sand box for grandkids!

Wow! I would love to own a couple of those...and have all sorts of ideas for them. Looks like Dawn has you covered with good ideas, though! Have fun with them.

I would love them also, but I would probably plant a more permanent plant like asparagus. I would put think layers of cardboard under it and hope I could kill all of the grass. I have a hard time keeping grass out of my asparagus bed.

Dawn-Wow! I love it when you answer my questions. You are so very thorough!! I had them snugged up on the east side of my cedar tree windbreak at the edge of my garden. If I wanted to plant in them I'd need to roll them out a little bit so I could walk around them. Funny story-the day I was emptying them, I emptied the larger one and rolled it over by my asparagus bed which is planted in a cow lane fence row. I started on the smaller one and out of the corner of my eye I noticed something thru the trees. The wind was blowing about 40 mph that day and my empty cow tank was rolling down the wheat field on its side. I had to jump out of the tank and chase down the other tank and roll it back up in the garden. I placed it upside down so it couldn't roll away.

When I move mine I am going to do as dawn suggests and fill with wood. Mine is full of garden soil and does OK but dries out too quick. This is mine full of borage and herbs and sweet potatoes.

Kim, looks GREAT. That would be a good container on a city lot, in the front yard. Dogs would not be able to pee on your produce. ;)

Moni

Good idea. Except my puppy right after I planted it in July she jumped up in there walking all over my sweet slips looking to see what I had done

Patti, The picture in my mind of your rolling stock tank is hysterical. I move mine by rolling it from one spot to another, but not on a windy day. : ) I hope I gave you some good ideas. And, as Carol mentioned, I do always put layers of cardboard underneath the tank when I move it in order to try to keep the Johnson grass out of it. I don't have any bermuda near where that tank is, but Johnson grass creeps in from the pasture if I'm not vigilant. Oh, and if voles and gophers are an issue, putting a layer of 1/4" hardware cloth on the ground beneath the tank before you refill it will keep the earth-tunneling varmints from tunneling up into your tank from beneath the ground. This is important for all plants, but especially important if you're growing root crops in the tanks.

Kim, Yours looks great. The wood in the bottom originated as a way to help hold in moisture, but then the superb plant performance also made me realize that the rotting wood was providing the micro-herd of fungi, bacteria, etc. needed to ensure that organic fertilizers broke down well and were taken up well by the plant roots. It completely changed how I grow in containers, and my containers are so much more successful now than they were before I started incorporating wood and leaf mold. They also are easier to maintain because the moisture holds for much longer in the woody area, and the plant roots just reach deep to find it. Here in the southern plains where the summer heat and lack of moisture are such an immense problem some (most) years, anything we can do to help the growing medium hold moisture better makes such a huge difference.

I'd love to have a garden that was nothing more than a row of galvanized stock tanks. Maybe one of these days I will. If I started this year, and just added one tank per year, then in a few years, I'd have that long row of stock tanks. They are the best 'raised beds' ever.

Dawn

On the Oklahoma Gardening show on TV they have been talking about 'Key Hole' gardens much like the stock tanks so people can stand or sit around the sides and make gardens. They use other things to make them like old pallets and things but it is kind of the same idea. I like the stock tank idea.