See all guides

Container Gardening

Create a garden in a small space

Done in 2 hours
Skill level easy

Even if you do not have a lot of space, if your soil is very hard or if all you have is a concrete stoep, you can still grow your own food. Planting in old tyres, buckets or boxes is called Container Gardening. The advantage is that you can move your garden around. It is also less likely that it will be damaged by animals or people walking over it. It furthermore helps to contain the soil, nutrients and water, which allows for better vegetable harvesting.

Published under CC:BY-SA by

Abalimi Bezekhaya

What you need

Use all the things you find around your house and grow vegetables in tyres, bathtubs, broken buckets, wooden boxes and the like.

How you make it

Prepare a suitable container

This can be a plastic bucket, old bath, drum, wooden boxes or even two old tyres stacked on top of each other.

Make holes in the bottom of your container for good drainage

Otherwise your soil will mold.

Place your container in a sunny spot and close to a water point

Put layers of newspaper, green waste and manure in your container or stacked tyres.

Make sure that the pieces of green waste are small.

Cover everything with soil or mature compost

Use more compost if you want to plant heavy feeders, like cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, kale, eggplant, green pepper, tomatoes, rhubarb and onions.

Plant your seeds or seedlings directly into the container and mulch around your seedling.

Water regularly

Done!

Share your feedback

More guides to try

What is dooiy?

Screenshot of dooiy web app on a mobile device

On dooiy you find fun and easy hacks that make life easier. Just follow our simple step-by-step guides and create something for your home or community with little materials and tools. Want to start a business? dooiy might be the perfect starting point for you.

Chris from dooiy

You don‘ t have to be an expert to start making with dooiy. Just choose an easy hack and get going. After you made a few, I am sure that you will come up with your own ideas.

Donate

Who we are

dooiy is being developed by Hack Your Shack, a young non-profit organisation from Germany with a passionate team in Berlin and South Africa.

To fulfil our vision, we are looking for partners, volunteers, donors and people who spread the word.

Learn moreand become a partner

  • The dooiy project is supported by
  • German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action
  • Impact Factory