After years of plants sitting in trays I got tired of the mess and made a long growing area to get rid of the trays. It's 20 inches wide, the width of two trays, and 12 feet long. There are two sections. One is deep for Sarracenia and other plants in one gallon and larger pots, and the other is for plants in small pots.
I first dug a trench to the proper depth, less the width of the 2x4's. I wanted the 2x4's to be mostly out of the ground to minimize rot. I also wanted to be able to lift it out and dump it if I ever decided to do that. I tamped the soil down and made sure it was level. It also minimized the digging and problem with where to put the soil.
I used 2x4's to make the frame. I built the frame in the driveway, the only way I could think to make sure it was truly square, then took the frame to its' final location. I used stakes to lift it when the ground was uneven to make it truly level. I used a laser to help with leveling, learning a few tricks on the use of a laser level along the way.
I then took some landscapers fabric and lined the bottom and sides. Some 45mil EPDM left over from my pond went over that and lined the frame and trench. I used a staple gun to staple the liner in. A board under the liner seperates the two different depth areas. I wanted to be able to control the depth of each seperately. The divider is below the top of the liner so if I were to flood a section, it would overflow into the other. That should make it easier if I decied to automate the water level.
The growing area has done well over the past year, and my plants have taken off.
However, not all is perfect. The side garden is the sunniest part of my side and back yard and the plants really only get sun from about 8AM to 1:00. The south-eastern sun they get from about 11:00 to 1:00 bakes the plants and burns the leaves. I need to shade them for those last two hours when they are hit with the brutal mid-day sun, but keep the shade off of them as long as possible until then.
As usual, this has required some compromises. A little time off set me off on a more ambitious project than I expected as I welded a frame and used screen to create a shade cover that is easily adjustable. It doesn't shade the plants until later in the day because of the angle it's set at. The angle is adjustable by the way.
I used 1/2 inch copper pipe and 3/4 inch copper for the sliders plus window screen for the shade cloth. I chose copper because it would look better, and allow me to use thinner materials that would minimize the dense shade caused by the structure, (vs. partial shade of the screen).
