55 gallon barrels & other plans

The kids & I are saving up to buy three 55-gallon barrels off of Craigslist. They were used to hold vinegar for a local restaurant, so they're food-safe. We're going to cut each one in half, so we'll have six large planting containers. One will be for cherry tomatoes, one for potatoes, one for peppers, and one for baby pumpkins. Does anyone have any suggestions for our other two? They'll be 24" around, and 18" deep... big enough to do just about anything short of zucchini. My kids asked about broccoli & cauliflower, but I'd heard that they're not terribly container-friendly, and it can get VERY dry VERY fast here.

Our other garden plans this year are:

- To plant tons of lilac & forsythia suckers from my mom's yard to create a "hedge" near the sidewalk.
- To add brown eyed susans, white coneflowers & maybe a few daisies to my purple coneflower corner.
- and to grow strawberries, carrots & herbs in smaller pots up on our deck.

We can't afford a whole ton for the garden this year, so our wonderful "deckscape" garden plans are on hold again. (sigh) But we do want to have SOME fun in the yard this year!
love,
mom

 

mom,,, Are these barrels plastic or metal ? Dennis

 

They're plastic - no rusting Made out of HDPE? (High Density Polyethelyne)
love,
mom

 

The big blue barrels ? If you ask around and look around you should be able to score some for free.
Buying them on line, the shippings going to be very high. Wish you were in these parts I've got a bunch of them. Just had to pick them up and haul them home.
PM me and give me an idea where your at and I'll figure out what kind of industrial application is in your area.
Not to worry, they cant use the plastic barrels to ship petroleum products or haz-mat.
Most products are water soluable or veg. based. Easy clean up with soap and water.
..................Dennis.....Alaskan

 

Yes, the big blue barrels.

FREE? Really?!? I'd called a few restaurants, but didn't know where to go from there in hunting. That would save us quite a bit! I was going to drive down to pick them up, but with gas at $3+ per gallon even that could be scary since it might have taken me 2 trips to get them. We've got a smallish car, and I can't leave my kids home alone together quite yet.
love,
mom

 

Mom got you PM. Recycling the barrels equals a deposit. Find out how much the deposit is and pay them that.
Industrial areas that use refrigeration in their work get a water soluable compressor cleaner in the blue barrels. Easy clean out with soap and water. In fact I have one of those in my basement for water when we have our winter power outages. We have a well so no electricity, no water. Drink it , flush with it , etc.....
Any good junk yards around?, if they don't have any tell them your looking for some and leave your phone number.
Try those, OK ? .....Dennis

 

Oooh, awesome! Thank you SO much!

I grew up on well water too. Our biggest problems with the power going out was the basement sump-pump would back up. Oh, the happy memories!
love,
mom

 

If you live near a wine region you can get those big blue plastic barrels, I got 4 220litres barrels this past year for $10 CAD each. They previouslly held kraft cherries. Any decent wine store should be able to point you in the right direction.

 

Aww, you two are TOO cool! I do have a few junkyards around, as well as several huge industrial plants. And I know there are a few vinyards about an hour away too!

Thank you both SO much! You've saved us about $75!!! That's enough to cover the cost of everything we'd planned to do in the yard and then some!
love,
mom

 

If you live near a distillery you may be able to get whisky barrels for free too....I just acquired one which was cut in half for me! They are HUGE!

 

around here ...many second hand or thrift type stores of the non clothing variety have them,,,, n most are only 5 bux a piece..

 

Hi Mama

Don't forget radishes! They grow real quick and so are a great kids crop. Infact most salad veg is good for kids! Eating and growing!!! Most legumes do well in containers - but they dooooo like water!

 

Around here we're lucky they use them for processing olives and they are terra cotta in color. Many of the nurseries have made deals with the olive processing plants, so they get the free ones. But over the years I've ended up with quite a few. They are great for tomatos and peppers too.

At the nurseries I've worked at we used them instead of boxes for large trees and shrubs. They are fantastic for wisteria trees because they confine the pesky root systems that love to sucker out and become pests.

Make sure you drill drainage holes.

 

Radishes! I looove them! But I'm the only one in this house that will eat them. Even the guinea pigs turn their little noses up at 'em, and I can only eat so many all by m'self!

I might have to grow just a COUPLE this year though I think I might have one pot unaccounted for still.

 

I question growing root crops like potatos in them. Hey eggplant would do well in them too.

Remember this is container planting you are going to have to monitor and provide fertilizer and appropriate water. Those are the most important aspects of container gardening. I tend to fertilize my containers every five weeks throughout the growing season.

 

(nods)


My mom gave me a huuuge lecture about water control after I murdered a potted forsythia 2 yeard ago. I picked up a soaker hose last year during the season-end clearances. It sprays a good 6' up, so I figure if I put it right in the middle it ought to get everything good & soaked. The fertilizer is easier since I have a list taped to the side of the fridge of what plants like what type of kitchen scraps.

Eggplant... (shudders) Mom did tell me about a trick for growing potatoes. A friend of hers grows them on an apartment patio! You put the potato pieces into the bottom of a deep pot, in about 6" of soil. When they sprout, add enough soil to cover all but the top 1/3 of the leaves. And keep repeating this until you reach the top of the pot. (which is supposed to take the duration of our growing season) Apparently her friend did this last year, and when she dug the pot up she had about 12# of potatoes!

We're trying it - I'll have to get back to you on how it does with a less-than-perfect gardener in charge of the container
love,
mom

 

Mom:
Your mom's advice on growing potato's in containers and adding soil as the plants grow, is the same way we do it. Some where I posted a summer pic of the front of our house (I know it's in my gallery). Theres a string of 1/2 whiskey barrels along the driveway.
Thats where we grow our potato's and the barrels keep people from parking on the lawn.
By the by, I picked those whiskey barrels up and Walmart, in Anchorage, at the end of the gardening season for 10 bucks apiece. Guess they'd rather dump them cheap than
have to load them back up and store them again. Just an idea...
We also grow our cabbage in 5 gal. containers. We have a slug problem here and the containers help keep the slugs from destroying the crop of cabbage.
.........Love.....Dennis

 

Get out your battery powered screw gun and put some screws in those staves of the whiskey barrels. I love the look of them, but with changes in temp and watering they have a tendency to fall apart.

 

Kids like 'quick crops' or they get impatient!! There is a variety of round carrot which grows quite quickly. It's fun for them to putt something out of the ground too...

 

Thanks Gardener:
Forgot to mention that and also while you've got you drill out. Drill a half dozen 1" holes in the bottom for drainage.
I also saved a bunch of cut out pieces of treated 4"X4" to sit the barrels on top of, to keep them off the ground........Dennis....Alaskan