Old bathtubs have so many uses in the garden! And they're even better if you can put them on a stand. Fortunately my lovely, handy husband has made me two bathtub stands now - the first which is set up as a wormfarm, and then more recently, this one for my strawberries. I wanted a new bed of strawberries close to the house for easy picking - and because I've noticed that birds are less likely to bother them right in front of the house where people (and cats) are frequently visible. I do want another, bigger planting elsewhere, but with my garden in serious need of work, and some potted strawberries in need of planting out, this was a perfect project to get things under way.
After my husband built the stand/frame to my specifications - so the bath would be at waist height, no bar across the front (lawn edge), shelf around the edge (explanation below) - we leveled the ground underneath, and laid black plastic down. The base of each leg is sitting on a thick brick tile, to keep it out of any accumulated water. The edges of the plastic are folded up on three sides and secured behind boards used to create an edging that can be weed-eatered up to. On the side edging the concrete deck, it is folded up somewhat less, which means that water can only accumuate in it up to a certain point before seeping out onto the grass. Underneath, a lack shallow tub (formerly the base of an animal cage on a stand, but it's broken edge means it no longer works for that) was placed. I drilled holes along one end, a couple of inches up from the bottom. This is specifically so it would hold water in it's base, but not completely fill up. It was positioned near the drain hole of the bath above, but couldn't be put quite in position because of the tiles under the feet of the stand, so I attached a cut-down icecream container to act as a ramp to direct dripping water. I used a bag of stones to line the bottom of the tub, then filled it with compost, and planted some English mint in it - they love damp, shady areas, and cope well with wet feet - I had it growing in pots last year but it never did very well as I wasn't good at keeping them moist. Contained in the tub like this, it can't escape and take over the garden either. And as it grows out the sides a bit, it will smell wonderful when I brush against it. Later, stones were added to cover the rest of the plastic, and a pot of impatiens was placed in the end, where it's base can soak up excess water that has flowed there. |
As for the bathtub itself, I first placed a broken brick over the drainhole, to keep stones out of it, then filled the bottom of the bath with a layer of stones, for drainage, covered the stones with a double layer of shadecloth (to keep soil out of the stones), covered that with a layer of home-made compost, then a layer of sheep's wool/dags from our sheep, then more compost, a sprinkling of rock dust and plant food, and topped it with some strawberry potting mix followed by plant matter I'd put through our garden shredder (mostly grapevine prunings).
I then planted the bathtub with two varieties of strawberries, and a chive plant in the middle. When I grew chives in the middle of my strawberry patch a couple of years ago, I have the best strawberries ever! Plus it's handy having this much-used herb close to the kitchen. I added hoops of 10mm steel rebar to hold up bird netting. My husband put in screws around the sides of the wooden shelf, so the netting is easily hooked over them. And that shelf around the edge? It serves two purposes - one, it holds the netting out from the edge of the tub, keeping birds off any dangling berries. And second, it's the perfect place to line up small pots of potting mix, and peg down runners that I want to grow roots, so they can later be separated from the mother plants and planted out. |
And now, the berries have been producing nicely, the mint is looking lush, and the whole thing is working very well! :-).