How To Plant Large Galvanized Troughs

by Texas Homesteader ~

Planting a large galvanized water trough for beautiful landscaping around your home looks great! Plus it’s easy and can be done inexpensively too. But how do you plant such a large trough as a raised bed? I’m sharing some tips.

Planting Decorative Metal Troughs As Raised Beds

Recently we had an Outdoor Living room built to extend our back porch. I set out to Landscape It On The Cheap.

I love the concept of edible landscaping. Just because a plant provides something you can eat doesn’t mean it can’t be beautifully incorporated into your landscape plan.

So I bought two huge galvanized troughs to use as raised bed planters. We already had one old weathered trough planter at the end of our porch. I love to plant either heat-loving Malabar Spinach or even Plant Potatoes in that trough each year.

We also placed a rustic and rusted galvanized tub on the other side of the porch. This one held a miniature blueberry bush. I love the way this planting turned out!

We even had another large water trough placed at a gutter to catch rainwater. This provides all the water each year for plants and trees in our backyard. It’s just one of the 3 Rainwater Catchment tricks we use.

Now I want to plant the other two troughs to beautifully landscape our outdoor living area. But how do you fill such deep troughs?

How To Plant A Large Water Trough

We bought two large 4-ft wide troughs to plant.

We sat them up on retaining-wall stones to both level the footing as well as to give them support.

Water Drainage Tip For A Large Planter

Some people drill holes in the troughs, some don’t But be sure to remove the plugs from the troughs so they have a way to drain if they receive too much water.

Reducing Soil Requirement For Large Planters

Large trough planters will require lots of soil (with LOTS of weight!). Here are ways we’ve reduced the soil purchase when filling large raised beds:

Start With Thick Branches – This Hügelkultur method requires layering different materials. You can read how to Layer Materials For This Method Here. Whether logs or thick branches, the decomposing wood actually helps hold water during wet periods and release moisture back to your plants during the dry summer months.

Displace Soil With Lighter-Weight Items. I’ve used small buckets with lids or even lidded Repurposed Coffee Cans before adding the heavy soil. (make sure there’s enough soil weight to keep the buckets from floating during wet times of the year or drill them so they can take on excess water)

EcoBricks At The Bottom Of Troughs. This is a 2-fer-1 win drainage option. EcoBricks are simply a large plastic bottle (such as a juice bottle, etc) that’s tightly packed with non-recyclable trash.

These steps have made a huge difference in the overall weight of the filled troughs as well as significantly reducing the purchased soil requirement.

Use Bulk Soil For Raised Beds

Instead of buying expensive bags of soil when filling raised beds we buy soil in bulk. There are many different formulations – sandy topsoil, compost, raised bed mix, etc. To fill the bulk of our troughs we bought sandy fill dirt by the truckload for CHEAP from a local rock/soil company. Then topped only the last 10″ or so with planting soil.

Buying soil in bulk is significantly cheaper, PLUS there are no disposable plastic bags to deal with.

Planting With Edible Plants Can Be Pretty

For my trough raised beds I started with carrots & spinach for the border. Pretty plants and a hearty harvest too. I also planted a jalapeno plant in this trough so RancherMan can toss fresh peppers on the grill when he’s grilling supper for us.

A small lavender plant will be added for some nice blossom color here.

I also wanted to focus on perennial edible plants I already had growing elsewhere. Don’t you love Lazy Gardener plants? ME TOO! Plant once and eat for years. That’s my kinda gardening!

So I added ferny Asparagus & Everbearing Strawberries to the mix. Each spring I get an asparagus harvest & a flush of ripe juicy berries. The strawberries give me a second smaller harvest late in the year.

I trick birds away from my fresh strawberries by using this handy trick – I scatter Strawberry Painted Rocks among the plants before any berries turn red.

This trick works every year to keep the many birds that frequent our yard away from my strawberries. It’s rare now that I lose one of my strawberries to the birds.

Adding Herbs To Garden Landscape

Small herb plants are arranged in and around these troughs as well.

Thyme

Oregano

Rosemary

Not only were these plants free because I transplanted it from other areas but it looks beautiful, the bees love it and fresh herbs are right outside my back door.

I love our new peaceful outdoor living space. It’s beautiful and the bees love it too. And beautifully-planting water troughs provides us food as well, what’s not to love?

~TxH~

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2 thoughts on “How To Turn A Galvanized Feed Trough Into A Raised-Bed Planter”

Laurinda at

The buckets idea is GENIUS!

Reply ↓
1. Texas Homesteader Post author at
  
  LOL Laurinda. You know I’m a huge fan of ‘use whatcha got’! 🙂 ~TxH~
  
  Reply ↓

~Texas Homesteader~

Working To Provide For Ourselves On Our Texas Homestead

How To Turn A Galvanized Feed Trough Into A Raised-Bed Planter