Galvanized Water Trough Raised Bed Design Help
lowie
10 years ago
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lonmower
10 years agonancyjane_gardener
10 years agoRelated Discussions
raised (labyrinth) beds using hypertufa troughs
Comments (2)This is such a wonderful idea, but please do some major homework. Think safety first. These walls will need some sort of foundation and reinforcement. Because of the size, it will be expensive (at least to this retired school teacher budget) and a lot of work. To veneer concrete block with hypertufa might be an option. But there are practical considerations such as expansion joints and simply manhandling all that heavy material. Hypertufa is relatively light, but that word relative covers the earth when it's my back or yours. (Like that old joke: minor surgery = anthing done to you and major surgery = anything done to me.) Spend some time looking at this entire site and you'll find lots of information and many links. I envy you your imaginative design and encourage you to follow up and do it. But consider carefully the physical effort, financial investment, the learning curve and time to carefully plan a beautiful and safe project. You don't want a large, permanent, heavy mess in the yard. Most of us can only dream on this scale and we'd all be delighted to see this project come to fruition. Get a camera a document your progress and keep us posted! David...See MoreGalvanized stock tanks for raised beds
Comments (29)This is an interesting thread, especially since last spring I set up two big plastic containers used for salt lick and minerals for our cattle. We buy it in these giant black plastic containers and the cows lick it down to nothing PDQ. Now I have two huge containers for my eggplants and peppers in a hot protected place on our patio. The plants are bigger than they ever were in the garden and beginning to give me fruit. We live in a very moderate climate with lots of summer wind which is what gave me the idea to keep them more protected and warm. I will have to keep my eye on the stock tanks, too. I have raised beds in the garden but they aren't all that high and the bending gets to my back, too. Picking bush beans is a killer now. I could set a stock tank on top of the raised beds for some things. Wonder how that would be??? I don't want to give up gardening, especially veggie, but it is getting harder each year....See MoreHelp. My first year of raised bed tomatoes and they don't look so good
Comments (5)They are planted in a new bed built last fall and filled with top soil that was recommended to us for vegetable gardening beds. We let that settle through the winter and in the spring we tilled it and topped it off with garden top soil. I did not add additional fertilizer as the garden top soil mix had fertilizer in it. If the other two tomato plants in the bed don't look as yellow-green and do not have the black spots with yellow halos, could the problem still be specific to the soil or watering in general? I'm wondering if these two plants I bought were simply not healthy to begin with (they're both from one nursery and the others are from two other nurseries). Also, in terms of putting fertilizer on the soil - do you mean something like this: http://www.amazon.com/Jobes-09026-Vegetable-Granular-Fertilizer/dp/B002YOJDAS/ Thank you SO much for your help!...See MoreShould I paint the drain holes I drill in a galvanized stock trough?
Comments (3)I doubt it is critical - paint if you wish. Even galvanized stock tanks don't last forever as a raised bed. btw, skip the gravel in the bottom of the tank. Contrary to popular belief, it does not improve drainage at all and it just serves to lift the perched water table that will exist in any container planting situation (as this is - with any bottom, it is not a raised bed) that does not have a well aerated, fast draining container potting soil as a filler. Just use landscape fabric or fine screening at the base to keep the soil contained and check out the 5-1-1 or gritty mix referenced here. If the leaching of zinc from the galvanizing process is a concern to you, you can line the tank with plastic, allowing provisions for drainage holes through the plastic as well. But countless years of livestock drinking from these tanks with no ill-effects from hazardous metal leachings may allay any serious concerns....See MoreNilaJones
10 years agolowie
10 years agoTessinseattle
10 years ago
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