I just found this idea in a facebook conainer gardening group that I belong to , and it looks like something that would be easy to do, and could be as large or small as you wanted it to be. The basic idea is to use those square containers that have the latticework type sides. I think they are called milk crates because milk used to come in this kind of container. Anyway, then you line the milk crate with landscaping material, like you buy in rolls and put on thee ground to keep weeds from growing. Fill the crate with dirt and potting soil, and then you can cut little slits in the sides to put the plant roots inside of the crate so that they cascade out the sides. You can stack up the crates to whatever amount you wanted to have. The idea is for strawberries; but I think that a person could also use this idea for things like lettuce, spinach, and maybe even cucumbers. Flowers could even be used, or mixed in with the greenery. I can see something like this with strawberries or lettuce, and petunias mixed in here and there for added color.
This is great for apt. living and can save money while you're having fun growing your food too! Things are getting expensive now days, so this is a good way to have your fresh veggies and small fruits too-thanks for the information. I will look into it when I have the time. I've been wanting to grow some vegetables in my apt. backyard. I use recycled water so it's even cheaper for me to grow my veggies and small fruits.
I agree, things are definitely getting expensive. I'm seeing more of this, people thinking about alternative ways to garden, especially since some have space limits. I have seen articles and posts about rooftop gardens, which I think is a lovely idea, especially for those living in high rises without balconies or other outdoor spaces. Another positive about these is they don't seem to require any sort of drilling and attaching to a structure, which is a benefit for those of us who are renters. I absolutely love the idea of growing berries. I hope at some point I'm able to do this, thanks for sharing @Yvonne Smith.
What a neat idea? I have a very small city lot.... just 35 feet by 125 feet.. So I have been practicing space saving vertical techniques for a long time. I did try a version of this strawberry garden years ago using PVC pipe.. and it failed miserably.. the problem being that is very difficult to get water to all but the upper plants.. I am wondering if this crate version might not have this same problem.. How do you get the enough water to the plants? Do you unstack them to water? Is it enough to just spray the crates? It didn't work with the PVC pipe. Here's a pic showing what I tried..
I tried growing plants in those long hanging tube tubs before, and I had the same problem of the water not getting all the way to the bottom. It ran over the top and out the side holes, and the plants on the bottom dried out. However, I was trying to just go along and water it with the hose, and it might have worked better if I had had some kind of a seeping water system, so it could have gone through the dirt slowly. I looked on youtube to see what they suggested to do for watering the strawberry towers. The first video shows that she put a drip system on the top and let it seep for a while to water, and there must have been holes for the water to go through from the bottom of one crate and into the next one down. Or maybe it can go through the landscape fabric without holes. The next video I watched, the person had taken a piece of PVC pipe and drilled holes and then watered down through the pipe. I have some little gadgets that fit on a 2-liter pop/soda bottle and then stick into the dirt and slowly let water into the container, and these might also work to keep the berries watered. There are a whole lot of youtube videos about growing plants and berries this way; so there should be some good ideas if a person just browses through some of the videos.
I remember the idea of planting potatoes inside old tires, filled with dirt. You just kept stacking them on top of each other. When it came time to "dig" them out, you just dis-assembled the tires from the top down, and collected the potatoes. I never tried it. @Yvonne Smith , EDIT: The tires were filled with STRAW, not dirt.
Our strawberries are just loaded with blossoms and some have berries growing on them, so we should have some ripe strawberries before too long now. We are watching their progress every day. I noticed that they have produced runners, and I was going to just leave the runners to root naturally; but I just watched a tutorial about strawberry runners, and it says that if the mother plant is trying to produce berries and also feed the runners, we will lose berry production. Since we want the best strawberry production we can get, I am now going to get the area weeded better, add some good topsoil, cut off the runners, and get them planted. We had plenty of room in the strawberry patch for the berries to spread; so that won't be a problem. The violets are growing everywhere right now, and although I do love the violets, I am going to remove them so there is more room for the strawberries.