Carol Lindsay, Landscape Design in a Day with book “Gardening on Pavement, Table and Hard Surfaces”
Growing Greens Above Ground
I’ve been waiting for years to build my own salad table.
One of the cool things is being able to grow lettuce and other greens without needing to even think about slugs, let alone pick them out of my greens.
It’s also perfect for people with small outdoor living areas, for example I live in a floating home.
Factor in being able to re-purpose my mom’s old metal patio table and the fact that I’m using alot of greens for smoothies makes it just perfect!
If you love the idea of easy access to lettuce and other greens, here’s how to make your own:
Checklist
Bob Lindsay installing the sides of the salad table
- Metal patio table with a metal mesh top
- Aluminum roll flashing
- Squeeze clamps
- Tin snips
- Filter fabric
- Caulk
- Pop rivets and a pop rivet tool or a drill, screws and nuts or bolts. Note: This requires more physical strength than I have!
- Potting soil and plants or seeds
Construction Notes
First, cut the fabric to fit the shape of the round patio table. Measure the circumference of the table and then cut the flashing to the correct length so the ends overlap by about an inch.
Pre-cut the flashing with tin snips. For my table this was a 5’ length of 7” aluminum roll flashing.
Next we clamped on the flashing to the table edge. We used pop rivets to attach the flashing to the table. Caulk around the inside edge of the flashing where it meets the table. Set the fabric onto the table and into the edge of sticky caulk.
Let it dry and then add your soil mix and plant your plants.
Credit goes to George Schenk, NW gardener and author of Gardening on Pavement, Table and Hard Surfaces. I love this book!
Before: Salad table ready for soil and plants to be added
After: Freshly planted salad table
