With the prevalence of hard-packed clay soil in these parts, I’ve become a big proponent of raised beds for vegetable gardening. They allow for better control of soil structure and nutrients, along with better drainage and possibly better protective methods – more on that later.
Each year, I add a new raised bed to my garden. Or to be honest, let me say that my sweet and handy man constructs a new one for me. They are made from cedar boards and measure 3′ by 8′. A lot of folks will build their beds with a 4′ width, which is perfectly okay. I make mine a foot narrower just because it is easier for me to access the center of the bed when it is only 3′ wide. For more details on the construction of the bed, I’ve a short YouTube video on that here.
One day I will have enough raised beds to suit all my growing needs. Until then, I’ve supplemented with some quick and easy ways to grow my veggies. Namely, I use buckets. Last year, I installed several 5-gallon food grade plastic buckets in the garden. Before adding soil into each bucket, I drilled six 1/2″ holes into the bottoms for drainage. This has been working very well.
I started using the buckets specifically for growing tomatoes. I’d tried growing them in the raised beds and they did fairly well. The thing I found was that the netting we’d installed for critter protection sort of hindered their growth somewhat. With the buckets, they are free to grow as tall as they wish!
That brings me back to protective measures. The cedar raised beds have 3 sections of PVC hoops attached and spaced evenly apart. This allows for plastic netting to be secured over them. We are situated on a plot of land nestled among many acres of woods and I was a bit skeptical that this would keep out the many, many critters. Knock on wood, it seems to be doing the trick. To access the plants, I simply raise up either side of the netting and throw it over the top, which allows me free and clear access inside. Then when I am finished working, I lower the netting back over the hoops.
For the buckets, I had to come up with another method of protection. I’ve found that a lot (most, or maybe all??) of the prefabricated, cone-shaped tomato cages are very lacking in sturdiness and height. They just don’t offer a lot of support for tall tomato plants or protection from browsing deer. Some very good friends of ours had let us borrow their tomato cages a couple years back. I remember them being very tall and sturdy as heck and I wanted some just like that! Last year, we made our own version of those cylindrical cages out of concrete reinforcing mesh. This is a heavy gauge wire mesh that can be found at most big box home improvement stores. It comes bundled up in a roll 5′ wide by 50′ or 150′ long. There may be other sizing configurations, this is just what we have found locally. From what we have seen, the mesh is already rusted when you get it from the store, so don’t be surprised by that – like I was!
Between last year and this year we have purchased two 5′ by 50′ rolls of it from Menards (not an affiliate) and were able to construct 23 cages. If you attempt to make your own, be mindful that it will take a heavy-duty bolt cutter to cut through the mesh. We used a skimpy cutter with the roll we bought last year and we had some very achy hands afterwards. This year, I made a new set of cages for some new buckets and got wise, purchasing a heavy duty bolt cutter. Made the difference like night and day! Here is what the cage looks like once constructed.
Most of the cages are 5′ tall with a 4′ circumference. A few of them are narrower because I was trying to maximize the number of cages I got out of that second roll of wire mesh. Also, approximately 6 inches will be inserted into the soil, so they ended up a bit shorter than 5′, but still plenty tall enough. The cage sits nicely over the 5-gallon buckets and nicely inside some new buckets I purchased this year. The “holes” of the mesh are 6″ square, which is perfect for reaching in to harvest the fruits and yet still keeps the deer from reaching in to do any of their own harvesting. We cut each cage so that the bottoms are left with “prongs” that dig into the soil, holding them nicely in place.
The new buckets this year are fabric buckets I found on Amazon. They come in various sizes and colors. Wanting to expand the tomato and pepper garden, I came across these and thought it would be nice to give them a try. I ended up purchasing a 5-pack each of the 15-gallon and 20-gallon size. I like the black color, finding it to be more attractive than the white 5-gallon buckets, and also they are wider which should allow the roots a bit more freedom. And to top it off, they have built-in handles, making it easier to move them around. I enjoyed working with them so much that I bought two more 5-packs to grow corn and beans in.
So far, I’m finding that the fabric buckets drain more readily than the plastic buckets. This may or may not be a good thing, meaning that I will have to be more diligent with watering. I will definitely keep my eye on this as the summer progresses. One other great thing about using these buckets, or any kind of small container, is that you can grow most veggies practically anywhere. You just need to make sure the plants get the required amount of sunlight. In fact, I started vegetable gardening on a deck when we lived in the city. Used some decorative containers and self-watering grow boxes and it worked like a charm!
So, what is your hands-down favorite way to grow veggies? Leave a comment!
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