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Has any one ever heard of making a raised garden using horse trough (spelling) A friend of my daughters, who lives here has a bad back and so wanted a garden this years, so she decided to grow one using a couple of troughs. I thought it sounded like a darn good idea, what do you guys think? I have a bad back, so my garden is suffering, and when it is not suffering, my back is: I just can't seem to keep the weeds out: I would think the trough would help for that as well.
I'm doing it this year. I bought 4 6-foot long, 2-foot high galvanized stock tanks.
I'm not sure HOW WELL it works though for a number of reasons:
1) I may have "over planted" by putting too many seedlings in each one.
2) We had particularly bad weather here in Denver shortly after I planted the seedlings. They dealt with torrential rain, hail, snow and tornado-weather.
3) I may not have drilled enough holes for drainage.
I'll let you know how this year's experiment ended up in the fall
I have seen these on roof gardens, so they must work. I would suggest drilling holes on the sides about an inch from the bottom, then filling the bottom of the tank with something other than soil so that water could move freely in that zone. Something like 2 inch size stone, a bunch of empty aluminum soda cans, etc. Then lay a layer of landscape cloth, maybe with slits in it. On top put really good potting soil.
If you put holes on the bottom of the trough, the water might not be able to drain unless the trough is raised somehow. The landscape cloth would prevent the potting soil from washing into the lower "free-flow" zone.
keep the ideas coming and I will check with the gal who is trying it this year to see how it is working. She I a friend of my daughters, but I know her as well. I would never have thought about the drilling holes in the sides of the tanks. I probably would not thought about the rocks in the bottom either. I will say this is exciting to me, cause I know, if I don't do something my days of growing a garden are numbered.
If I did that the neighbor would *****, she already does about my raised beds.
My neighbors MUST be freaking. I'm killing the lawn this year, experimenting with the tubs and trying to figure out which plants will survive in my east-facing yard. It's a disaster zone and will be for a couple of years.
My neighbors MUST be freaking. I'm killing the lawn this year, experimenting with the tubs and trying to figure out which plants will survive in my east-facing yard. It's a disaster zone and will be for a couple of years.
Well, this particular woman doesn't live in the house, it's a rental. What's happened has been over the years people have moved from the sterile DC suburbs and don't understand gardening for historic or cottage style buildings. The first thing that they do is cut down all the shade tress (then complain about their A/C bills). They then pull up all the architectural appropriate plantings and put in "modern" plantings. They can't then figure out why their yards don't seem to "gel". The next thing to have war declared upon is chain link fences (which make sense here with the periodic flooding. Wooden fences break up and become torpedoes in storms) to be replaced with those shiny vinyl ones.
Well, this particular woman doesn't live in the house, it's a rental. What's happened has been over the years people have moved from the sterile DC suburbs and don't understand gardening for historic or cottage style buildings. The first thing that they do is cut down all the shade tress (then complain about their A/C bills). They then pull up all the architectural appropriate plantings and put in "modern" plantings. They can't then figure out why their yards don't seem to "gel". The next thing to have war declared upon is chain link fences (which make sense here with the periodic flooding. Wooden fences break up and become torpedoes in storms) to be replaced with those shiny vinyl ones.
The new thing is "people have too many cars".
I think I would try the feed troughs just to tick her off!!! ghs
I think I would try the feed troughs just to tick her off!!! ghs
I'm considering junk tires. You can cut the sidewall on them and kind of "flower" them out to sit up by themselves. Pant them white and they really stand out.
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ghs
