If you got a container then you can have a garden

If you have got more than one container the better still

by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

Even if you have but a small area where you can place such containers you can still have some kind of vegetable garden. And, if you grow upwards, by means of trellising and such, then space usage can be maximized even further and better.

If you have land and either the soil is poor or you don't want to dig then, obviously, there is the option of building raised beds with lumber surrounds or such. But if you don't have the tools needed for building a raised bed, or there is a lack of space for a large garden, then container gardens could be the solution. The fun thing is that any kind of container can be used, even old bathtubs and the like.

You do not have to go out to the garden center or such and buy any planters or tubs. Most of them can be had for nothing. Some of the ideal ones are the large buckets that catering establishments get their mayonnaise and such in, as well as plastic cooking oil barrels (just cut in half). So check on those places. Most of them, I should think, will be only too happy to let you have all of them that you can take off their hands (more than likely for free) as they have to pay to dispose off them and you, theoretically, are doing them a favor by taking them.

I know about at least one market gardening enterprise that grows everything they sell in those big buckets – between 10 and 20 liters in volume – and such a setting can even look quite attractive.

You can even grow potatoes in buckets like that. Just make sure it is just one plant per bucket as more than one will simply compete with one another and the output is not all that good. Been there and done it. One learns from one's mistakes.

I am also lucky in that I can lay my sticky fingers at times on tree buckets and tubs in which trees come for the planting in parks and along the roads of the town and countryside here. They come with nice drainage holes built in.

And that brings me to the all important drainage. Most of the containers that you may be able to scrounge will not have holes for drainage but that is nothing that a drill cannot fix. For a 10 liter (and also for a 20 liter one) the rule of thumb is: one hole in the middle and between five to eight spaced around the rim. And don't make those holes too small, although, then again, not too big either as you don't want the soil disappearing out of those holes.

So, get those containers, prepare your soil, and get growing food for yourself and your family. Time to prepare is now.

© 2017