Starting from scratch - container vegetables

[LaTrucha]

I've got myself in a quandry about what it would be best to buy. Can you help me sort it out?

I want to grow a few vegetables in my very small garden. I need to grow in containers of some sort as we have a potential problem with contamination in our soil.

I would want to cover or use an area somewhat under a meter in depth and up to 3m long. Due to not being able to use our garden soil, whatever the vegetables are planted in needs to be deep enough.

Can you find me something good to use, either a raised bed or a trough arrangement? I'm going round in circles myself.

We don't have the time to build anything from scratch, or at least at nearly 6 months pregnant, I have no intention of doing so. DH has enough on his plate.

The garden is on the coast and is subject to high, strong winds, so anything flimsy will just get obliterated.

Also, it shouldn't be SO expensive, that actually I'd be better off buying my veg at the local super expensive farmer's market!

Big ask, I know, but I just keep going round in circles.

Meh. Been looking on the B and Q website for you as they have a new "plant box" which is essentially a ready made raised bed for under £20. Can't find it on there - I think its new. If you go into a newsagents and pick up the latest edition of Living Etc home magazine its on p.11. Can't really tell the size of it - you might need a few.

We were in temp accom last year and I grew all my salad leaves and herbs in plastic troughs which you can pick up cheaply anywhere. Depends what else you want to grow in terms of enough root space - may not be deep enough for carrots for eg. Plastic troughs aren't the most attractive solution,but they are very practical, won't blow over if full of compost, cheap and tbh if you want to get moving and are 6 months pg thats what I would do, and build a raised bed for next year maybe.

yup. you can grow veg in pretty much anything. Plastic bucket with holes in, and 6 spuds covered in compost....
lettuces in plastic troughs or even halved plastic drainpipes...
Morrisons were selling off their plastic flower buckets for 99p for six buckets...peirce holes in the bottom and voila - carrots or parsnips can be grown.
Beans/peas/tomatoes grow upwards so just geta large planter and some 6ft canes. you don't need expensive 'proper' kit.

........another thing I did last year was to buy growbags and cut them in half, then sit them up so they are much deeper.

Hmm. Very interesting about BandQ. I'll have a look at the mag. Thanks. Good tip about the grow bags.

Mollyroger - I think I bought the same buckets as you! I grew carrots in them last year.

I'm a bit worried about everything looking a bit scruffy if I have lots of small troughs. I wonder why no one does a big one? I guess because people then just do raised beds.

Make sure there is a water reservoir in the troughs - I put the bottoms of 4 pt milk cartons, filled with moss, to act as water storage at the bottom of each container - then they do not dry out so quickly. They must be filled with something mossy, not soil, which will compact and not store water.

Good tip. Thanks.

No-one does a big one because

a) it will not fit in your car to get it home
b) you can't move it once its filled with soil
c) you can't easily empty it once the soil is degraded.

I have got bigger ones in my garden than I can find in the shops. I find them very useful. They're around 10-15cm deeper and longer than the ones I've seen and a few cms wider. I'd love to be able to find more like them.

LaTrucha, are you in a farming area? If so, it might be worth asking around. We've got three very big pots which started life as cattle mineral licks, they were evidently popular for a while around here, as quite a few people seem to have them.

If you wanted you could make a simple one from tongue and groove boarding which comes cut into standard 2m lengths. Nail/screw together at each corner into a square block of wood inside the planter.

The Gardeners World website also has instructions for a complicated wooden planter but you could simplify the shape to a simple rectangle.

Most wood merchants will cut timber to the lengths you need.

Thanks, but there's no way we're going to get it together to build something before the palnting season ends!

I will ask around for something like that. We're in rural Wales.

If anyone's interested, I found this. It's expensive, but I decided to go with it as it looks goood and is supposed to last 15 years.

We'll see if I manage to grow anything now!

OP - looks brilliant. My DH spent the entire weekend just gone making one - marginally bigger than the large one for £79.99 ,but not a lot in it - for about the same price in timber, screws etc. So I think you did very well.

THat makes me feel better about the expense. Thanks!