Cheap idea for a fun planter!

[Markymark]

This is a youtube video (what I want you to see starts around 1 minute and 14 seconds 1:14) showing what I'm gonna make with alternative and cheaper materials also better looking haha! Who doesn't love vertical planters!

I thought this would be cheaper than PVC, wont last quite as long but will look much better. Also the top if one wanted could be a bird house for decoration, or a nice flower in the top area (I will be installing a watering system in the top and then maybe plant over it). I was thinking of making it out of 1'x6' redwood fence boards, they are dog eared and cost around $2 each. This is what I'm talking about. It's a link to lowes, not redwood but it's just for the mental picture. I figured one could stagger the holes on a 6 inch basis and plant stuff all the way around just like in the youtube. I would probably dig a 1 foot hole and bury the planter about roughly 1 foot deep, and once installed, I would fill the inside of the planter about 1 foot deep with rocks so gophers can't dig up it. What do you guys think? I was thinking maybe a 2' tomato plant, and or vining type plant would be nice, I've seen flowers as well. I'm the kinda person that only plants edible type plants (so edible flowers in my case)

Cost? I estimate 10$ (depending on wood type) and a bit of elbow grease. I was gonna tie it together with probably 2" drywall/wood screws. Also the idea of the 2"x2" squares is for this soil blocker tool (it's a link to amazon). I thought it would make a great size and should fit right in roots and all.

BTW: Sorry for posting in the wrong spot.

 

[Markymark]

Also the top square is probably gonna be something like a lid, and I don't plan on attaching it but just setting it on top once I fit it properly.

 

[rockhound]

It's different. Maybe you could fill it with your planting mix now and water it in good so it has some time to settle?

 

[Markymark]

To be honest I just thought of it a few days ago and just designed a model. I'll be making one in a few days. But for now I'm still in the planning process as to where I want to locate it on my yard.

 

[lynpenny]

I like this concept but if you do what you are talking about but line the inside with some plastic so the wood won't always be wet and rot so fast. Then I would fill the top part with loose soil after you have the rock in and add plants into the 2" holes. put a watering system in the top and plant something at the top also. Just the way I would do it

 

[Markymark]

That's why I made the choice of redwood because of its properties. If it takes a few years to rot and break down I'll just build a new one. To seal it with plastic would be pretty hard and sealing it completely would be near impossible if it's put in the ground (IMO). I see no reason not to use plastic to prolong life. But for $10 and a few years of life it's not a huge deal to me personally.

 

[RonsGarden]

Cool idea Mark!
Nothing like growing vertical!

 

[Crabbergirl]

cool, My thought was along the lines of Lyn. Even red Wood has a life span when in direct contact with soil and water. But i like the concept.

 

[Markymark]

One could use engineered wood etc. But I have redwood that's in direct contact with water and it's just fine (since last year), which is a raised bed. All raised beds are going to have direct contact with soil and water. I don't know how one could completely avoid direct contact with water and soil. Plastic around here would just dry rot. A tarp breaks down for me in 1 summer (my boat tarp). So maybe I just don't think plastic last long here (we have low humidity). So I wasn't all that worried about replacing it at worst every other year? BTW you can actually coat the wood with a specific oil (I forgot what John the youtube dude uses), but his redwood 4x4's have been in contact with water/soil for years and they have little to no rot. But the oil he put on them was the organic safe solution to it.

 

[lynpenny]

hey don't take offense just throwing out ideas. I do everything my way but like to hear what others have to say. yeah it will be cool anyway you do it. It is the humidity here rots all woods fast.

 

[Markymark]

Well, I'm considering cost effectiveness, I think it's not worth putting all that money into a 10 dollar thing. it's just an IMO.

 

[RonsGarden]

Hmm?
I was thinking, wouldn't it be better if you could somehow rig it so you can turn it so you would have even growth on all sides. Let's say using a rod and some kind of bracket/brace to lift the unit up above the soil level to make it easy to give it a quarter turn once a day!

 

[Markymark]

I was thinking the same thing but I don't like the concept of using a wood bottom, I think that is a fast way to rot it out lol. But one could do something like 2 inch pvc cut in half with a piece of smaller pvc in the middle or maybe a coupler etc. Or one could focus on planting things that prefer more shade or tolerate shade to some extent more than like say tomatoes.

