The glavanished cattle troughs have had holes drilled in the bottom and those holes protected with metal paint.
The next thing we had to contemplate was insulation. Its no good spending money to plant these things up, only to have them die through heat exhaustion or freezing to death.
In the end, we decided to spend a bit extra and buy e-foam. This is the kind of stuff you have in yoga or camping mats, kneeling pads etc. We bought 1cm deep, it was a smidge deeper than that and off DB went.
Measure twice, cut once, double checking with me. We couldn't buy the full height needed as it would be too expensive, but worked out that if 33cm of the 40 cm is protected, that should be fine. The gap will leave room for grit and watering.
We decided to use double sided tape, on the inside, along the top edge to get it to hold flush against the sides. It doesn't matter if it doesn't hold long term, as the soil should do that once full. The two long sides done here:
Next job, put in gravel for drainage, then weed fabric to help prevent soil washing down into the gravel and bunging up the holes.
On a nice, warmer day, we shall lug the soil required from where it was deposited in the raised beds. Then planting (haven't yet got everything I need though), then grit for the herb trough and it will be done. Phew!
What an excellent idea.
ReplyDeleteGod bless.
Hope it will be effective.
DeleteIt's a very good idea to insulate the trough and it will give your plants a good chance of a very happy life. I have one of these in the polytunnel to hold water for when I'm watering young plants early in the year, and in Summer the water gets hot enough that I could have a bath in it ... I've never been tempted!!
ReplyDeleteHopefully it will hope and these will be outdoors all year round.
DeleteI shall follow your experience this year. It looks such a great idea.
ReplyDeleteHope it works. Mind you, if we ever move, would be a pain to empty so might have to leave them.
DeleteI'll be following this year also. The older I get the harder it is to get down on my knees and plant. (Actually getting down isn't the problem, it's the getting back up!) I have one rigid plastic trough that we've tried to grow summer squash. The bugs found it. So this year I shall try lettuces and spinach in it.
ReplyDeleteThat’s why we built 1 yard x 1 (metre) or yard square raised beds about 30” tall. Has really saved our backs.
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