DIY containers...

[fmervin]

Hi All,

Due to lack of space, I plan to grow most of my veggies in containers in my greenhouse. However, it does get expensive to purchase a lot of containers and for this reason have decided to be innovative and make my own (or perhaps recycle things that can potentially be used as "containers"). My initial thoughts were to recycle the plastic packaging for mushrooms/strawberries which is deep enough to grow cress/mustard. Is this feasible? I read somewhere that plastic breaks down and I'm just wondering if this can be absorbed by the veggies and can be potentially harmful (or turn out to be inorganic). Or am I just being paranoid?

Any other ideas for containers?

[Shelle]

Not free, but still very good value, try florists buckets from either local florists, or from supermarkets such as morissons/asda etc. Some stores/florists give them away free, others sell them for example 8 for 99p.

A good size for small crops.

[rustylady]

I use mushroom trays (plus perforated lids) as mini-propogators. No problems, but you must make drainage holes in the base. If you want to grow crops to maturity (tomatoes, chillies etc) and don't want to pay loads for containers, then buy growbags. Cheap as chips, and give reasonable results.

[zazen999]

And don't forget old recycling boxes, excellent for deep beds.

[Snadger]

Toyed with the idea of using bales of straw! Hollow out three bucket sized areas in each bale and fill with compost. Water well and you should have an insulated growing area which will take the tomatoes roots once it has started to decompose!

[SarzWix]

If you have a car, drive round your nearest industrial estate and look out for companies chucking out packing crates. These can be all sorts of sizes, but my OH has managed to find some long thin ones which fit perfectly down the sides of my greenhouse (I think they're about 1ft x 4ft x 1˝ft deep) They will be home to my tomatoes & cucumbers