Tight on space, but want to grow a vegetable garden? Interested in learning more about urban gardening, and getting some tips? Read on, you should find this article helpful (we hope).

Loni's Planter Box Plans
Loni’s vegetable planter box is great for urban gardening enthusiasts tight on space.

With the warmer weather our attention turns to the outdoors. And, if you’re like us, and enjoy growing your own vegetable, we start dreaming about vegetable gardens bursting with color, and aroma.

How to build your own vegetable planter box has quickly become one of the most popular series ever on Stark Insider. Loni shot several episodes, covering everything from nutrients and microirrigation to up-lighting and pest control (keep those critters away from your tomatoes!).

When she originally scoured the internet for ideas on how to make her own planter box she came up empty. Her simple “Venturing into Vegetable Gardening” article turned into a massive hit, much to her surprise. She made her plans available so others could build their own boxes (Download Loni’s DIY Vegetable Box Planter Plans). Thousands downloaded the plans, gave feedback. She tuned the original idea and come up with the classic planter box you see here:

Planter Box
Loni’s planter box is designed for comfortable gardening with four sturdy legs that place the top about waist high.

We were shocked to learn that Loni’s concept–a sturdy, 4-legged planter box that can fit into tight spaces–has become the most downloaded vegetable planter box on the Internet. Don’t worry she won’t be giving any speeches, just sharing the best of what she’s learned over the last six years in the garden.

Here’s what Loni wrote in that original post that kicked off a multi-year passion for growing her own veggies:

Loni in Planter Box
Loni Stark takes a break after spending a few hours in the garage developing her design and building the first planter box.

“All of a sudden the image of me happily digging through dirt or presenting a dish at a dinner party and declaring that not only did I make the dish, but also grew the vegetables became an obsession.

So I dragged my unsuspecting spouse to OSH to buy the vegetable plants that were on sale for 69 cents each. Now here, dear reader, is an economic lesson on how to use sunk costs to your advantage. Clint did mutter, “Now where do you expect we plant these?” To which I cheerfully said, “We’ll figure it out, for 69 cents, how can we go wrong?”

It wasn’t too long after the plants arrived home that I sheepishly looked at Clint and said I had an idea of where we could put the plants.

I declared I knew the perfect place on our side yard and all we needed to do was get a planter box. Having scoured the web for different ideas, I knew I wanted a 2′ (depth) x 6′ (width) x 3′ (height) redwood planter box.”

(story continues…)

In this video Loni gives planting tips for new planter box owners:

And this, of course, is what we’re really talking about:

tomatoes-from-Loni-planter-box

If you’re ready to embark on your own veggie journey, Loni has created a page where you can download the plans (she refers to it as the Veggie App Store!). In the plans you’ll find the exact steps to take, a materials list, and some drawings. You’ll also find several how-to gardening videos, plus a whole bunch of colorful, healthy recipes. It’s a great weekend project.

This is an actual photo that a reader sent in (we get hundreds and love them!) of Jeff building a planter box with the help of his adorable four year-old son Emmett:

Jeff-Vegetable-Planter-Box

Gardening-Photo-from-Jeff-P

Here’s to happy gardening and healthy living!

[Venturing into Vegetable Gardening by Loni Stark]