I often write on here that you need not have a garden to grow your own vegetables and flowers. Today hopefully this post will inspire people to grow vegetables where ever they are? You can grow a lot in containers, plant pots and even repurposed plastic tanks be it in a garden, allotment or even a paved yard.
We came across some old plastic heating oil tanks and number one son's girlfriend had a brainwave and suggested making me some raised beds.
Number one cut ✂️ them in half with his Makita saw and drilled one inch hole sized drainage holes. Altogether there are nine of them. They were all cut in half and there was no waste left over. Here's one I dragged and filled yesterday:
Upturned plastic containers soon to be permanent raised bed.
I have been reading 📚 and watching YouTube videos about Hugelkultur raised beds. It's an ancient German method of stacking logs and branches and covering them with earth and fym and the wood 🪵 decays and feeds the vegetables and works like a sponge to absorb water. Do I really need Hugelkultur in Hibernia🤔? Hugelkultur sounds like the name of a German Prog or Post Rock band don't they?😄
I even shovelled in old weeds, fym, tree rings and topsoil. The strawy dung and other wooden materials soon half filled my new raised beds. Then I topped them up with well rotted fym and some topsoil.
The first one I finished yesterday. They could easily be used in a concrete yard and they are maintenance free and I will not need to replace them like timber raised beds will. I never spent a penny carrying out the raised bed tasks.
I dragged and dug and filled four more yesterday . That's five done and four to go. My Azada looks knackered lying prostrate on the soil. You can also see my garden gloves which I had to take off to take a photo 📸 with my mobile phone 📴.
Plastic is not going to go away. But at least we can repurpose it to grow our vegetables. Raised beds are good because you need to bend down to the ground and there is a good depth of soil. Ideal for gardens with poor drainage and lots of clay.
I am really pleased with our efforts and I was physically tired and aching last night.
Raised beds can be made from whatever you have lying round and repurpose be it timber, stones, conrete blocks or plastic.. I have traditional raised beds with no timber sides and now I have my recycled plastic ones. The weather is horrendously wet and the water table is full. Perhaps raised beds are the way to go?
I planted it up with cabbage plants 🪴 this afternoon. They may not be aesthetically pleasing on the eye. But they are functional and we have been resourceful repurposing discarded plastic products and they will last me out.
If only it would stop raining.
Nicely done. This sort of plastic doesn't seem to be recycled atall.
ReplyDeleteDid you clean the inside first?
I would add one detail if they are used sitting on a hard surface..I would place 2" x 2" wood supports underneath the tub, otherwise they could get waterlogged... especially with all the rain we are having!!
Thanks GZ. Yes they are propped up on old planks, concrete blocks and stones I find lying about. Buckets with drainage holes also make good planters. They are very useful on allotments that suffer from Clubroot or white rot.. Thanks.
DeleteI gave up gardening 'on the level' some years ago. I have raised beds ,both outside and in the tunnels. I se old baths, and barrels cut in half length ways to grow in, with added drainage of course, I also have had a lot of success growing in plastic pots, with a hole in the bottom, with a 'net' pot. they are then stood on gutters with capped ends, I jat fill the gutters with water every couple of days.
ReplyDeleteKathy
Hi Kathy. I grow root crops in the ground and I also grow in raised beds, old baths, buckets and a tractor tyre outside and in the polytunnel. I will carry on making new raised beds if I can source free or cheap materials. Raised beds are great for gardens with heavy clay and poor drainage. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteI used the same method to fill my raised beds, the only layer I did not have was logs and branches, saves a fortune on top soil, we used the good decking planks for our side, hubby reused the screws and the frame, so other than top soil ours was recycled. Carrots are growing in buckets, potatoes in bags this year, making the most of my limited space.
ReplyDeleteWhat a great idea. Your family are very resourceful when it comes to upcycling.
ReplyDeleteThanks JayCee. We have to be. My allotments apprenticeship showed me how to be a tightwad gardener and smallholder. Why rush to the garden centre when you can recycle and repurpose?
DeleteYou sound very resourceful Marlene. Even weeds make good compostable fill. I once grew potatoes upstairs on a flat window sill.
ReplyDeleteFirst son's girlfriend had the brainwave but she didn't do the work did she? Has first son popped the question yet? And I don't mean - "Will you come and lie down in the raised bed?"
ReplyDeleteNo it was Mr Numb Nuts or "me" who piked like a Minataur YP. I thought a raised bed was a bunk bed and the electricity coin meter was my money box. There's snow on the distant mountains here today.
ReplyDeleteSure it's not icing sugar?
DeleteI dunno. One would have to climb them to taste it.
DeleteMight try with old leaky water butt. A raised bed might solve the problem of beetroot fly because they fly along the ground. They make the beets woody and inedible.
ReplyDeleteBarrels and water butts with drainage holes are great for growing carrots and beetroots and parsnips Tasker. I am not familiar with beetroot fly. I do know that carrot fly can not fly higher than twelve inches. Sieved sand and soil to remove any stones and horticultural fleece or old net curtains will keep thos flies away.
ReplyDeleteMy only reservation about old heating oil tanks would be about contamination if they haven't been cleaned properly.
ReplyDeleteTell me more please Will? They were all damaged , leaky old plastic oil tanks that had been drained away long ago. I suppose there is a chance of ingesting any oil residue or even plastic pieces from the tank like the plastics trays and wrappings that cover our meats and vegetables and from our plastic bottles of spring water..? I think about similar things when I plant vegetables seeds and plants and plastic trays and plants pots and seed trays and plastic modules and old tyres (cadmium), even using treated wooden pallets for compost heaps...
ReplyDelete