55 Vegetables in 4 square feet? Part1

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tinyallotment

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55 Vegetables in 4 square feet? Part1
« on: October 15, 2014, 09:48 »


Barrel gardens are fantastic. They are cheap and easy to build, you can grow a massive amount of food in a tiny footprint, they retain and recycle water and nutrients, they require very little weeding, they have an integrated composting wormery that automatically fertilises your barrel and deals with kitchen waste, they produce fantastic worm casting you can either  reuse in the barrel or on your garden.You can now grow vegetables and soft fruits anywhere even if you only have a small courtyard or balcony. You can even easily look after a barrel garden from a wheelchair.


paul

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Aunt Sally

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Re: 55 Vegetables in 4 square feet? Part1
« Reply #1 on: October 15, 2014, 12:02 »
That looks really pretty Paul.

Would you like to post some instructions about how to make them for us.

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tinyallotment

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Re: 55 Vegetables in 4 square feet? Part1
« Reply #2 on: October 15, 2014, 12:30 »
Thanks Aunt Sally.

I will post instruction as and when I complete each stage of the build.

Right, let’s get started. First of all you are going to need a barrel. In this demonstration I am going to use a 205Lt ‘Tight Head’ barrel. Tight head barrels only have a couple of small openings in the top so you will have to cut the top off. You might find an ‘Open Top Keg’ type barrel that have a removable lid but it doesn’t really matter. It only takes a few minutes to remover the top of a tight head barrel.
When looking for a barrel for this type of project make sure you get a food grade barrel that has only be used to carry foodstuffs. Places to look might be large food production companies, bakeries, breweries etc. Also ask on freecycle or streetbank.
I started with a tight head barrel I have had hanging around for about 5 years.



First job was cut the top off. You could do this with an electric jigsaw but me being me plus the fact that I don’t have electricity at the allotment I used a great little hand saw that was perfect for the job.



It only took about 10 minutes to cut the top off and it ended up being quite a neat job. I don’t think I could have done it much quicker with a jigsaw to be honest by the time I set it up and everything.



Next job was to drill the drain holes in the bottom of the barrel. This allows any excess water to drain away so the barrel doesn’t become waterlogged. This is also where you collect all the lovely nutrient rich water that can be put back in the top of the barrel. That is one of the great things about the barrel garden. Nothing is wasted.
As normal I use a great hand tool that has all but disappeared since the advent of the battery drill. The hand drill.
You can still buy these brand new but you will probably get a better quality tool if you buy an old one from a car boot.



We just want to drill a series of holes to allow the water to drain but not to let the soil out. I tried for some sort of pattern but that didn’t work did it.



In the next instalment we will be marking out, cutting and forming the 50 grow pockets in the sides of the barrel.

Paul

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GrannieAnnie

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Re: 55 Vegetables in 4 square feet? Part1
« Reply #3 on: October 15, 2014, 12:33 »
Mmmm, very interesting Paul, look forward to episode 2!   :) :)

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surbie100

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Re: 55 Vegetables in 4 square feet? Part1
« Reply #4 on: October 15, 2014, 12:36 »
How heavy do they get?

My friend has a balcony/roof terrace she wants to grow things on, but is not sure that the structure will take the kind of weight these might have.

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tinyallotment

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Re: 55 Vegetables in 4 square feet? Part1
« Reply #5 on: October 15, 2014, 12:37 »
How heavy do they get?

My friend has a balcony/roof terrace she wants to grow things on, but is not sure that the structure will take the kind of weight these might have.

You do not have to use a big barrel like I have. You could build one half that size or smaller if need be.

paul

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GrannieAnnie

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Re: 55 Vegetables in 4 square feet? Part1
« Reply #6 on: October 15, 2014, 12:44 »
At first glance, it looks like the strawberry planters, but from what you've said Paul, its more than that, so yes, looking forward to seeing more!

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TheWhiteRabbit

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Re: 55 Vegetables in 4 square feet? Part1
« Reply #7 on: October 15, 2014, 12:45 »
They look really interesting. I can see me building a couple for our plot - looking forward to the rest of the series  :)

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Fairy Plotmother

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Re: 55 Vegetables in 4 square feet? Part1
« Reply #8 on: October 15, 2014, 12:53 »
When is part 2? The Plotfather can't wait!  :)

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tinyallotment

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Re: 55 Vegetables in 4 square feet? Part1
« Reply #9 on: October 15, 2014, 13:00 »
Now we are going to mark out the 50 grow pockets that will be cut into the sides of the barrel.
I measured around the barrel and it was approximately 1750mm. I wanted to put ten pockets on each level and I wanted my pockets to be around 100mm wide so that leaves 75mm between the pockets. I marked a line all the way round the barrel 100mm down from the top and then marked alternately 100mm and 75mm along this line. If you start on one of the seams of the barrel you can check how you are doing when you get half way round at the other seam.



In order to stop the grow pockets splitting and to aid the cutting it is necessary to drill a hole at the ends of each grow pocket so I went ahead and drilled a hole on every mark along the line I had just marked out.



The saw I used to cut the top off the barrel was perfect for cutting the slits for the grow pockets



I measured down 150mm and repeated the operation making sure the next lot of pockets were offset so they were not directly below the ones above, I repeated this another 3 times to make a total of 5 levels of 10 pockets.



Now the fun part. Forming the grow pockets. Normally people heat the plastic until it is pliable with an electric heat gun used for stripping paint but as I don’t have electricity at the allotment I decided to use a butane blowtorch. Another way I have deviated from the norm id I am going to use a beer bottle to form the pockets instead of a piece of 2×4 wood. I think the pockets formed with the 2×4 look a bit square and ugly. I wanted rounder pockets plus I thought a cold bottle would cool the plastic quicker and so speed up the process a little. I had no idea if any of this was going to work but it would be fun finding out.
I have only had time to do 5 pockets so far but it proves that the method works and the glass bottle dissipates the heat quickly enough that you only need one bottle.



In the next part we will complete the grow pockets and build the compost/wormery tube.

paul

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sunshineband

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Re: 55 Vegetables in 4 square feet? Part1
« Reply #10 on: October 15, 2014, 14:41 »
This looks great!! I can get a barrel and will be letting Mr Sunny play with it when he has nothing to do in the winter  :D :D


The pictures are especially helpful, thank you.

Oh, and I reckon Mr Sunny will be able to find a beer bottle so we shall be OK there too  :nowink:
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Fairy Plotmother

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Re: 55 Vegetables in 4 square feet? Part1
« Reply #11 on: October 15, 2014, 14:49 »
WOW!  :D How clever, the Plotfather will be delighted to make 1 (or some) of these. I reckon the strawberries would do really well in this planter.  :)

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tinyallotment

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Re: 55 Vegetables in 4 square feet? Part1
« Reply #12 on: October 15, 2014, 15:45 »
I am hoping to finish this project this weekend if I can get hold of a piece of tube for composter

paul

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Asherweef

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Re: 55 Vegetables in 4 square feet? Part1
« Reply #13 on: October 15, 2014, 19:18 »
Fab idea

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Baldy

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Re: 55 Vegetables in 4 square feet? Part1
« Reply #14 on: October 16, 2014, 23:43 »
Wowsers
... Think I might have a go at this too. Looking forward to the next episode!

Cheers,
Balders



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