~PJ Wife Here~
Some of you maybe wondering why we put boxes in the garden, after all, the whole garden is dirt. I read a few books (not as much as Daryl) and I gleaned information from all of them and then we devised our way of doing things.
We put boxes in to discourage crawly critters like slugs and to help make a border around our plants and the fence. The fence area with grass and wildflowers tends to be the place slugs and other bugs hide out, then at night they sneak from the long grass over to your lovely, tender, juice, just emerging plants and eat them before scurryi
ng back at dawn. By having an inhospitable border between our plants and the fence discourages those late night snacking times. The boxes add additional barriers as well.
The Boxes also help define the garden. It will be easier to rotate the plants year after year (at least easier for me) and the other reason is because we will NOT be tilling every year. We tilled the ground up this year because it was very hard and needed to be mixed with the compost, manure and sand that we had. But every time you till your dirt you bring up weed seeds that have been sitting dormant for years and now you have a whole new batch to weed. It can take you years to weed out all the weeds and frankly, I’m too lazy to do that. The border around the boxes consists of hardpacked dirt, old grass clippings and sawdust. All biodegradable, comfortable to walk on and hard for weeds to get into.
Why do the hard work when God in His wisdom gave us creatures to do it for us? What are these amazing creatures that help fertilize your garden, can help draw your compost down into the soil near the roots, keep your soil aerated? Why it is the wonderful earthworm. Earthworm manure is the BEST manure in the world, so wouldn’t you want to draw them to your garden, I do. By not turning the dirt year after year… and instead adding the compost to the top of the dirt, you draw the worms up to take the compost down. And the best part, no weed seeds being brought to the top. After a year or two of weeding, we should have a fairly weed free garden. Yes there are the seeds that blow in the wind, but those few we can handle.
So now you know why we have the boxes. Of course this is our first year doing this. Stay tuned… maybe in 3 years we will change our
mind… or maybe we will start a whole new craze.
Some of you maybe wondering why we put boxes in the garden, after all, the whole garden is dirt. I read a few books (not as much as Daryl) and I gleaned information from all of them and then we devised our way of doing things.
We put boxes in to discourage crawly critters like slugs and to help make a border around our plants and the fence. The fence area with grass and wildflowers tends to be the place slugs and other bugs hide out, then at night they sneak from the long grass over to your lovely, tender, juice, just emerging plants and eat them before scurryi
ng back at dawn. By having an inhospitable border between our plants and the fence discourages those late night snacking times. The boxes add additional barriers as well.The Boxes also help define the garden. It will be easier to rotate the plants year after year (at least easier for me) and the other reason is because we will NOT be tilling every year. We tilled the ground up this year because it was very hard and needed to be mixed with the compost, manure and sand that we had. But every time you till your dirt you bring up weed seeds that have been sitting dormant for years and now you have a whole new batch to weed. It can take you years to weed out all the weeds and frankly, I’m too lazy to do that. The border around the boxes consists of hardpacked dirt, old grass clippings and sawdust. All biodegradable, comfortable to walk on and hard for weeds to get into.
Why do the hard work when God in His wisdom gave us creatures to do it for us? What are these amazing creatures that help fertilize your garden, can help draw your compost down into the soil near the roots, keep your soil aerated? Why it is the wonderful earthworm. Earthworm manure is the BEST manure in the world, so wouldn’t you want to draw them to your garden, I do. By not turning the dirt year after year… and instead adding the compost to the top of the dirt, you draw the worms up to take the compost down. And the best part, no weed seeds being brought to the top. After a year or two of weeding, we should have a fairly weed free garden. Yes there are the seeds that blow in the wind, but those few we can handle.
So now you know why we have the boxes. Of course this is our first year doing this. Stay tuned… maybe in 3 years we will change our
mind… or maybe we will start a whole new craze. 
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