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Has anyone had experience with Horse Trough Gardening? Our neighbor has seven of the things set up and loves them,....BUT they are so pricey to get started.

This last weekend we bought our first one (if this works well we are hoping to build up to having ten eventually---we're not getting any younger!) this past weekend, and the trough alone was $116.00. Now we need P.V.C., aluminum flashing, and the soil mix to put in the thing!

Big investment---I guess we really love eating fresh veggies!

Er. No. What is it exactly? Gardening in a horse trough, I imagine, but what are the advantages? $116 sounds like quite an investment.

I'm guessing it's for growing at a height so you don't have to bend, yes? But I agree with Jon -

I don't know what timber costs round your way but what about making raised beds instead? With some 2x2s and 4x2s you can make raised beds a couple of feet high, where you have your veg patch and use your current growing medium straight into it, with added compost etc to raise the level.

I be willing to bet that you could get the timber for 10 of these for not much more than the price of one or two horse troughs.

Google is your friend, as they say.

https://www.google.com/search?q=horse+t ... 80&bih=861

It's growing veg in galvanised water troughs.

There appears to be man trying to drown a child in one of those photos!

Yup, I still think raised beds 3-4 planks high would do the trick and you wouldn't have to drill holes in the bottom of a perfectly good bath.

Millymollymandy wrote:Google is your friend, as they say.

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I've not had time to think too hard about it, but I think I'd be worrying about zinc leaching into me toms. We need some in our diets, but there is a limit. Still, it looks pretty.

Green Aura wrote:There appears to be man trying to drown a child in one of those photos!

I wondered what was happening in that picture too. Doesn't look like the most comfortable of Baptisms.


I wouldn't be too worried about the zinc and I'm sure you can just get some paint to coat the drill holes, otherwise I would be worried about rust.

Main thing is going to be cost. Are there any farmers near you who might have some old ones they want rid of? Or Freecycle? Maybe a scrap yard that might have similar?

Big advantage is you can move them i suppose.
I can see this as an advantage in some circumstances.
Plastic may cheaper, or wood, an old chest with no lid? ( Or is Barbara Windsor in a convertable?)

Part of the advantage of them is the "false Floor", which leaves a resevoir at the bottom for water. The roots grow down to the resevoir, and you don't have to water as often, and when you do you stick the hose down into a pipe, so you are not disturbing the soil (not much erosion). You can also easily feed them manure "tea", or other liquid fertilizer this way.

Wood is terribly expensive here (although I look for that to change since no one is building houses much anymore), and what is available is terrible quality.

I think the other thing is they are supposed to last a good long time. Having spent two hours bent over picking green beans yesterday morning, I can tell you that the experimental trough will be holding green beans!

A friend of mine gets such things at farm auctions. I don't know if it's the same over there but in this country, loads of farmers are giving in and selling up. You might get a bargain there.

At Gardeners' World Live they had two tier wooden raise beds. The main bed up on legs for veggies and planted underneath with ferns and other shade lovers for wildlife.

What about a green wall instead? Could be a lot cheaper.

Zoe

Off to Google "green wall"....

Other search engines are available.

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