My Deck Trough Planters

Detroit Red and Crosby Egyptian beets in this trough

Live and Learn asked about my trough planters, so here's the deets.

I have 4 of these planters, all the same size and color. I bought them in 2009. They're made of a UV stable plastic that has held up very well. At the time I bought them, they were available in white and dark brown. I chose white. But in my mossy, messy climate, I sometimes wish I'd chosen the dark brown. I haven't yet cleaned the outside this year. While they look dingy right now, they'll clean up pretty well when I power wash the deck this next week.

Their dimensions are 16 inches high, 39 inches long, and 17 inches front to back.  I've successfully grown leafy greens as well as root crops, such as turnips, beets, and carrots. The height seems to be enough for these veggies. This year I have Swiss chard, beets, turnips, and a mixed trough of perennial herbs (rosemary, lavender, thyme).

With the vegetable-only troughs, every year in spring, I remove about 4 gallons of soil and replenish it with 4 gallons of compost/garden soil blend plus a handful of fertilizer appropriate for the particular plant. With the perennial herb trough, I only amend the soil in years that I'm replacing plants (which would be this spring). The herbs I grow in this trough tend to like well-drained soil and and can tolerate poor soil.

I initially bought these troughs for a combo of herbs and flowers to add color and life to the long, narrow deck. Then I discovered some veggies actually did better when up and off the ground, and could be planted sooner in the season, as our deck is on the south side of the house and catches heat better in spring than the garden.

My deck garden grown in troughs and pots is pitiful compared to one famous "secret" garden in Seattle. At Pike Place Market there's a patio garden that grows vegetables, herbs and flowers in troughs and pots, primarily serving a food bank located in the market. Most folks that visit the market never see this garden. You have to follow several corridors to find your way onto the patio. But when you come through the doorway, a colorful invitation into an urban garden masterpiece greets the viewer.

The garden uses a variety of planters, pots, and raised beds. I find their use of livestock watering troughs to be charming -- something so rural in a place so urban. Most of the vegetables are grown in these galvanized planters.

In spring, volunteers come together to plant seeds and tiny starts. They may look somewhat bare in early April. But by late May, the planters are overflowing with greens, herbs, peas, beans, the beginnings of some summer squash, cucumbers, and developing tomatoes. The garden is available to the public to visit. If you find yourself in downtown Seattle some day, ask the fish throwers, "which way to the urban garden?"