Let's Raise That Garden!
3 Materials
$150
4 Days
Easy
I love to garden. I love the smell of rich earth in the mornings, walking among my rows of vegetables, mulching here, watering there, gathering home grown produce in a basket I carry with me. I've had a garden for many years, and Hubby even bought me a tiller I could use to weed and aerate the soil! But time passes, and we get a bit older. It was time to upgrade the garden to raised beds. I started my research.......
I researched materials for raised gardens, treated wood, sheet metal, cinder blocks, all different ways to elevate that dirt to a higher level. Knowing the size of the garden I had, those materials began to become pricey when I thought about how many raised beds I might want. So I looked around the farm to see what I had. I had six 50 gallon plastic barrels we had used to store water in, which weren't being used....hmmmm...so I cut them in half first drilling a hole where I could put the blade of my saber saw through, then merrily ripping that barrel in half! Piece of cake! I drilled a bunch of holes in the bottom, then used some pebbles to cover those drainage holes. I found this unnecessary later on, since I always add more dirt anyway each season, or as needed.
Cinder blocks are rather cheap, as are landscape timbers, so I used those to raise my barrel halves. I'm lucky to live on a farm, so we make our own dirt. We raise sheep and rabbits, so periodic cleanings of the barn and below the hutches piled up in the middle of the barnyard and turned every few days with the tractor gives us lovely, I repeat, lovely soil! What is dirt anyway, but leaves and stuff that breaks down to feed plants? Most vegetable plants (but not all) use the top eight inches of soil for feed. Multiple onions. Love onions. Yum.....
Another thing I have around the farm are these black tubs. I found some free pallets behind Lowes, and bought some more cinder blocks and landscape timbers to make a nice table for the tubs. I drilled holes around the bottom edge for drainage and added dirt. Oh, this is going so well!
My radishes, swiss chard and carrots are coming up! I went back to town for more cinder blocks, pallets and landscape timbers. I also bought a few more 50 gallon plastic barrels.
I added more barrels on the half shell........
And I added more tubs. You will notice differences in these pictures as to the layout of this ever growing garden of mine; over the seasons I tweaked some things, adjusting the blocks and timbers so that the plants got sunshine all day, and making my rows between the raised beds wider, since the riding lawn mower needed to be driven between the raised beds! These containers are not so heavy when the dirt is dry. I guess you could say these beds weren't permanent- you can move and adjust as necessary, a good thing!
I added a trellis because we love to grow sweet potatoes, and I've trellised my sweet potatoes for years. I wanted to see if these half barrels would make the grade for those taters. I found out that a half barrel will work, but sweet potatoes enjoy a little more room, so the next season I switched to bigger tubs.
Here's a photo of the sweet potatoes in the half tubs climbing the trellis. You can use this same system for any vine plant, cantaloupe, winter squash, cherry tomatoes, so many options!
New year, garden properly tweaked! I can now ride the lawn mower between the rows! I got the bigger tubs along the trellis from a neighbor and my feed store owner. In early spring I plant red potatoes in the bigger tubs, then in summer I plant sweet potatoes, squash and tomatoes.
As I've said before, most all veggies will grow in a container 12 inches or less, although I've found sweet potatoes and red potatoes need a deeper bucket. I've even grown okra in these black tubs, but found I have problems picking the higher pods as they grow! So now I grow okra in the lower half barrels! This is kale and collards, with an occasional garlic sprout!
Some lovely REALLY HOT- purple cayenne peppers growing in the half shell....
One thing to note, these planters will need frequent watering. On a hot day, or a low humidity day, expect to water daily.
Thank you all for bearing with me! I hope this style of raised gardening will give you all yet another option less back breaking work!
I used tubs and barrels. Kitty litter tubs, 5 gallon buckets, shoot, even bags of soil cut open on one side will work as planters. Let's go play in the dirt! 
See you in the garden!
Comments
Join the conversation
4 of 15 comments
-
This is awesome.. I've been trying to come up with an idea for raised beds for all the same reasons you did... and coming up with the same exact issues....and I have 50 gal drums not in use... and cinder blocks... and freshly made dirt courtesy of my horses...............Guess what I'm gonna be doing this fall......................: ) thanks so much for the inspiration!!!
-
For the barrels , we get them from the apple orchard or mill. They use them for apple juice : ) I got them for portable water for my horses originally so needed some that did not have chemicals in them. They were cheap too!
-
Yeah, we saved our barrels for water during hurricane season, but now with a second generator, we can hook it up to the well and pull our own water. The barrels have just been sitting in the shade!
-
Frequently asked questions
Have a question about this project?