Twelve 5 gallon pickle barrels - drill and plant?

[Tilde]

Maybe more.

I was going to go down to my source and buy real deal milk crates (I may yet) for gardening, but for now I have 12 5 gal (bright red) food-safe 5 gal buckets.

From what I've read here I should drill 5/8 inch holes 1 inch from the bottom around the buckets to use them (they've aired out and been rain washed a week, will go a couple more weeks as I stagger plantings).

Planning to plant:

- Carrots
- Zukes
- Yellow Squash
- Potatoes (low dirt, layer on as plant sprouts)
- Morning Glories (with stakes for climbing)
- Pak Choy
- Onions
- Poblano
- Snow Peas
- Tomatoes

Looks like my kale, lettuce, and cabbages would be better off in my shallower pots or maybe I'll get crafty and make a lettuce table. I have egg plant and honeydew but from what I've read here they probably need something bigger, so I might keep an eye out for larger pots (or just build something) for that and the jicama (still pondering on the jicama, might plant it out in the 'country' instead at someone else's house.

Would the listed plants do okay in the 5 gal? or should I go with milk crates? I really shouldn't tear up the lawn again for a number of reasons, mostly I need the plants off of of the ground to make it easier for me to get to.

Thx.

[CharlieBear]

Great for carrots, if you don't space them too close, that will give enough depth for the roots to develop.
Great for squash, peppers, tomatoes, one plant per bucket.
Would work for potatoes, but you could only grow one, so I wouldn't, I did it once for the younger set in the family to have their own, but only once.
Onions waste of space the same for lettuce etc.

[Tilde]

The onions, depending on how I plant, will probably go in a milk crate (did more reasearch on my lunch hour). Lettuce I have more of a table arrangement in mind - if I remember the clutter in my closet correctly, I have shallow bread-tray style crates that will do for the lettuce.

And yeah, a plant a pot is about my speed. Trying to keep the garden managable size for me.

Thanks!

[rainbowgardener]

I don't consider onions a waste of space, since they take up so little space. They are great companion planting for lots of other things, so I tend to just tuck in a few onion sets, here and there, mixed in with other things. You can easily stick a few onions in with the one tomato or one pepper per bucket.

[Tilde]

Rainbowgardener, originally I was going to do that with the onions, but I'm going with a olla pot system and probably don't have the room.

On the other hand, with 50 starters for two bucks, what much have I got to lose?