Iowi, How did your galvanized water troughs work out? I'm a Seattle resident who would like to try the same but am utterly new to gardening (this is the first year I've owned a house with a substantial area in which to give it a try). We'd like to have one area with raised beds and another with galvanized tanks as beds. Not sure how to proceed with either but the tanks really have me stymied. Are small holes drilled in the bottom adequate drainage given our PNW rains? Or would it almost be better to cut out the bottoms of the tanks? Is it safe to grow food in galvanized metal? I know some zinc consumption is safe but I think the cadmium is a greater concern. Nila, Could you elaborate on your soil instructions? Are you recommending mixing these 2 components are layering them in some manner? Would you recommend this same mixture for other types of raised beds as well? Thanks guys! Hoping the GW community will take me under their collective wing and help grow a new gardener!

I am going to try rustoleum paint from Home Depot to keep my cast iron fountain from rusting. It's an old cow waterer, and when I moved into my home the fountain basin was filled with transmission fluid and motor oil. I have cleaned all that out and am about to finally paint it and then I will put it all back together. I have ordered a new fountain pump. I will post new pictures and updates about how the rustoleum paint works to prevent rust.

nope. someone did not use galvanized screws and they rusted. this has bled into the woodgrain and will likely never quit showing thru. about the only thing i can recommend is to put a good dark primer on, then a couple coats of paint over that.

I've grown plants in a 4' round galvanized tank since around 1990. The bottom is long rusted out. I just fill the bottom half of it with old rotted wood gathered from the woods---so old that the pieces of logs or large branches that I drag up out of the woods to fill the bottom are pretty much already compost. I fill the bottom half of the galvanized tank with a lot of stuff like that plus some leaf mold, compost from my compost pile and chopped/shredded autumn leaves. (Before I started gathering large chunks of wood from our woodland, I just used bags of the large-sized pine bark nuggets.) Then I fill the top half of the container up to about 6" down from the top with a good soil-less mix. I've used commercial purchased ones some years and have made Al's 5-1-1- mix in other years. You can grow anything you want in them, and since they are so large, they don't require a lot of watering. The reason, by the way, that I use the half-rotted wood, leaf mold, compost and chopped/shredded leaves is to create the biological activity needed to break down organic fertilizers. You do not get the biological activity you need in the growing medium from sterile, soil-less mixes, so in order for organic fertilizers (which are broken down by the microorganisms in that rotted/decaying wood and leaves) to work inside the containers, you have to have biologically-active soil. In the beginning when the galvanized tank still had its bottom, I filled it with water, added a few water plants (a water lily, a pickerel reed and some arrowhead, I think) and had a nice little water garden. Once the container began rusting out, it clearly wouldn't work as a water garden, but it works fine as a container. I leave it in one place for a couple of years---sometimes for 3 or 4 years---and then move it over to a new spot. The soil beneath the bottomless galvanized tank gets enriched itself while the tank is sitting there, so moving the tank every few years allows new areas to become enriched. I've grown everything in the tank over the years: tomatoes, potatoes, peppers, sweet potatoes, dwarf okra, ground cherries, strawberries, icebox watermelons, squash, annual flowers: zinnias, dahlias (not in the same year because zinnias tolerate leaner, drier soil and dahlias like richer, moister soil), celosia, moss rose, marigolds, ornamental sweet potatoes, amaranth, sunflowers, morning glories (climbing the sunflowers), etc. I've included some alliums (garlic and onions), and some herbs (basil, borage, mint, lemon balm, chamomile). Some years I have a plan for what I am going to plant in the tank, and other years it just catches an assortment of leftover plants that I'd rather use somewhere instead of throwing them away once the garden beds all are full.