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kayjay
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Re: Free/Inexpensive Container Ideas

I'm a baker for Tim Horton's - THE Canadian donut chain. Hit up a Timmy's for fondant buckets. I don't think they're quite 5 gallons, as it's labelled by weight, but I plan on doing tomatoes and peppers in them. BTW, a new bucket is 45 lbs, so these are pretty strong buckets! They also have tightly-fitting snap-on lids, so they're also great for dry goods like rice or flour, dog food, driveway salt, etc.

Meme
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I so enjoyed all you had written Lehcar, smiling away too. I felt I was there with you. :D

Really good idea's from everyone regarding free containers. I had never thought about asking for any in stores. I will be going on a hunt as soon as I can. :D

I did though hold on tight to a large recycling green box that was given by the local council. Bins were eventually given, much better for sure. But the green plastic box is ideal for growing potatoes in :D and also I managed to get another two :D (don't ask) :roll: :lol: , those now hold onions and carrots.

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Greywolf
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Location: Western Tennessee

Containers, as it turns out - have become the absolute least of my worries. As you can see from the following images, I have no lack of them. The problem has become more one of creating enough quality soil to fill them with...

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The sources of these 'containers' range from my diminutive Suzuki Swift automobile, not to mention garden tractors - all the way up to a CASE 740 front end loader tire that was donated by a friend of mine who had got stuck with it after changing a bad tire for another of our friends!

Now, the notion of using old tires as planters might seem a little bit too crude or "Countrified" to some of you - but look at how the brown one turned out! I purposely left it on the rim and flipped it inside out, an idea I picked up from the web, and painted it with ordinary house paint (latex, as a matter of fact. Which means everything cleaned up with plain old water)

That brown planter now has a couple of red stemmed Malabar Spinach vines going in it, and the cage I set in there for them to grow up on is fully nine feet tall.

*Second from the bottom is a 2-piece idea I got with a small car tire on top of the side wall of a large truck tire.

(It was either that or use the old sidewalls to surround trees)


Among the real advantages here are that recycling tires THIS way prevents them from filling up landfills, and the plain fact is that in a thousand years future archeologists will be finding these and wondering what they were for. Perhaps they will assume they had some kind of religious significance, and that "GOODYEAR" was a prayer for our crops and whatnot....

At the very least, in a hundred years these planters will probably still hold soil. Unlike plastic or wood containers, UV and other forms of rot really don't affect them very much.

meshmouse
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Location: Long Island NY USA zone7a

Hey Greywolf -

Wonderful designs. Great repurposing. Aesthetically, I have no problem with them. They look great.

Any worries with plasticizers, etc., leeching into the food chain? Anybody else have an opinion?

Thanks

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Greywolf
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Location: Western Tennessee

The main reason I painted the one so far, was because I could see that there WAS some drying and cracking of the sidewalls on them, and I wanted to prevent any rust. The choice of an interior/exterior latex paint with water clean-up was to avoid environmental issues.

As you look around, you see thousands on thousands of homes painted with it, and in the old days LEAD was a big issue with house paint. Children were eating paint chips (because they don't know any better) so a huge pogrom was mounted at a point to make these kinds of paints safe.

While I have no real idea what the chemical makeup is of them, the notion that they should be safe around foolish kids is a leading factor.

I could also have used metal paint - a sort of 'Rustoleum' clone that I have a gallon of - but I know from experience that the stuff I have takes a decade to completely dry. I have trellis grids that I painted five or ten years ago that still leave green marks on my fingers when I handle them, so that wouldn't be good. In theory Rust preventive paints use fish oil to penetrate and protect metal, but looking at the labels there is a complete witches brew of petro chem stuff in those...

Another thing I like is that the drainage of the containers is right through the center, but yet the sidewall on the bottom forms a kind of a circular well, or reservoir, that can help keep some of the water inside during a dry spell.

They are robust enough that using a weed-trimmer around them doesn't damage them. The string just bounces off :()

Elsewhere on the web I have seen images of tires whoes sides have been artfully cut to resemble flower petals when turned inside out. They are stackable - as witness the one next to my "MALABAR TOWER" that I have set a Cumin plant in the middle of.

I also sometimes use uncut tires as supporting bases to center narrow planters that could be knocked over. Again - they form a buffer that will protect against trimmer damage when policing up the yard.


Because the potted banana on the right is in a container with such a narrow base, I used a tire I had no other plans for to straighten it and keep it from falling over

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Another view of how the Red Stemmed malabar is doing
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In the forground I have a recent addition that I found I had cut just about right for the tire to grip the trellis/cage I planned to set in it. It will be painted sometime soon, I hope.
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Beyond it however - you see another narrow based planter with a tobacco plant in it standing on very uneven ground. IT TOO is set in a rubber tire to hold it straight up.

~The tire also allows me to turn the planter easily, and aim the trunk of the plant straight up if it should grow towards the sun which here comes from somewhat to the south

I may eventually have all these planters either standing on gravel or concrete depending on how my plans for the driveway go. But the soil in them can be moved right along with them, and the planters themselves turned on their sides and 'Rolled down the road' so to speak...

By clicking on these pictures, you can see them better. There is no "X" that appears to close them, you just click on the image a second time and they go back to normal. :D

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Viking1204
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Wow, after going through this thread I'm going to be looking at everything different with the thought of using it in a container garden!

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GardeningCook
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I don't want to be a "Negative Nancy", but folks may want to keep in mind that the jury is still out concerning auto tires leaching toxic chemicals into both the soil & vegetables grown within them - especially as the tires start to degrade after a time. Also, the black tires do tend to heat up in the sun a lot more than other containers, so one might want to choose plants accordingly. Just a heads up - not trying to dampen anyone's recycling fun. :wink:

Mr green
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I go to my local pizzeria they buy pickled pepperoni peppers, mayonese etc in 10l buckets these are perfect to grow in after drilling a few holes in the bottom, may not be so pretty, but thats something for the neighbours to deal with anyway. Its basically free and usually they are happy to have you take their "trash" away for free. May not be UV resistant, but they have lasted 3 seasons for me so far.

It can be good to clean them before you stack them tho! Or they may be fused togheter, I have a few that I cant take apart without breaking it.

Will take a pic or two just to show how ugly you can grow :)

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EWH733
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Location: Concord, CA, USA

Kitty litter buckets, best "free" containers I've found. I just planted a Mandragora in one moments ago.

Polopoly
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10 gallon toy containers from Target are poly-propelene and fairly cheap (I got a few for $3 apiece at clearance sales at the end of summer). They come in a bunch of colors if aesthetics matter (eg you're planting in the front yard and have persnickety neighbors)

Gardener123
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Burger King and McDonald's throw them away... or at least they used to.

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Greywolf
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Now me personally - I needed much bigger planters to use out of doors, and what I found worked well was old tires - especially if I cut the sidewall out of the side laying on the top!



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