That sounds smart about temperature control. But you could achieve almost the same thing by just surrounding the blocks with a curtain (metal or plastic?) that keeps the breeze from blowing under the stock tanks. It's that breeze that is carrying the heat and cold. Actually, on warmer days in the early spring when the air temperature is higher than the soil temperature, you could remove that curtain and more efficiently warm up the soil.

Thanks dan!

I saw a post where someone used old refrigerators in the same manner.

I can relate to wanting the beds higher up, but remember that some of your plants (Tomatoes/pole beans) are going to get tall! You'll want to keep them either in the ground or in a low raised bed. I got some raised up beds from some neighbors who moved away (3'x8'x1' raised up to waist height) and they're great! Had to figure out container garden habits like more watering/feeding. Nancy

Thanks zzackey and nancyjane.

nancyjane........you're right about height. I had one of the stock tanks in the garden last year, just one 1 block high. I put peppers and 2 cherry tomatoes in there, and used my old concrete reinforcing tomato cage on the tomatoes, and the tops of the plants got really tall. I cut one of old tomato cages in 2 and used that height for the peppers and it worked great.

But.....I've already decided I'm going to need a ladder for out there, especially with the pole beans, even with them on just one block height. But thanks for that reminder!

I had 6 roma tomatoes in one 6' long stock tank and they all did great. But those don't tend to grow that tall.........not like the cherries and Rutgers that I grow. I was afraid the tomato cages would be unstable, but I cut the connecting wires off the bottoms of the cages, and pushed them into the soil in the stock tanks, and they were really secure.

I think it will all turn out nicely.........if I can get my broken knee to behave itself by next spring!

Thanks again.

I'd love to see a picture of it. I'm not sure what a stock tank is.

Hi zzackey.........a stock tank is usually used to put water in, for barnyard animals (stock) to drink out of. In the past several years, they've become popular to grow things in . The ones I bought are "food-grade" poly. This picture is of one that I put up on 3 blocks. (I made columns out of 6 blocks each to support the tank, but I also put 2 cedar boards on each side of the columns, to better distribute the weight.) I love having them this high, but as nancyjane said, some of the things....like tomatoes and pole beans....would just be too high up.

Here's a pic of of some Romano bush beans.

That's nice looking. We have farms around us, but they all use the deep metal stock tanks.

I guess you could do bush beans and some determinate tomatoes (but some of those also get pretty big) or have your stock tanks for those stay on the ground. Nancy

OK, I am a little confused about your system. Your pic of the poly tanks shows good ground around it. You are using a Rubbermaid stock tank costing $75 and putting 12 concrete blocks and 2 planks with a cost of Say $20. X 4 of these so you have around $400 dollars plus the cost of growing media. Your total space is around 50 square feet or a 5' x 10' area. tell me why this is better than growing in the ground.

I do a lot of container gardening using root pouches and kiddie pools on bad ground including an old gravel driveway and a concrete patio. This allows me to use space more effectively.

I am a low cost producer. unless you have a good reason, I feel the cost of doing this is a waste of $$$. It is none of my business on how you spend your money, but I have seen too many people who want to grow their own food to save on food cost and in the long run spend more than they save.

Many of us garden for the pleasure of gardening, rather than for saving on costs. That's entertainment, and entertainment costs money. But it's always nice when you can rationalize home gardening by saving some costs. In fact, if you factor in the (volunteered) labor that goes into doing a home garden, it's really really hard to save on costs. That is, if I hired people to maintain my garden, I'd probably never win, cost-wise.

I also find much pleasure in gardening. Maybe because I am a market gardener I look at this from an economic way. I still would rather be a low cost producer and vacation in Cancun. Now that's entertainment and entertainment cost money and money saved by controlling cost.

I see it as a resource issue, so it does blow my mind what people sometimes spend. When food and healthcare is free, and everyone who is willing to lend a hand has equal access to a healthy life, then gardening can be considered a hobby. That said, even if they have good, or potentially good soil, some have physical difficulties which make such containers very helpful.

I agree with both of you. Sort of. I have to say that hobbies are not something that one takes up only when food and healthcare are free. I can take my family to one movie or one dinner out for the amount of money that I put into my small garden in one year. (Not a very big family, either.) What is also worth considering is that compared to the cost of many hobbies, vegetables are really pretty cheap. So while there are probably some caveats, if you want to save money, growing your own veggies probably isn't a very efficient way to do it.

That being said, yes, it can be mind blowing what people spend on hobbies. But the hobbies are supposed to expand their minds, and the fact that it blows my mind is sort of irrelevant. I have a relative who builds airplanes as a hobby. That's a money sink to me. But it's worth it to him.

Yeah Dan, I explain it as such because food is a need of living. Its production can only be considered a 'hobby' for those whose food and health needs are met.

On that same note, I include healthcare because of the link between healthy veggies and good eating habits/nutrition - in which home gardening can play such an important role.

I have severe arthritis and fibromyalgia. I've been gardening - in the ground- for 40 years, and I just can't keep it up. Weeding is almost impossible for me. So....I have bought a few food-grade stock tanks so I can continue to do something that I love. I preserve a lot of it for winter. I don't go on vacations, don't have cable or fancy TVs, etc. So for me, to continue to grow a garden and get great joy out of it, is really important to me. I have no interest in Cancun. We have 35 acres of woods and fields and an electric golf cart that we ride daily over hill and dale enjoying nature and that brings us tons of happiness. And everything I grow is organic......which would be very expensive to buy.

Cath....I'm with you! I've spent a few $ on my gardening hobby, but refuse to pay the supermarket prices for organic produce!

Recently, my sister turned me on to some organic farmer friends of hers who charge very little for a box of organic stuff that I don't currently grow! WooHoo! Nancy

You know, that used to be the case, that "organic" veggies were a lot more expensive than those that weren't. But in my neck of the woods, it really isn't that much more, at least in my neighborhood food markets. Consumer Reports did a study on that recently , and found that the markup on organic foodstuffs was all the way from enormous to negative (as in, the organic stuff was cheaper). The markups seen were vastly higher for meats than for veggies. In any case, the fraction of your food budget that you spend on veggies is quite small for most people. As organic consumption increases, the markup will be smaller, and commercial farmers have learned a lot about how to farm organically.

I know, I'm just being a devils advocate here, but as long as we're talking about the "value" of home gardening, there are things that can be said.