Home gardening tips: How to grow flowers and vegetables in bucket planters

06/15/2022 / By Zoey Sky

If space is an issue and you want to start a home garden, try container gardening — specifically, bucket planter gardening.

With the right tools and best practices, you can grow healthy flowers and vegetables in bucket planters. (h/t to OldWorldGardenFarms.com)

Benefits of bucket planter gardening

With affordable five-gallon buckets and attractive, easy-to make raised holding boxes, you can grow different plants in your home.

With bucket planters, planting, maintaining and harvesting crops are easier. This method also eliminates weeding chores. Watering is also easier because the planters are at a raised working height.

Bucket planters can be easily moved and if you want to, you can also decorate them to match the theme in your yard or homestead.

Bucket planter gardening is an extension of a raised bed garden, but with more time and cost-saving advantages.

Raised beds are a great way to grow almost anything anywhere. Raised beds have four-walled sides and good soil so they are perfect for placing in tight spaces to grow greens, vegetables and flowers.

If the soil is deep enough, you can also place raised beds on patios or concrete to attain better-growing results.

Raised bed limitations

Since raised beds are off of the ground, they are also easier to maintain than a traditional garden. The confined space keeps weeds to a minimum and allows you to stay out of and off the soil.

However, raised beds also have a few limitations;

They require a lot of soil to fill, particularly if a raised bed has large, deep sides.
Filling raised beds with soil can be expensive.
You need to regularly “re-energize” the soil to grow healthy plants yearly.
Raised beds can be too heavy for wood decks or patios.

Bucket planter gardening basics

With a bit of practice and some creativity, you can build and decorate beautiful DIY bucket planter boxes for your home garden.

Five-gallon buckets are the perfect, low-cost container for growing various plants and they are deep enough for the roots of small or large plants.

You can even get some buckets for free if you know where to look. Once you get your buckets, just drill a few holes in the bottom and they’re ready to use.

To dress up the look for your patio or backyard, you can build an attractive wood cover box to hide the buckets. You will need 2x4s to create covers for two or four five-gallon buckets. (Related: Home gardening tips: 17 Veggies you can grow in buckets.)

At a higher working height, the buckets will be easier to plant and maintain. A bucket planter garden is also perfect for home gardeners dealing with mobility issues.

Here are some of the best plants to grow in bucket planters:

Beans
Beets
Carrots
Cherry tomatoes
Cucumbers
Garlic
Ginger
Kale
Lettuce
Okra
Onion
Peas
Peppers
Potatoes
Radishes
Spinach
Swiss chard
Tomatoes
Turmeric

When building a planter, make sure it sits at 30 inches off of the ground. At this height, it will be easier to plant, water or pick your harvest.

The box frame can also be attached to a trellis or two for climbing plants.

As the planters’ higher working height makes them easier to work with, the five-gallon buckets are easier to fill and maintain. During the end of the growing season, empty the soil in the buckets and place it into the compost bin to recharge for next year.

If you want to start a home garden but you’re worried about space in your homestead or home garden, try bucket planter gardening to make the most of the space available to you.

Watch the video below to learn how to make plant covers to protect your bucket planter garden crops.

This video is from the Winston Churchill – Vitamin D channel on Brighteon.com.