DIY Veg Planter

[Ace]

Thought I'd share with you the large raised planters I built for my first year venturing into the world of veg growing. We were reluctant to dig up the garden as we plan to move house so everything is in these planters and other pots and troughs.

Materials are basically bits of tannelised wood from the local Lavers outlet. Total cost of the wood £40. Planter was assembled in 40 mins from scratch using a cordless screwdrive/drill and decking screws. To buy one of these on the net is about £100. They are approx 2m long x 0.8m wide. Inside I lined with standard weed fabric which helps protect the wood further from rotting.



Here's the underside of the planter:
(it's basic tongue and groove cladding slats)



I built 2 of these, here they are now in situ, you can see that I've added the soil and put 3 metal hoops (used for cloches) in each and then put netting over them.



Here they are again having been planted. On the right we have about 20 red onions, 40-50 leeks, an aubergine and a butter nut squash. On the left we have 2 F1 One Ball courgettes at the back, 3 purple haze aubergines down the centre and spring onions along the right hand side.



A couple of weeks later we can see that in the left planter the courgettes are starting to fruit, the aubergines are growing well and we've added a handful of radishes in too.



In the other planter the onions and leeks are doing great at the back and the aubergine and squash are really blazing at the front. To the guy who posted about his Butternut squash plants take note how much space this 1 squash plant is taking up ! It snakes along like ivy.



A few weeks later and the left planter is bursting with life. We've added loads more radishes in all the empty space as you can see and have now started to harvest those. Similarly the courgettes are pumping out beautiful yellow tennis ball fruits.



Here's one of the "One Ball" courgettes



Here's another still growing:



Here's our first bunch of radishes :



And here is the first tiny ickle butternut squash ! isn't it cute !



Meanwhile we also set up 5 tubs of potatoes of varying varieties. Notice that I've added pipes to the tubs. I just bought a few lengths of thin plastic drain piping from the local DIY store, cut them to short lengths, drill loads of small holes along their length and bunged one end up with a wine bottle cork. When I water the tubs I squirt water down these pipes which guarantees that the water gets right down the tub which will be needed once they get earthed up to the top.



Some weeks later after dilligently earthing them up till they reached the top they are blooming !




For soil we basically ordered a tonne of premixed "Veggie Soil" from a reputable supplier in 25kg bags to make carrying it easier. The large planters each took 8-9 of these 25 kg bags. Before we put the soil in we first put a load of mulched tree/shrub chippings in each one. Then we put 1/2 the soil in, sprinkled it all with Fish Blood & Bone and the the other 1/2 on top. We could have added compost I guess but to be honest this Veggie Soil is just fine as it is.

As an initial setup I guess this is an expensive year compared to just popping to the supermarket for some cheap nasty veg but once in place it's there isn't it !

Of course we haven't stopped here !!! In a variety of other pots and troughs on the patio and decking area we are also growing:

Peas, French Beans, Peppers, Garlic, Herbs, Cucumbers, Summer Squash, Winter Squash, more courgettes, more aubergines, carrots, parsnips and beetroot. In 3 separate tents we are also growing 3 varieties of tomatoes which all seem to be doing great. First tiny toms are now just appearing.

I hope this inspires you to grow in containers especially if you don't have loads of space. :-)

[stupo74]

Hi Ace,
What a "Nice Job" you have made with those "Planters"
People, should definitely get some "Inspiration" after viewing such a good "Thread"
Your veg look great, the photos really do them justice, all thats left, is for you to enjoy the "Fruits" of your labour.
Thanks for sharing,,,, cheers stupo.

[Lesley Jay]

Wow Ace!! You have a truly fabulous vegetable garden - excellent and so lush!!

I do like those raised planters. They would be brilliant for anyone with mobility problems!

You are quite right about butternut squashes romping away and just wait until your courgette plants grow bigger!! What is the flavour of the round yellow courgettes like??

[Ace]

Originally Posted by Lesley Jay

Wow Ace!! You have a truly fabulous vegetable garden - excellent and so lush!!

I do like those raised planters. They would be brilliant for anyone with mobility problems!

You are quite right about butternut squashes romping away and just wait until your courgette plants grow bigger!! What is the flavour of the round yellow courgettes like??

Cheers Lesley

Actually the raised planters are the way to go I think for a number of reasons:

1. You have no battle whatsoever with slugs ! Slugs don't climb up the wooden legs.

2. You have no battle with weeds. Any tiny unwanted vegetation that should start to grow is easily picked out with your fingers while you are stood up. There is no hoeing to do and no digging.

3. You can cover with netting to keep birds off, you can cover with plastic sheeting if the weather gets cold.

4. You control totally the soil and compost that goes in. You're not going to fill it with clay soil or sandy soil are you? so in effect you have perfect soil every time.

