Alternative Containers You've Used

[veg4681]

Counting the number of containers I may have to use (not counting the cheap florist black pots that resolves some of my container requirements already for tomatoes, aubergines, peppers, cukes) what other alternative pots have you used successfully that doesn't cost the earth.

I'm not terribly keen on growbag, somehow not deep enough for heavy stuffs like squashes. I'm thinking storage boxes, washing up bowl, compost bags etc etc etc for courgette, winter squash, melon, beans (French, runner), beetroot, salad mix etc. How have you got by with unconventional alternatives?

[NSB]

Well I'm trying my potatoes in containers for the first - large plastic pots from commercial landscapers, household mesh waste bins from the £1 shop.I tend to use a lot of alterternative pots for my seeds.

[momol]

I have 3 black 90 litres round container (don't know it's name but it is from the DIY shops). You will have to drill some holes. I also use 2 big ikea square storage boxes (around 100 litres), at the moment one of it is use for overwintering water cresses. These ikea boxes will be use for growing sweet corn during summer. I didn't buy the ikea box purposely for that but we just no longer use it as they are too big and cumbersome for storage.

[hawthorns]

im growing 1st early spuds in plastic builders trugs

[bluemoon]

im growing 1st early spuds in plastic builders trugs

I love this idea, hawthornes, I've got to try it.

I always use Ecover washing powder, which comes in cardboard boxes, but a friend uses a similar product called 'Eco Smart', which comes in black, plant-pot shaped plastic tubs, the plastic is supposed to be recyclable, but she saves them for me and they make great replacements for 5" pots.

[Snadger]

I've got two large plastic blue mop buckets on wheels which were being thrown out. The wheels should make them easy to move around when full of compost!

[markwcel]

i buy builders rubble sacks from focus and put my tatties in them

[si'sraisedbed]

I have an old kettle BBQ which I have converted into a herb wheel by knocking some wood together and creating compartments for parsley, thyme, mint, american land cress, corriander, chives and some californian poppies for colour; I also have an old flowers bulb box, 50p from GC, which I've lined with a bin bag and have mixed salad, rocket and radishes.

[Bren In Pots]

I grow my parsnips in one of those big yellow builders tubs that they use on sites,
it looks a bit like a bath.

[Sue]

I've got carrots growing in a polystyrene box that once contained broccoli and I knicked from the rubbish pile outside a restaurant.
I got given an old hot water tank - even has a drainage hole, and used that very successful as a cut and come again lettuce bed.
One of our plotholder gets loads of washing up bowl type things and buckets from a fishmonger so have endless supply of those, got my raspberries in these until the autumn.
Panetone tins with holes drilled in, nice red tins, get 1lb of carrots each from these.
Got an old wheelbarrow to use, just need to drill some holes in it and wheel it out somewhere.
The base of one of my waterbutts has been turned upside down as it's not being used, at the moment its acting as a rain catcher but might turn it into a pond or planter.
A galvanised dustbin that got left on my plot, useful planter next to the shed, flowers and ivy in that one.
And compost heaps - they make very good planters!
Sue

[muckdiva]

I use silage bags as extra large growbags. If the bales are opened carefully they work really well. The metal centre of a car wheel has been painted as a herb planter and looks suprisingly smart. The tyres of course are used as planters too.

[King Carrot]

I find fish boxes washed up on the beaches near me, very very useful for all sorts of things, I fill em up with compost and they're handy for growing salad leaves, as they've got handles I can move them around the veg garden to empty or unused areas as they become available after harvesting

KC

[areia]

washing machine drums are good for tatties and if you cant get the back off you can have spun ones like i did one year

[debjay]

We use a washing machine drum for runner beans at home. Just put canes in a wigwam for the plants to grow up
Debbie

[Skotch]

Using old compost bags for growing 2nd early Charlottes

Managed to get hold of a load of tennis balls which I am using along with bamboo canes to make cages to cover both carrots and brassicas (the balls with holes in them act as connectors)

I have a wooden pot maker (dolly) which I use to make paper pots for my seedlings with - then when big enough, simply put the whole thing into the ground - the paper composts down causing minimal root disturbance

Skotch