Neighbours talking over the garden gate has long been a tradition. They share gardening tips, complain about the weather and pests yet are ever eager to discuss their gardens. That is what I had in mind when creating this blog. So stop by my garden gate to find out the latest happenings in my garden.

Happy Gardening!

Garden Gnome
"All my life through, the new sights of Nature made me rejoice like a child." ~ Madame Marie Curie"

Saturday, April 17, 2010

How to Make A 5 Gallon Bucket Garden

There really is very little to do in my gardens right now other than a bit of spring clean-up on the nicer days.  I arranged to have several stumps and a couple of old beds completely ripped out yesterday morning.  This is being hired out so will be ready for top soil is less than half a day!  I may be able to do a bit of grass seeding but really it is too early yet.  At any rate I'm doing a few behind the scenes garden prep like getting containers ready.

When it comes to container garden especially edible container gardening many home gardeners are a bit skeptical as to whether it will be productive.  After all, why do all the work to end up with nothing?  By default container gardening eliminates some problems seen in other gardening methods but there are other problems associated with container gardening that need to be addressed.  Once any of the unique problems of container gardening are dealt with then a container  can be just as productive as any other gardening method.  Here's a good video showing how one home gardener solved a problem by growing in 5 gallon buckets.  At the end of the video I will tell you where to find these buckets.





I prefer using food grade 5 gallon buckets for growing any edible plants in.  That way I am ensured harmful chemicals are not going to leach into the soil getting into the fruits and vegetables.  Food grade 5 gallon pails are available by ordering online, wine brewing/supplies facilities and some restaurant supply stores sell them.  However, I prefer recycling 5 gallon pails by getting mine through a couple of local donut shops and restaurants.  These pails with lids cost me as much as $1 each to cover the charge of cleaning them while others just give them to me free of charge.  I have found it is as simple as asking.  I can also get 1 gallon glass pickle jars for dry food storage and making terrariums for new charge.  Both these items are things the restaurants were going to put into the recycle bin anyway so I just save them the effort by picking them up.    A 5 gallon pail will last several years if looked after so unless I'm expanding the container garden portion of my gardens there's no need to pick-up a lot of the pails every year.  A couple here and there is enough to keep me in a steady supply. 


Happy Gardening!

Garden Gnome
©2006-2010


11 comments:

  1. I grew potatoes in bushel baskets last year and they did really well. I did 2 last year but this year I plan to extend it to many more. One year I grew an upside down tomato in a 5 gallon pot, lots of fun. Thanks for the link to the interesting video.

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  2. Thanks for the tips. Wish I had a bigger garden.

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  3. Hi Crafty Gardener and thanks for visiting. It's amazing what you can grow in containers!

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  4. You're welcome Aries :)

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  5. Anonymous12:46 PM

    I've used everything from wine bottles to bags to baskets to grow flowers and veggies in with fairly good success. My garden is confined mainly to my apt deck, so I enjoy reading about new containers and such. Great post!

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  6. Ann Flower1:07 PM

    Thanks for sharing the tip to create a bucket garden. It looks awesome. will create one at home.

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  7. Hi Nancy and thanks for visiting. I'm so glad you enjoyed the post :)

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  8. Hi Ann and thanks for visiting. I'm sure you will enjoy creating a bucket garden.

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  9. The bucket garden is a very good idea. I think I can use these for extra planting space around my raised bed garden.

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  10. Anonymous4:51 PM

    Perhaps it's a dumb question, but how do you go about asking for the big pickle jars? Do you just pick restaurants at random and ask if they have empty pickle jars destined for the recycling? I always feel weird asking people for stuff, even if I know it's "garbage" to them.

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  11. Hi nestmaking and thanks for visiting :) Your question certainly is not dumb. We live close to few smaller communities so have no problems asking. I usually phase it as "Do you have any large pickle jars or plastic pails you want to get rid of?". Some of them even have signs offering pails for sale as they know other use them for storage. A lot of times most of these containers are simply put into the recycle bin as well so it just saves them the trouble :)

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