Making growing containers

So anyways, I mentioned recently I would share how we made the cool container for gardening. I first saw this on the wonderful Instructableswebsite a couple years ago. Showed it to my hubby & we agreed it would be a fun idea to try. It was fairly simple, & up here in Washington, it worked great. I mention that because the first try was when we were in Florida for a summer. It didn’t work out so well down there. Didn’t really explore the reasons why very much since we knew we’d be back here.

this is how it will all fit together

Obviously, to make this easy, I’m sharing a lot of pictures. You can see that we built a matching set. We got 2 deep totes (w/lids, needed, but I left em outa the pictures), 2 shallow totes, 2 pond plant baskets, 4 small metal rods (not pictured, oops) & a length of PVC pipe to be cut to size. Then all you need is something to cut holes in the lids & bottoms. It’s pretty easy to see how it goes together looking at the pictures.

The small hole about half way down on the one end is the drain hole. It should be located just as where the bottom of the shallow tote sits when nestled together. This is located on the same end as the PVC fill pipe. The fill pipe has a slanted bottom so it fills without backing up. The height is up to you really, as long as it comes thru the lid. We opted for 5 holes in each lid. You can do less if you like depending on what you plan to plant.

PVC pipe hole & basket cutout

To write out all the directions would make this so long. If the pictures don’t explain enough, feel free to email me (HerbsnChocolate@Gmail.com) & I’ll happily explain any part!

drain/overflow hole

Once you have all the cuts made & everything assembled, you want to fill the basket with dirt. Then keep filling until you are just below the top. Be sure you have the fill pipe in place!!! Now the website I got this from had several people saying to use only a specific blend of soil. I kinda followed that the first time, in FL. We did not have wonderful results. Up here in WA I used just good store bought soil along with some soil amendment mix stuff. It worked great. I think the key is keeping it watered, and sunlight!

So if you try this, I’d love to know what your results are like … Ours were great this year & we plan to use both containers next year along with maybe one or two more! 

 Basket in place, PVC fill pipe in place.

Rods get pushed thru the basket holes so the baskets stay in place better. Lip of the basket is on the inside, rest of basket & rods, underneath. Only cut the square big enough for the basket to fit thru, not the lip of the basket.

Hole drilled in lid for PVC pipe. Holes drilled for plants to grow thru. I dont suggest more than 5 unless you are growing something that is really small/compact, or trails off onto the ground.

with the lid on, we made indents to match the holes. take lid off, plant plants. carefully put lid back on, pulling plants thru holes as needed.

this was the FL planting. a varied crop.

The planted version, in Florida 2010. You can see the WA 2011 version  in the last post.