My Great Outdoors: Grippyrigos Grow 'n Glow Garden

Name: grippyrigos
Location: Los Angeles, CA
Type of space: Raised bed vegetable garden
Tell us about your outdoor project and how you enjoy it: Our home in urban Los Angeles is blessed with southern exposure, but the previous owners covered much of the front yard with a sea of concrete. Breaking up the concrete wasn't in our budget, and we wanted to take advantage of all that sunshine to plant a vegetable garden. Our solution was to build raised beds and place them right on the concrete. Now, the formerly barren and broiling-hot terrace is green and lush, and tomatoes, beans, eggplant, peppers, cucumbers, herbs, and more are thriving. Because the garden is the first thing visitors see, we wanted to make it visually appealing. We used dark wood stain to unify the planters and help them recede, allowing the plants to take center stage. We placed a dining table under our apricot tree, hung solar lanterns, and created an al fresco dining spot. Our 3 children love getting up in the morning and going outside to see what new veggies are popping up, and we love sitting at our outdoor table, watching the plants, and eating our homegrown goodies.

How did you create it? A few years ago, we removed a redwood arbor from the back of our house. We saved the wood and used it to build these veggie beds (and a long bamboo planter and a children's garden box, to boot). We also milled the wood to make tall stakes, then wrapped them with sisal twine to create attractive & sturdy tomato cages and climbing teepees for cucumbers. Finally, we made a redwood-bordered mesh climbing frame, affixed to our fence, to support 5 different varieties of pole beans. We used dark brown opaque wood stain to disguise the stained, aging wood, and installed a drip irrigation system for watering. We kept the project on a budget by planting seeds and plants from 4-inch containers. We love that we were able to repurpose existing materials for our project.

Recommended store, site, product or resource? We used Cabot Pro V.T. opaque acrylic stain in Bark; it has great coverage and gives all the planters a neat, uniform look. Ikea's Solig solar lanterns (in orange) add a nice punch of color during the day and glow softly at night.

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it's beautiful and very welcoming.

posted by julia2343 on June 18th 2009 at 10:05pm
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I love your tablecloth! Where'd you find it? It reminds me of my Orla Kiely umbrella, with a pear pattern in similar colors. You've got a great space!

posted by Tobiaty on June 18th 2009 at 10:06pm
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I love this idea, perfect for our concrete patch.

I've got a question: Does anyone know what that flowering blueish tree is in the background?

posted by Azucar on June 18th 2009 at 11:55pm
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looks great...what are the dimensions of your planters?

posted by JenniferGB on June 18th 2009 at 11:56pm
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Jacaranda.

posted by e6 on June 19th 2009 at 12:06am
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grippyrigos: fabulous work! I'm thinking of creating a small container veggie garden of my own on our hot roof terrace, your garden is a great inspiration :)

azucar: thats a jacaranda tree

posted by Delaks on June 19th 2009 at 12:07am
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wow!!! beautiful! garden envy here ... :-D

posted by maike on June 19th 2009 at 4:26am
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oh wow! this is so stunning!!

posted by annalyssa on June 19th 2009 at 6:31am
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That's a great budget friendly idea and it looks so nice!

What is that purple tree? I've never seen one like that before; it's gorgeous!

posted by TrueTex on June 19th 2009 at 10:23am
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Gorgeous - nice job! I have some raised veggie beds that i lovingly built too, but i left them unstained - did you have any concerns about the chemicals in the stain leaching into the soil for your edible crops? otherwise, the stain looks fabulous.

posted by spoonful on June 19th 2009 at 12:12pm
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Oh my gosh! I love that tablecloth! Where is it from?

posted by apf on June 20th 2009 at 1:43pm
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Hi all--thanks for the nice comments!
The tablecloth is indeed Orla Kiely from Target (not sure if they still have them--maybe on the website?)

The huge jacaranda tree sits on the grass median island in front of our house and is in beautiful full flower from April through June.

The planters are 6 x 8 ft. and 3 x 9 feet; we also have another 3 x 8 foot bed (not pictured) that is my kids' garden where they can plant whatever they choose.

I did debate whether or not to stain the planters in case the chemicals would leach, but we ended up doing one coat on the outsides only. The redwood is 2" thick, so I was confident that it wouldn't soak through that much wood.
Thanks!

posted by threebeans on June 22nd 2009 at 7:54pm
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Looks like Target still has the Melamine dishes in that pattern. http://www.target.com/Orla-Kiely-Green-Apple-Collection/dp/B001PLFQ2A

posted by Cindy@Dirtdujour.com on June 27th 2009 at 12:42pm
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