Water Trough Planters

Water Trough Planters are a great rustic option for raised flower beds or container garden. The sky is the limit on planting options – flowers, vegetables, herbs or whatever your heart desires.

I don’t know about where you are, but we have reached that time of year where we can plant annual flowers and don’t have to worry about them freezing. So my mom and I headed to my favorite flower store. I plunked down a pretty penny for some flowers. Maybe next year I need to start them from seed. Those puppies weren’t cheap.

We have a large patio at the back of our house and I wanted to have flower beds just off the patio, but everybody seemed to walk right on my plants. So I had to do something different than planting right in the ground. So last year I bought water troughs to use as planters. They are 4 foot long, 2 foot wide and 3 foot high.

I have learned from doing something similar in the past that if you fill the entire thing with soil, it is very heavy! And if you are buying the soil to fill it, it can get expensive. To prevent both these things, I filled the water troughs 1/2 – 2/3 with aluminum cans. Then I poured the dirt over the top. Each year you may need to add a little soil as the it filters down through the cans.

 

After filling the trough with soil, the sky’s the limit on planting. I would like to plant some herbs in them along with the flowers, and maybe plant some lettuce as well. Our patio area gets shade in the morning and late sun. So I can’t have flowers that need shade.  You just need to find what works for your home and how much shade & sun you get.

I planted geraniums, verbena, bacopa, and dahlias. In the hanging pots, I planted petunias. My mom loves flowers, and I’m just now getting into planting flowers. I usually am a vegetable and fruit kind of girl. So my mom was a lot of help in choosing the flowers I planted.

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