Growing in buckets

[3forfree]

I have a neighbor using raised bed gardening by using 50lb bags of topsoil that he bought at the local hardware store for $1.50ea. cut the bag open as it lay on the ground and planted tomatoes in them.When the growing season was over he ran the rototiller over everything.

 

[Earl-Ray]

one thing to consider when planting in buckets is drainage. it is one of my past follys with using buckets. not enough drainage. i dont use buckets anymore due to that. well, that and alot of potting mix has high peat moss content which some plants love, while some its toxic to them (most peppers) and i didnt want to find out the hard way anymore. but i do see some people using buckets and it seems to work good for them, but drainage was my main drawback. just passing it on.
if you want to put a border on your raised beds just look around. you can almost always find some sort of FREE rocks in a pile or scattered out. broke up pieces of sidewalk concrete or just use a tree trunk. if you observe your surroundings and think on it enough, ussually you can find a garden border with less expense than the cost of buckets. anything you use thats organic will breakdown and feed your plants roots too. i saw some youtube videos on straw/hay beds. they said the hay breaks down and is like fertilizer thru the growing season. i plan on trying a bed to see this spring.

 

[catw]

I planted tomatoes in bins and they didn't do anywhere near as well as they do in the ground. Tomatoes will grow anywhere in any kind of ground. Potatoes are another matter. I have to grow them in bins. A neighbor produced a lot of potatoes in her backyard with almost no sun. She covered them with straw. Just goes to show some people have more talent for this than others.

Seems to me an ordinary bucket is too small to grow much of anything but herbs.

 

[ChickensRDinos]

I live in a very urban area and have an extremely small yard. I have experience growing in buckets and have done both aeroponics (where your roots are suspended in the air and get water at regular intervals -- usually a rail system with PVC or something similar) and hydroponics, where your roots actually in water all the time. All of my bucket and rail pants are soil-less. I have a raised bed garden outdoors for larger plants and root veggies that I mix my own soil in (about have bought and half home made compost as my soil is also not good)

I have also started experimenting/researching a small scale aquaponics system (growing plants and fish together soilessly). My goal this year was to get the fish going but work has gotten in the way and I am very behind where I wanted to be.

You can grow a ton in a small space with no soil at all -- it's really amazing. You can sort of make it as simple or as complicated as you want but the important thing to remember is that your roots are going to need 3 things basically: nutrients, water, oxygen. You can get oxygen into a hydro system through bubblers/stones or through a ventri. You can't just give water and get great growth. You can grow in a light-weight medium like hydroton or lava rocks and then add your own nutrients to the water.

If you are looking for something a little less sciency and a little more gardeny you can do large pots or raised beds with mixed soil and do a drip system or even make a wicking barrel.

There are TONS and TONS of DYI videos on youtube. It can start to feel a little overwelming but once you get started it is easier than it seems and I think it is a lot of fun to mess around with and work out your own system.

I am not sure what direction you are thinking of going in but here are some of my favorites:

vertical garden:

hydroponic rails:

wicking barrel:

(rob bob on Youtube is my HERO)

 

[Spookwriter]

The funnest part of my little "bucket garden" was moving
it around to confuse the neighbors....it doesn't take a lot
to amuse me.

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

I planted in half-barrels, which is about the same thing. I grew tomatoes and zucchini, and other vegetables/flowers. The flowers did great!

The vegetables were not very happy in the barrels. I would not do it again. So now I have them filled with strawberry plants (which do fine). I also had to water daily, which got old.