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Every garden started as a single plant.
I don’t think it’d be hyperbolic to say that almost every homeowner dreams of a lush, colorful garden in the yard. Who doesn’t like a winding path of natural beauty from the comfort of home? Thing is, though, every gigantic, beautiful garden in the world had to start somewhere. Unless you’re obscenely rich, you can’t just transplant an entire garden’s worth of flowers to cover your entire yard; you gotta tend to the whole thing. If that sounds intimidating, don’t force yourself to try and turn the whole yard into a nursery from the start. Instead, start small by setting up a grow box.
Grow boxes are a great starting point for either flowers or vegetables. They don’t take up too much space, they’re easy to maintain, and you don’t have to worry about underground pests. You can get one from most gardening and hardware stores. They’re usually made out of cedar lumber, but you can also get boxes made of porcelain or plastic, or even make your own. Just plop it down wherever you like in the yard, fill it up to the rim with three-way soil mix, and plant those seeds. Don’t worry if the soil overflows a bit, it’ll settle in when you water it.
The nice thing about grow boxes is that since they’re so compact, they don’t require nearly as much tilling as a full-on ground garden. Just make sure the seeds get plenty of sun and water, throw on some compost or bark dust to keep the soil rich, and (accounting for atmospheric conditions and temperature), you’ll have a little slice of the Earth. Once you’ve got your first box on your feet, you can start up a second box if you’re feeling confident. If you keep adding boxes, soon you’ll have enough boxes to cover the whole yard, and look at that! You’ve got a garden!
