Gardening Ideas With 55 Gallon Metal Drum

If you're looking for 55 Gallon Drum projects, barrels can be a relatively quick and easy way to get a raised bed garden or garden planter going.

If you have the time, tools and skills to do the work, you can have a raised bed garden up and ready in a day. In this article you'll see raised bed gardens, earth boxes, rain barrels and aquaponics 55 gallon barrel drums projects.

If you happen to have old food grade storage drums around, this is an idea for you. If you don't, there are sources for new, recycled and refurbished drums.

Want a raised bed but not plastic? Check out garden raised garden beds and pyramid planters.

Editor's Note: If you're concerned about plastics, this may not be for you. Whenever we post something that involves plastics, we always get comments about how bad it is. So this is not for or against, however we do like the concept of upcycling and repurposing things whenever possible. You will need to research the facts on the good and bad and make your own determination. This is about how to if you want to.

Where to Get Used 55 Gallon Drums

Bob Mongiello, who created the videos we're sharing below, says he finds his 55-gallon drums on Craig's List for free.

For free or cheap drums, Google this term to see what comes up around you:

Search Term:
Where to find free 55 gallon drums?

You'll need to have your location detector switched on during this search so that your search engine of choice can serve up options close to you. Google will do that automatically if your locator is on, so there's no need to type in the "for me" option. E.g., "Free 55 gallon drums near me".

Often, you can find them for cheap on Craig's list, or check with restaurant suppliers and manufacturers of beverages. Pepsi used to give them away for free, then we heard they were selling them for $5.

So just the nearest food or beverage manufacturer near you and ask them. Please let us know what you discover and where you find yours.

Now, Back to 55 gallon drum projects!

For container gardening at a height that's easy on the back, this may be an idea for you. Here are step-by-step instructions for building a raised bed planter stand out of 55 gallon drums from Instructables.com. ^[1] https://www.instructables.com/id/Raised-Planter-Stand/?ALLSTEPS

55 Gallon Drum Projects

Raised Planter Stand

This is a solution I came up with for planting a garden above my septic system leach field.

I didn't want to plant directly on the field, or even create a raised bed, (septic lines should not be covered). I had access to 55-gallon juice drums and thought I would make use of 3 of them. The stand features the 3 drums cut in half lengthwise, supported by a series of assemblies connected by 2×4 stringers.

Next, to build the raised bed frame to hold the barrels.

Stand for raised garden using 55 gallon drums. Image from Instructables by RushRan

For detailed instructions on how to make this, visit this Instructables.com project by RushFan. ^[3] https://www.instructables.com/id/Raised-Planter-Stand/?ALLSTEPS ^[4] https://www.instructables.com/member/RushFan/

But first, we got some 'How-to' videos on building earthboxes and barrel aquaponics below.

Here's a video on how to halve and prep the barrels from Modern Homemakers.

Building a 55 Gallon Drum Earthbox

Now for a how-to video using those drums for some awesome earthboxes.

If you don't have the time or tools or ability to build your own, you can buy ready-made earth boxes from your local big home store.

Or if you prefer a done-for-you to jumpstart your project, there are nifty earthbox kits on Amazon, including cool and unique gift idea for kids in a junior size to get them going with gardening. We prefer to get the children in the garden with you, but if you don't yet have your own gardening space, this might be a great alternative.

It's even more fun if you can build it together.

Bob Mongiello, who created these next two videos, says he finds his 55 gallon drums on Craig's List for free.

Part 2 of How to Build a EarthBox using a 55 Gallon Drum

Bob Mongiello, who created these videos, says he finds his 55 gallon drums on Craig's List for free.

Bob loves this method of planting tomatoes. It's a virtual self-watering system, easy on weeding, keeps away dogs and (most) cats.

Once you get your raised bed barrel planter established, if you need to improve your soil, here's info on how to make organic compost and another on a homemade motorized soil sifter.

55 Gallon Barrel Drums for Aquaponics

With the "barrelponics" system 99% complete this video shows the guts of the system and how it works using fish waste water pumped onto the grow beds where it is turned into nitrates by a bacteria giving fertilizer to the plants. The plants clean the water which is returned to the fish. Great system!

See what you think… let us know. We love to hear from folks on what you're doing that's working and what you've tried.

Got drums? 55 Gallon drums or barrels can be great for raised bed gardens, earth boxes, rain barrels and aquaponics. If you happen to have old storage drums around, this is an idea for you. If you don't, there are sources for new, recycled and refurbished drums. GardensAll.com — Image source unknown. Please contact us if this is yours.

For a 55 Gallon Drum for Growing Potatoes, you can visit this article, and this on raised garden beds.

Let's keep on growing!

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