Cattle Trough Gardening?

[GoDawgs]

Pickles was poking around in Pinterest yesterday. You know how that goes... one bread crumb leads to another and before you know it you've gone down the trail pretty far. Anyway, she found this site on making sturdy cattle troughs (she forwarded the article to a neighbor) and I could just see this thing cut into smaller sections for raised beds or left whole if needed.

https://www.texaslonghorn.com/longhorn_ ... le_feeders

The things you find online!

[PlainJane]

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What you found is a different style and would work; depends on cost effectiveness.

I’ve used mine (galvanized) for years now … these are older pictures.
I didn’t replant mine this fall as I have to move them which involves emptying most of the soil into wheelbarrows and spare grow bags so I’ve put it off until after I get my other projects done.

[worth1]

That's pretty much what I'm doing but with 40 gallon plastic troughs.

[DriftlessRoots]

I have one of those round wash tubs that I grow stuff in. I accidentally made drainage holes when I was mixing some planting medium in it with a garden fork. That metal's not very thick.

I was keeping bees briefly at the home of a guy who had built raised beds out of that HEAVY highway guardrail stuff with nice rounded ends. Very modern looking.

[Vanman]

I have a galvanized one and never thought of using it for this. I will next year.

[MissS]

Galvanized beds are quite popular these days. Most garden sites offer them.

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[worth1]

I have one of those round wash tubs that I grow stuff in. I accidentally made drainage holes when I was mixing some planting medium in it with a garden fork. That metal's not very thick.

I was keeping bees briefly at the home of a guy who had built raised beds out of that HEAVY highway guardrail stuff with nice rounded ends. Very modern looking.

The new wash tubs are at least half as thick as they used to be.
Especially if you get them from el cheapo or some place.
They might still sell the good ones at select hardware stores made in America.
I grew up in a town that actually had a shop that made wash tubs and buckets.
They would even repair the things.

[WoodSprite]

I garden in stock tanks that I bought off of CraigsList. The guy I bought them from said he bought them new from the store that he worked at where they were sold to raise fish. Since fish are very sensitive to toxic chemicals, I figure they are safe to garden in. Mine are 2-ft tall and 6-ft diameter and made out of some sort of plastic material. I LOVE them.

I've been wanting to start one of those "my garden" threads to show the creation of my garden at our new house but haven't yet. Basically I installed 6 of them in 2017 to test them. Added one more in 2018. Added 12 more in 2020. Added the pavers and "eco-grass" fescue mix in 2021. Until I get around to making a post with more photos and details, here's a few photos. If these are too large, let me know and I'll resize them.

August 2021, the year I added the pavers and fescue walkway:

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September 2021, after I sowed more fescue to fill in some bald spots:

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March 2022 so you can see the beds and their layout.

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[WoodSprite]

I forgot to say that you can find these non-metal "stock tanks" or "watering troughs" at agricultural supply stores like Tractor Supply Company and similar. They come in different shapes and sizes. They are expensive new but if you look around, post wanted ads and talk to local livestock farmers, you might be able to find some reasonably-priced used ones. No problem if they already have holes in them (and are useless for a livestock farmer) because you'll need to drill drainage holes anyway. I drilled my holes low on the sides instead of on the undersides. I also filled the bottom halves with dead wood from our wooded property (for sort of a hugelkultur effect) then filled them the rest of the way with a 50/50 mix of topsoil and compost that's made locally and purchased by the truckload. They work great but do need more water compared to gardening in the ground.

[worth1]

I only have one 1 half inch hole on the end.
Never had a problem.
They have sight tubes in them so I can see the water level.
Too much from heavy rain lay the tubes down and let drain.
I water in the hottest time of the year about twice a week.

[WoodSprite]

This is the year I installed most of my beds, before installing the walkway. The 3 beds in the center of the photos each have a tomato plant, 4 pepper plants, herbs and Alyssum.

June 15, 2020:

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July 13, 2020, same view less than 1 month later:

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[Rockporter]

This is the year I installed most of my beds, before installing the walkway. The 3 beds in the center of the photos each have a tomato plant, 4 pepper plants, herbs and Alyssum.

June 15, 2020:
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July 13, 2020, same view less than 1 month later:
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I love your garden, very nice way to set it up.

[Paulf]

My wife says this is the best way to garden ever. No bending or stooping, very little weeding and the best crops ever several years running. Some smaller troughs for flowers in several locations.

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early season

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mid-season

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later

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flowers

too many photos, but you get the idea

[Rockporter]

@Paulf I love those huge troughs and wish I had room for those in my garden. Space limiting I think I am doing okay with the changes we have made and I can handle a lot more containers in my garden. If we ever move I will make sure the garden space is much larger so I can use some troughs like that.

