Milk Crate Liners For Gardening

Hayley Stewart

Posts: 61

Location: Zone 5ish, Ontario, CA

fungi foraging cooking fiber arts homestead ungarbage

posted 1 year ago

3
Number of slices to send:

Optional 'thank-you' note:

Hey everyone, thanks so much for the great ideas - you've given me so much to think about! For me, the major appeal of the milk crate garden was that it could be configured to use multiple height levels (plus let's be honest, I just think they look cool). Yesterday my partner and I did a clean up and inventory of our deck and we realized with a little re-jigging, we could greatly increase our growing space without having to go out and find a bunch of crates and liners - plus being on the second floor, dryness is definitely an issue. Also, considering that this is likely our second-last growing season at this apartment, we should make use of what we already have. We decided to take apart an old ikea outdoor metal shelf we had outside (with convenient drainage holes in the shelves) and break it into two shelves of differing heights so we can stagger them much in the same way we envisioned with the crates, and move it into the sunniest part of the deck.

Here are some photos. Please excuse the random junk - we had a few things to tidy up, plus the lid on our main storage bin popped off this winter and absolutely SOAKED a bunch of our gardening stuff... You can see from the chicken wire we have been battling the squirrels in very makeshift ways so far. We'll be building a cage this year.

The black box and bottomless chairs (former plant stands) will be going.

Don't worry - the bamboo is just a placeholder for its future trellis form. And it certainly won't be that high.

Look! There are still milk crates! That bowl is the future site for a bee bath.

Anyways, I know this has kind of devolved from my original post, BUT I do have some further questions now that I'll be going back to container gardening. Apologies if these aren't quite in the right spot anymore.

1. Since I want to reuse the pots from last season - can I reuse any of the soil? I've heard conflicting things on the internet - some say that you have to pitch the soil and sterilize pots every season but that feels like a waste. For anything that was hit with verticulum wilt, I plan to sterilize and pitch the soil. Since our weather was all over the place last year (spells of drought alternating with heavy rains) I think that all the containers could all benefit from some better drainage, a nice helping of compost and some coarser mulch material on top. I also plan to plant some nasturtiums, clover, and comfrey (if I can get it) to use as organic material to add throughout the season so I don't have to haul grass clippings up the stairs.

2. We've had two seasons of VERY aggressive ants taking over a plant of their choice. Two years ago it was a trumpet vine aphid farm, this past year they managed to saw down corn at its base and go nuts. I'm hoping that by planting a more diverse range of insectary plants I can get some more predators in. We've had plenty of birds come hang out in the window boxes or on the roof but I've never seen them come and snack in any containers.

Any other tips & thoughts are much appreciated. Thanks!

I work for the man but plant for the pollinators~