VegTrug

Seriously, I am so excited about my VegTrug (the official name of what I prefer to call my veggie cart). I purchased the compact Trug from Gardener's Supply Company because I trust their products, the Trug is made from "FSC-certified, sustainable, plantation-grown fir with non-toxic stain," the liner was included in the kit (not so from all sellers), and, per the usual, I found a free-shipping coupon. As the instructions proclaimed, it really was very simple to construct (an electric screwdriver will help you tremendously), and the not-an-engineer in me felt extremely proud by my end result.

It does require a lot of soil, more than I expected! I used 80 pounds of basic topsoil and have so far topped that with nearly 2 cubic feet of good-quality potting soil. But it's going to hold a lot too. I've got six kale plants and a small rosemary in there now; because you can really pack things in, I suspect I'll fit at least two dozen other greens and herbs.

As I said, we don't get much sun in the rest of the yard, and our primary garden patch directly abuts a hulking Sugar Maple which is a gorgeous but greedy tree. I also wanted to move the kale out of that patch because we had a major white fly infestation down there last year, and try planting my tomatoes directly into the ground versus containers. Crop rotation folks!