Container gardening

**Russ** · 02-08-2011, 07:51 PM

Can you tell me how you have them set up? Drainage, holes,etc.

**Winkie** · 02-08-2011, 09:27 PM

Are you sold on containers, or would a small raised bed be possible. They have an adorable little set up at Sams, though I would just use boards & not spring for the kit. Anyway, with the raised bed, you would fill it with dirt, not so much trouble as digging a new garden patch. Also, Mother Earth News had an issue featuring alternate garden spots & they showed plants growing right out of the bagged soil. They punched drainage holes in the bottom & planted in the top.

**MomToTwoBoys** · 02-08-2011, 10:51 PM

I did bring up raised beds with DH and he sort of shrugged off the conversation.

@ Russ, I dunno about up here because of how cold it does get. I can't imagine it lasting through a winter of -35C.

I guess I can wait to see what we actually have in the backyard. The neighbor to my right told me he never saw anything that resembled a garden with the previous owner.

**monkeywrangler71** · 02-10-2011, 06:58 PM

Originally Posted by Russ

Can you tell me how you have them set up? Drainage, holes,etc.

Cheap plastic planters from Walmart, with dirt in them.

Not full to the top though, I'm too cheap to buy that much soil.

**Russ** · 02-10-2011, 07:02 PM

maybe it's the amount you put in them We fill to the top and they always crack.

**monkeywrangler71** · 02-10-2011, 07:34 PM

Originally Posted by Russ

maybe it's the amount you put in them We fill to the top and they always crack.

Guess it pays to be a miser

Maybe we had a drier climate.

**chowder** · 02-11-2011, 10:39 AM

As long as you empty terra cotta pots they are fine.I turn mine upside domn and push up against the foundation of the house.

**MomToTwoBoys** · 02-11-2011, 10:45 AM

Yeah it's a drier climate up here too. I know there are pots out in the shed that haven't cracked, but I haven't seen what kind they are yet. I'd love to do some container gardening this year. My FIL told me he wish I'd told him sooner because they just got rid of a ton of containers.

What I am concerned with is leaving them on the grass and having the grass die out. The deck is huge, but I doubt DH will want a bunch of potted plants on it. The deck's on the east side of the house, which is a good thing.