Urban gardening question: Would this work?

[Anonymous]

Saw this dumpster hider today, http://www.popville.com/2013/03/concealing-tables-dumpsters/
and got to thinking: Could I make a vertical milk-crate garden at home, on my back porch? I could line the crates with hardware cloth, fill them with my own compost (which I currently donate to the school, having no garden on which to put it myself), and put the plants in through the holes in the side. What kind of plants, either edible or decorative, would be happy growing out of the side of a milk crate, I wonder? How fast would the crates dry out? Or would it be the opposite problem: too wet, leading to mold? Would it be stable?

Thoughts, brainstorms, dire warnings? Dare I say... encouragement??

[Anonymous]

(All the google results for milk crate planter are using the crate in its intended orientation, not vertically. Does this mean it's not do-able, if no one on the internet did it?)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:(All the google results for milk crate planter are using the crate in its intended orientation, not vertically. Does this mean it's not do-able, if no one on the internet did it?)

I feel like in our summer climate it would just dry out so fast and be a big pain. That's sort of how I feel about raised beds in our area too. Go with traditional boxes and planters imo.

[Anonymous]

Watering would be an issue. I would consider Sedums:
http://www.latimes.com/la-hm-sedum2a,0,7772782.story

Example of them vertically:
http://www.bhg.com/gardening/container/plans-ideas/make-a-living-succulent-picture/

[Anonymous]

Looks awesome, you should definitely try this! Growing something like zucchini would be really fun from stacked milk crates.

[Anonymous]

In my experience, any type of container gardening requires watering daily during most summer days and twice daily during heat waves. I think you would have to reinforce the milk crates if you were going to stack them several tall. You could also have a shorter, more traditional planter with a trellis attached to it with vines.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In my experience, any type of container gardening requires watering daily during most summer days and twice daily during heat waves. I think you would have to reinforce the milk crates if you were going to stack them several tall. You could also have a shorter, more traditional planter with a trellis attached to it with vines.

Really? Aren't they designed to be filled with something heavy (milk) and stacked? I guess I'd have to see the crates...

[Anonymous]

I'd try it with one milk crate and see how it goes...

I'm wondering if instead of hardware cloth you couldn't use your compost and sphagnum moss? I'm also wondering about a vine, like clematis (if you have a sunny space), potato vine, or something that crawls around the side, to help retain soil, moisture, etc.

GL! post a picture. i'd love to see it.

[Anonymous]

How about tomatos? Don't people hand those upside down some times? You might want to put a hole in the middle of each big enought to put a pvc pipe down then you could drill holes in the pipe and have an easy way of watering from the inside of the stack.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How about tomatos? Don't people hand those upside down some times? You might want to put a hole in the middle of each big enought to put a pvc pipe down then you could drill holes in the pipe and have an easy way of watering from the inside of the stack.

That's also a *very* water-intensive way of growing tomatoes.

[Anonymous]

Why don't you find some planters designed for decks or patios? You could grow herbs and probably the smaller varieties of tomatoes. I've done herbs and cherry, grape and roma tomatoes for years. Tomatoes do better in a real garden, but they can work in a planter.

milk crates shouldn't need to be reinforced - I used them to move and store textbooks for years and they were fine. Textbooks are heavier than dirt, I think.

[Anonymous]

Just use smart pots and put them into crates if you like the look of crates

[Anonymous]

PP here: http://www.smartpots.com/

Ive been using smart pots for my garden for a couple of years and swear by them. Best part? Theyre machine washable and foldable so theyre easy storing for winter time.

[Anonymous]

Thanks all! I love the idea of the perforated pipe down the inside. I can see that making watering simpler and more efficient than just hosing down the whole structure. Also, that's a great idea to grow decorative vines on one side. I'd do veggies on the other, and that way use/ insulate all sides of the stack.

The reason I'm talking about crates and stacking is that in the spot I want to use, I don't have the footprint to do planters and pots. I want to do a vertical garden. Like in the picture.

[Anonymous]

My concern for reinforcement would be if the OP has an arrangement like that in the photo with a single layer of milk crates stacked 8-10 crates high in an area where people might bump up against them (it's not up against a wall). You don't want to knock something like that over. I would also worry if we had very high winds coming. Obviously, a shorter stack would be more stable on its own.