This reminds me of some different types I've seen related to some guy named Larry and his rain gutter system. A bunch of his groupies were buying up walmart bags and small plastic kiddie pools. They'd fill the bags with dirt and place them in the kiddie pool filled shallowly with water. An off-shoot revealed some folks drilling.. like 4" holes around 5 gallon buckets and lining the buckets with some type of material not unlike weed cloth of walmart bags. I didn't bother looking into the rain gutter system, but I thought those other techniques were pretty cool. It makes sense, too.

We got a round fabric bed style "thing" and I'm sorry, I don't remember the name, it was, however, made in OK. It is about 5' in diameter which is a half foot too wide for my reach. We filled it with the mix the nursery recommended, probably 10 different bags of different composts and soil ammendments. That was expensive, but the soil has been fertile. Early on the soil didn't hold water well. I thInk peat was one of the soil components and it took awhile to get it wet. Hense peas didn't want to sprout and some early seeds didn't germanate well. Otherwise things seem to grow in it well. My green bean jungle is there now. It was hard to get the sides to stand up, since we didn't fill it all the way up. They wanted to fall down on plants at the edges. I don't like round. DH even got some edging stones to go around it, but the grass wants to grow up between the stones and the bed. All my beds have weed cloth in the bottom, so I suppose the roots can't get through to soil below. I think the weed cloth would rot before this felt like fabric. I am not sure if you are supposed to leave it out year round or empty it for winter. DH wants to move ours (sigh).

I planted potatoes in bags, 2 commercial ones and several dog food bags which held up to the short season and then we tore them open to harvest. There are sweet potatoes in them now. I planted A LOT of things in 5 gallon buckets. I am not thrilled with the results. Determinate tomatoes might work, but the indeterminates I planted in buckets never really thrived. I planted pole beans in buckets and they have been VERY unhappy. I am going to try smaller plants in them in the future.

I have a lot of things in other containers, like flowers and herbs. I've had a coulpe of pots where drainage holes have clogged and killed the plants. But the biggest pain is watering. Had it been a hotter drier summer the container plants would not have done well. Our normal water usage has doubled, so next year I want rain barrels and a more conservative watering system.

This has been my experience for one year. I am thinking about looking for kiddie pools on clearance to hold containers for watering. The nice thing about that is you can weed wack around the pool pretty easy. I think nutrients get washed out of containers quicker than beds or regular gardens, too.

Yeah irrigation is a huge deterrent for me now. And I'm stingy with the water even with our shabby rain tubs. And this beingthe first fully active summer garden in a wet year proves I gotta figure out what will work best for me. I guess drip irr attached to rain tubs over hugel beds with occasional tap water use.

I heard that about 5 gallon buckets. And all those using bags are using syn ferts can be fed org fert but my exp suggests alot req and I'm too lazy for that.

I thing these potbags or the kiddie pool set up would be ideal for treasued plants that should be babied, maybe for nursing perrenialsor saplings not native. So I like seen reading about different methods

Sorry typos using tablet

The large bed we grew in was The Big Bag Bed. It was created in OK and the company, High Caliper Growing has an OKC mailing address on the box, but further research turned up the fact that they began in Guthrie. I like the idea of using a local product. This one is just slightly too big around for my old reach.

Here is a link that might be useful: Big Bag Bed