5. You can garden standing up with no effort whatsoever. Lazy? perhaps but great fun and hugely satisfying.


As for the courgettes? Well I submitted a post about those separately hoping someone else migh have grown the same variety. My initial thoughts were that they didn't taste of much at all, just the expected earthy flavour of any veg just pulled. I guess it has a very subtle flavour. But we were totally unsure how big to let these beauties grow. The first was only ping pong ball sized. The next was as you saw in the picture above. Not much difference in taste between them. But now I have let one grow much bigger. I would say it's the size of a man's clenched fist. We will harvest this one this weekend and see if there is a difference.

Both plants are zooming away with courgettes. They tend to have 2 main fruits growing steadily in size with another 4-6 tiny ones forming alongside. Once you pick the 2 large ones the others quickly catch up.

[Lesley Jay]

Hi Ace, the reason why I wondered about the taste of the yellow courgettes is that I grew Gold Rush courgettes one year. I liked them, the plants didn't produce fruit as fast as the Defender courgettes (which I was also growing) so we weren't over run with courgettes. The yellow and green combination looked nice on the plate but the OH didn't like the taste so I ended up giving them away along with the remaining seeds.

[Ace]

A quick update on the Veg Planters and container veg I'm growing:

Green "Black Beauty" courgette doing very nicely in a basic tub


Yellow courgettes also doing well in a wooden trough:


In the large planters I have 1 Butternut Squash plant which is somewhat taking over. Currently it has about 6-7 fruits on it. I wondered whether to remove some so the energy concentrates on 2-3 but so far I've left them and they seem to be doing ok.

The smaller ones:


The largest one so far:


This is a winter Squash plant doing well in a wooden trough. Looks like these will be round ball shaped:


In some cheap plastic troughs from Wilkinsons I'm growing 2 varieties of cucumbers, basic Green Fingers and Yellow Lemon Cukes. The greens were planted earlier than the lemons and are now really going strong:


Here we have some simple relatively shallow plastic troughs. At the front are 2 dwarf pepper plants. In the black troughs behind are parnips (left) and carrots (Right) all doing very well. The carrots are the small ball shaped variety so hopefully don't need much soil depth.


Close up of the dwarf pepper plant


Here are some "Grafted Turbo Dasher" plum tomatoes which have grown very well. Lots of toms developing at the moment. These are growing in basic plastic tents from Wilkinsons (£10 each).


All in all the container approach is working really well. The squash plants predictably, whilst growing just fine in pots, do like their space and so are dropping over the sides now. If you plan to grow winter or butternut squash then give them plenty of room. On the other hand, summer squash (flying saucers as SWMBO likes to call them) grow more like courgettes from a central point upwards and so are more suited to basic tubs.

It's all good

[Jo_yful]

Oh wow Ace, that all looks fantastic Your veg definately looks to be thriving in your containers. Sorry I had to have a bit of a chuckle at the number of courgettes on that plant (you getting sick of eating them yet?).

Thanks for sharing your pictures with us, its lovely inspiration to those who are struggling or just starting out to see how well and how much you can grow in the garden in pots and planters.

Btw your 'baby' butternuts look soooooooo cute!!!

[Ace]

Originally Posted by Jo_yful

Oh wow Ace, that all looks fantastic Your veg definately looks to be thriving in your containers. Sorry I had to have a bit of a chuckle at the number of courgettes on that plant (you getting sick of eating them yet?).

Thanks for sharing your pictures with us, its lovely inspiration to those who are struggling or just starting out to see how well and how much you can grow in the garden in pots and planters.

Btw your 'baby' butternuts look soooooooo cute!!!

Thanks Jo

So far we've just been picking odd courgettes off for a light evening meal along with other stuff. Essentially we get a bunch of Charlotte Potatoes from one of the tubs, pick 2-3 varieties of the courgettes, some spring onions, any baby carrots that are ready to pick and to that we add maybe some red onion (as ours aren't ready yet) and some slices of Chorizo (which I'm a sucker for). We put it all in a baking tray, drizzle with olive oil and chooped herbs from the gardens and roast them. Very yummy!

The main reason we grew a lot of courgettes is because SWMBO does a chutney making "run" every year before Christmas making some 200 pots of many different varieties. She's been looking forward to using our own veg this time rather than buying it all. Problem I think we will have is that the plants produce a good constant trickle of courgettes rather than a glut at any one time so I reckon she'll have to do a number of smaller chutney runs because they obviously won't keep long other wise.

I'm really keen to see how the butternut squashes taste when they are fully grown. They seem to be really easy to grow and look brill!

[Marieke hardy]

Hi Ace

You really have done a great job. These planters look like they made by a professional. Great work keep it up.

Thanks
Marieke hardy