Building my Own Containers

Hi there, first post on these forums

I'm going to build a large wooden planter on my terrace for growing fruit/veg.

I intend it to be 2.5M long, 0.5M wide and I was thinking about lining it with water proof material. I have a few questions:

1) How do I get the correct drainage? Would it be sufficient to simly cut holes in the bottom of the material lining?

2) Is it advisable to form compartments so I can separate different plants?

3) Is building it as deep as possible best?

4) Any further advice?

Thanks for any help!

Pickles

 

Each to their own, but this seems like a lot of effort to me.
We grew patatoes and runner beans in eight large containers on our back patio behind our garden shed this year. As the planting/harvesting was staggered, we were able to remove them one by one, we're down to two of potatoes now. The others are stacked away in the garage, so by November, we'll have no unsightly tubs "doing nothing" for half the year.
This is from last year, (just spuds) the first time we tried it. As it was quite successful we bought some more tubs for this year.





Again, you must do what you want, but you will have a lot of stale compost /soil that you'll presumably be using again the following year. I bought more compost this year to freshen it up.

If you use tubs you aren't stuck with a big planter, should you decide not to bother next year.

 

They seem like small containers for potatoes - interesting! I may change my plan for the first year as I have a few of these already.

Do you have a drain in these pots? One of the things I was hoping to grow is Brambles, perhaps they'd also grow in this size pot. WHat else have you grown in them, food wise?

 

The green ones are quite large, about two foot square. They've holes in the bottom and a few in the sides. They also sit on bits of York stone about an inch thick. We get five potato plants in each, each plant producing enough spuds for more than two meals.
It's by no means cost effective, but it's nice to grow you're own veg.
We've only grown runner beans other than the potatoes, in one tub. I put a very tall "wigwam" of bamboo canes in it and six plants, this was quite successful. Growing stuff this way if it gets a lot of sun means watering every evening.

 

Thanks for your advice, I've certainly taken it on board. It's Sept now and I'm trying to figure out if I can propogate any seeds at this time or if I should wait.

Cheers!

 

We did similar last year and grew potatoes, carrots and cabbages in tubs of a similar size. We used toy tubs (basically brightly coloured plasterers buckets) and got an incredible amount of food from them especially potatoes.

This year we grew strawberries and herbs in them. We only used the toy tubs as they were in the sale for £1 but have been really impressed. They are a bit of an eyesore mind!

 

If you build your own, put plenty of drainage holes in, and put about an inch of gravel/pebbles in the bottom. That way if the roots find themselves sitting over a bit that doesn't drain well, the pebbles/gravel will help keep them just above the actual water proof liner.

If you're going to put brambles in, then I'd give them their own container. The roots can get a bout a bit (there is an urban myth that the reason you find so many brambles in graveyards is that the roots feed off the corpses, which are at least 6ft down - I think its a myth but it is based on the idea that the roots go everywhere).

If you plan to grow tatties in it then you need to think about how you're going to get them out. If you have a huge but narrow trough that is too large to just tip over, you're going to have a job maneuvering your fork in it.

Doghouse Riley, how many spuds did you get out of each container would you say?