[GoDawgs]

Those things look like they take a tremendous amount of growing medium to fill them and that sounds expensive. Are any of you putting a foot or so of anything that takes up space (wood, plastic bottles, etc) in the bottom before adding medium?

[Paulf]

The cattle waterers are about three feet deep. The bottom half is oak logs we just happened to have after a strong wind (aka tornado) dropped a couple of huge limbs in the yard. Chain sawed into chunks and put in the troughs, then covered with a couple layers of window screening (also just happened to have) so that the soil would not fill the spaces. After that a good layer of native soil and then a layer of soilless mix, the cheapest I could find.

We do fertilize with granular 10-10-10 every once in a while to replace nutrients, just like in any other container gardening. Each spring we top up the soilless mix to the rim of the trough and plant.

[karstopography]

Those things look like they take a tremendous amount of growing medium to fill them and that sounds expensive. Are any of you putting a foot or so of anything that takes up space (wood, plastic bottles, etc) in the bottom before adding medium?

Most landscape supply places around here sell bulk soil and compost in 1/2 cubic yard increments. A Cubic yard goes for around $40, but that’s only if you don’t mind them dumping it in your pickup bed. A flat bed trailer and a tied down tarp would work great for larger quantities and some of the places deliver, for a fee depending on your distance from the store. Typical Bagged soils are super expensive in relation to the bulk ones. There’s calculators to figure out how much soil to order based on the dimensions of the container or cattle trough.

All my raised beds are primarily bulk soil and compost blends. My 8’x10’ beds take 3 cubic yards to about 1’ deep. ~$120 to fill initially, maybe 1/2 yard if even annually needed to maintain levels, but I work in a lot of leaf litter and cole crop leaves to keep the organic matter level where I want it. Bagged soils would be several hundred dollars and there’s far too much sphagnum peat and uncomposted wood debris for my tastes in the vast majority of those bags.

Bulk soils and compost are just another idea for those that have a few cattle troughs and several raised beds and want to watch their costs. Not that the wood debris in the bottom to cut costs isn’t a great idea either, but maybe wood debris might be hard to find depending on location.

[GoDawgs]

... Not that the wood debris in the bottom to cut costs isn’t a great idea either, but maybe wood debris might be hard to find depending on location.

The wood in the bottom is somewhat along the lines of hugelkultur. If I ever wanted to do a trough there's plenty of wood debris on and around Mount Brushmore (my brush pile).

One time when I was short on potting mix and only had a 15 gallon pot left, I played with filling it halfway with empty 2 liter soda bottles (caps on) and then put the mix in. It worked just fine.

[WoodSprite]

Those things look like they take a tremendous amount of growing medium to fill them and that sounds expensive. Are any of you putting a foot or so of anything that takes up space (wood, plastic bottles, etc) in the bottom before adding medium?

I did a combo hugelkultur/raised bed thing. I put dead wood from our woods in the bottoms of them then filled them the rest of the way with a 50/50 mixture of topsoil and compost (made locally from leaves & grass clippings). We had triaxle truckloads of both delivered then mixed them together. For the first several beds we installed, I used log sections and twigs as that's what I had. For the last 12 or so beds, I used what had been a pile of logs from when we cleared land to build our house but it had rotted down a lot so was almost like wood chip consistency. One bed (one of the first beds) we were too worn out from installing the other beds and didn't have the energy to seek out more wood from our wooded property so it's just topsoil/compost. I haven't noticed a difference in how they all function. They all seem to do equally well. But buying the topsoil and compost by the triaxle truckloads is less expensive than buying it in smaller amounts, even with the delivery charge.

[WoodSprite]

This is the year I installed most of my beds, before installing the walkway. The 3 beds in the center of the photos each have a tomato plant, 4 pepper plants, herbs and Alyssum.

June 15, 2020:
P1060400.JPG


July 13, 2020, same view less than 1 month later:
P1070026.JPG

I love your garden, very nice way to set it up.

Thanks so much, @Rockporter. I was leaning toward making long rectangular beds from cinderblocks but didn't have the ability (health issue) to build them and kept putting it off. Then my husband saw an ad on Craigslist for the stock tanks and suggested them. At first I said "no" but then decided to go for it since they would be easier and faster to install. It took a while to come up with a layout that I liked using round beds but I'm very happy with it and am still amazed (1) that I was able to install this garden and (2) that it looks better than I imagined. Putting gardening space on the ground between the beds for flowers to attract beneficial insects ties the beds together visually, too.

I'm so glad I went with these stock tanks. I like the height (taller than what I had planned with the cinder blocks) but wouldn't mid if they were a little taller because bending forward to direct sow seeds and transplant plants is hard on me. But normal maintenance, weeding (though very little is needed), watering, harvesting is all very easy in tall beds. If I didn't have tall raised beds, I'd have to give up gardening completely because I can't do the repeated bending, kneeling, etc. that is needed for in-ground beds anymore.