 

[Maggie]

Nice looking planter Marky. I like homemade planters better than store bought ones. Several years ago we found a large log on the creek bank and it had rotted out in the middle. We took a log chain, wrapped it around it and pulled it home behind the truck. I filled it with dirt and planted flowers in it. It lasted for years before it finally rotted completely. I wish I could find another one.

 

[mr_yan]

I like it and would not go with the plastic linings. Looking at how my pine raised beds held up this will get several years.


One thing i found with a traditoinal strawberry pot is the water would hit the upper plants then find its way to the edge and just run down between the potting media and container. A solution i read was to have a center column of sandy media.

How could this be installed in something this tall? Could you put a pvc pipe down the center, fill around the pipe, fill the pipe with the sandy mix then slide the pipe out?

If you put something like a bird house on top how will you water? Put drip irrigation inside it? What about putting a funnel hidden in the top

I'll have to follow how well this works for you. If I can figure out where I'll add this to my yard.

 

[lynpenny]

I was thinking just leave the pvc pipe in with holes in it to get moisture to the lower plants.

 

[Markymark]

I was thinking and I know how to do it! At lest provide water to all the plants in an interesting manner with spinning capability!
So here is the top view, I cut the top board in half, so you can see it's empty inside. So to control the location of the pole you would make a lid with a hole cut to fit for example a 1 inch pvc pipe, and one on the bottom with another lid cut exactly the same. Now This is all theoretical and I doubt a 1 inch pvc would have enough rigidity to keep it vertical and if it was capable of doing so I don't take into account the wind blowing it over (So you can if you want use some galvanized steel instead of the pvc for strength). I was somewhat thinking I would cap the bottom of the pvc pipe, and drill maybe a 1/16 up to at most a 3/16 hole for drainage. Now I would strategically drill on the sides of the pvc 1/8 to 3/16 holes where the root zones would be located for my plants. Now you can fill this with water and it should distributed water to the holes you drilled and allow it to be absorbed in the locations drilled out. So in theory this should allocate the water a bit more evenly to the plants.

I had a hard time trying to draw what I was visualizing, but the theory is there. Looking at the horizontal pipe, this is a representation of a 1/4 inch Carriage bolt that is roughly 6 inches long. Now I would buy several washers and fill the carriage bolt up on each end. Once installed it should give you an actuation, so you can spin the planter around in a circle (the washers act as a wheel to allow it to spin), and the carriage bolt would hold the planter in place (the pvc going vertical would have a hole drilled for the carriage bolt to slide through, and the washers would be placed on each side of the carriage bolt FYI).

Now I haven't taken into account the bottom of it rotting out, so this concept would presume the wood might last for a while, and in this case I personally would probably cover it with plastic from the soil side of the planter.

Once installed you can fill it with your soil choice. Now remember this is all a theory and don't go making it without the knowledge of hey it may not work exactly as thought out.
For my setup I would be burying the bottom of this planter in the ground at least 1 foot deep, so if it's a 6 foot planter, I'd have 5 feet of visible planting space. I could take this exact same principle and stick a pvc pipe down the middle, it doesn't need to be 1 inch, but maybe a 1/4 to 1/2 inch pvc pipe (I would NOT install a bottom to the planter besides some hardware cloth to keep critters from digging up it) and would drill holes to target root zone locations, so the water would still have the root zone targeting. Also, when I think about it, you can monitor the water level in the pvc pipe and see how much water your planting mix absorbs and you can just fill it with water when it's empty or close to empty (presuming one doesn't install irrigation).

 

[Markymark]

So this is what I did so far just fiddling around with a trial planter. After thinking about it I decided to give the holes more of an organic look (plus it took less thinking). I gave it exactly 12 holes, and kept them above 2 feet. So if I plant a determinant tomato plant it wouldn't get to the ground (depending on the size of around 2 ft)

 

[RonsGarden]

Looking good Mark!

 

[mr_yan]

I'm liking this. Is that the natural red-wood or did you oil it or anything? I find that something like a cheap boiled linseed oil will greatly increase the lifespan of any wood (well the ipe is out there but you get the idea).