you go ahead and put it where you want it to be because once you start filling it it might get a little heavy and hard to move around I’m going to put mine that we just did right here in this chair that’s going along what I call

Container row these chairs I bought from the thrift store a couple of years ago and they were like $2 each when I first set them all up I’m kind of tired just carrying the tote it shows you how out of shape I am I got to

Do better oh I can take these off now too so I can see you better um but the first year I did the container roll gardening I had them in chairs then the second year I came up with this bright idea that I was going to take them out

Of the chairs and sit them down on the ground because I found that the chairs were holding water and bringing in a lot of mosquitoes so the way to deal with the mosquitoes I thought was to get rid of the chairs I put all of the

Containers down on the ground when I did that it stopped the mosquitoes but my plants didn’t do that well and I found out that happened because they were down on the ground the Sun comes from that direction and with the totes on the ground they weren’t getting as

Much sun so the plants didn’t do do so well so I had to come up with another solution to raise them back up to where they did good at and I brought back the chairs and then I thought about it I decided to drill holes in the chairs so that when I water

Everything and when it rains the water will have a way to drain out and that will cut back on the mosquitoes so if you just happen to buy chairs from the thrift store that don’t have holes in the bottom for water to drain out just be aware of

That I like the way the lids fit makes everything very very convenient now you can see that right now there’s nothing in there but a little dust and the first thing we’re going to do is get some brand or Twigs to go in the bottom if you saw my having fun in the

Backyard while doing work that um I’m saving trees or tree branches Twigs that I got from a neighborhood pile after a storm came through so I’ve got a stack right here let me show you this pile right here this is what I’m planning on picking up and putting in the bottom of the

Tote bottom and over time this will break down so I can do it I think I can’t do it okay hold on okay this one’s being difficult I’m just going to leave it out I think that’s that’s a good start can you see in there

How much let’s see if we can get a few more in there okay let’s try it this way get it now cooking I get one make sure I get them down in the bottom good and not necessarily Hing up side okay that should be good can you see

That the next thing we’re going to need is the soil filler I’m going to start with the cheap top soil on top of the branches I’m layering ING with the bad stuff first and putting the good stuff in last so that the plants will have something good to grow on while at the

Bottom everything will break down and turn into organic matter later with time ooo child I tell you what the sun is trying to come out and it’s getting hot it’s March and I don’t know if you’ve noticed but I’m in short sleeves because it’s like 70 it feels like it’s 80° when

The sun comes out and that’s why I don’t really grow a lot lot of cool seasoned crops in this Garden because it gets really really hot in this space for some reason so tell me does anybody else go to Lowe’s or Home Depot when it has not

Rained so that you can try to get the bags when they’re dry and they’re lighter and not as heavy I know I can’t be the only person that does that cuz when they’re lighter it’s easier to do this way start with a little then let’s

Get in here R it around make sure we cover up the branches good that one could have been broken up a little bit more but it’ll be all right I think that’s enough for that one next we have our compost and you can use whatever kind of compost you like I

Just got this because it was cheap that’s Weed Free and it’s odorless mushroom compost and no I won’t be picking this bag up because the thing weighs 40 freaking PBS we just going to scoop this I think I need to change my blade oh that looks nice and Rich I wish

It was a smaller bag so I could just pick it up and dump it quicker and easier that is just not about to happen yeah I’m adding about I don’t know maybe two layers two layers I’m adding about 2 in worth of compost try not to waste it cuz

This is valuable I’ve got my own compost that I’m working with in the house and I’ll show you that soon in an upcoming video so make sure you subscribe so you’ll get the notification Bell because I actually do my composting inhouse or I actually do indoor composting because crazy things happen

When I tried to do it outside so I’m looking forward to showing you my indoor composting method I think that’s about 2 in so the last thing that I am going to add is this cting mix and it’s a mix and not a soil because the

Mix has you know to me it’s a little looser um not as thi it it’s finer which makes it easier to plant more things to make your legs not your back smooth that out kind of mix it in really good all right so today is Thursday we’re

Supposed to get some rain on Friday so what I’ll do is wait until after then the rains will probably make it go down some it’ll shrink some so then I can come back and top it off but to show you why I love this so much and to show you

What else you can do with it here’s the top that we made that fits on it it’s hard to do this with one hand hold on okay there we go so see how the top fits on there really good o i see a spot I missed now I have to come

Back and fix that but the top goes on really good and it will keep all of the bugs out and it will another spot I missed can do such a good job but any how it’ll keep the bugs out and it’ll keep the birds from getting the seeds

But the beauty of saving this is if you’re let’s say you planted some seeds in there or you’ve planted some new um Sprouts in there and you’ve got a coal snap coming through you can take your plastic and the thicker the plastic the better it is but I like to use clear

Plastic you just but make sure it’s big enough to cover the hole it down and then put your top on it like that or another thing you could do is take the top off so what you would do is take a bigger plastic put it over the B and then for

Extra Frost protection you can put this back on if it’s going to be really really chilly that night and there you go and when it’s not going to be a chill or as soon as the chill is gone you make sure you come out remove all the plastic and put your protective

Lid right back on and there you have it you are good to go honey yeah all right that’s it thank you for joining me today be sure to like share and subscribe I love you guys catch you next time in the garden