Picking our Garden Site.
In Waterloo we started out with a garden in rich black soil. Things grew great in the fertile ground like weeds and the weeds flourished ,too.
As we got older my husband built a raised bed and put a solid board three foot high fence around three sides of the garden. The fourth side was a six foot dog eared cedar privacy fence. The one thing I didn’t like about the raised bed was digging potatoes had been easier when planted in the ground.
We moved to a house on one level with a basement. We loved the house but it was on a hill. After my amputations I thought I wouldn’t be going up and down the hill. I would be content on the flat patio. That was all I was doing at the time. We decided a bucket garden would be the way to go. The back yard faced west but there are lots of shade trees. The realtor had described the yard as “Park Like”. The bucket garden allowed us to change locations so that are garden could be in the sun. Our soil was clay and buckets also allowed us to buy bags of top soil and potting mix.
Preparing the Buckets for Planting
Gathering food grade buckets: We located a soda pop company that sold buckets fairly reasonable. We washed the buckets out well and Bill drilled drainage holes in the bottoms of the buckets in a matrix design. Five holes did the trick. We filled them with potting soil and planted our seed and plants. We picked a sunny spot next to the back of the house, but out away from the shade made by the overhang of the eve. The site wasn’t too convenient for me so we tried putting the five gallon soda syrup buckets and four gallon frosting buckets from Walmart up on milk crates. We had a few of the milk crates and they worked great! We were able to pick up more off of Craig’s List. It didn’t take long before I didn’t like all the buckets off our patio, so I moved the buckets using my Rollator and I went up the hill and found a fairly flat area behind the Blue Spruce tree.
Garden Move number Two.The Blue Spruce was a large tree and hid the garden perfectly! The buckets and crates were at an ideal height when I sat on my Rollator. But when I started tending to the garden I would have to push my Rollator up the hill. I would sit down on the Rollator and it wanted to roll down the hill. I had already learned the hard way not to sit with the Rollator so my left or right side faced down hill. (It tipped over with me in it!) I sometimes learn things the hard way! Pushing myself up hill was a lot of work and then I had to be careful getting back down that I didn’t roll down the hill. I had to angle down the hill in the least hilly areas. I soon knew that wasn’t going to work.
This is our Milk Jug Garden in April, 2025. I usually start filling my jugs with potting soil in October when the weather is nice in the fall. But this year I got my jugs out and took my scoop and dumped the soil in and the milk jugs shattered into pieces! After 3-4 years in the weather the Milk Jugs had deteriated! We had not saved but a few cartons so we scrambled to save some jugs. Bill drilled drainage holes in a matrix pattern. If the bottom of the jug were a square that would be one hole per corner and one in the center. We use a quarter inch drill bit. The jugs are cut just below the handle. This leaves about 3 inches for soil in the jug. You leave the handle hinged by cutting from one side of the handle to the other. Discard or recycle the plastic lids to allow Mother Nature to take care of your seedlings when it rains , sleet or snow. If they should look dry you can help Mother Nature with a fine spray of water. We use Duct Tape to tape the top half to the bottom half until the weather warms and we need to ventilate the jugs. We sit our jugs in old plastic Milk Crates. This prevents the wind or animals from toppling the jugs over. We then sit the crates in a sunny location. You may need to move them out of direct sun later. We have our Jugs and Crates up on a patio table
I use a Permanent Paint Pen to number and write on my jugs. I also keep a Numer and List of what is planted in each Jug in case it fades over the winter. I start my seeds in Zone 5B on December 19th or around the Winter Soltise. As you can see the seedlings are coming up. Condensation inside the jugs helps to water the plants. If you started getting warm weather you need to open the lids and ventilate the seedlings so they don’t cook in their little green houses. As soon as they are large enough to handle and the weather has settled you can plant them in your buckets or other containers. This is around Mother’s Day or May 10th for us. If your weather man predicts frost, be prepared to cover your plants. These seedlings are very hardy because they have acclimated to harsh conditions. Which reminds me I have been so busy getting my blog going I haven’t checked if I need to be busy transplanting!
Garden Seed Inventory for 2025
This is a list of my seeds and how I plant them. If you see a zero, it means I am out of that variety and need to purchase those seeds. These are my favorite seeds!
Botanical Interests
Beans Bush Contender
Beans Bush Blue Lake 274 HEIRLOOM
Bean Bush Royal Burgundy
Bush Beab Provider-0
Black Seeded Simpson Lettuce (WINTER SOW)
Peas Sugar Daddy-0 Waltham Butternut
Columbine Rocky Moutain Blue Aquilegia coerulea
Squash Early Prolific Straightneck 1 Seed (WINTER SOW)
Lettuce Paris Island Cos (WINTER SOW)
Spinach Bloomsdale(WINTER SOW)
Eggplant Long Purple(WINTER SOW)
Plant Early Outside:
Lettuce Romaine Rouge d’HiverLactuca sativa-0
Lettuce Red Sails-0
Peas Oregon Sugar PodII-0
Radish French Breakfast
Carrot Little Finger
Carrot Danvers 126
Hometown Seeds Lettuce Red Sails (WINTER SOW)
Burpee
Naturtium Jewel Mixed Colors (WINTER SOW)
Cucumber Spacenaster 0
Cucumber Straight Eight 0
Cucumber Lemon (WINTER SOW)
Bachelor Buttons Tall Double Mixed Colors 0. Flower Garden by Bell((WINTER SOW)
Coleus Rainbow Mixed Color 0
Pumpkin Small Sugar 1 seed (WINTER SOW)
Onion Evergreen Long White Bunching 2012 old Seed (WINTER SOW)
Cantalope Vine Peach (WINTER SOW)
Lavender (WINTER SOW)
Coreopsis Early Sunrise Flower Garden by Bell-0
Ornamental Grass-0
Onion Golden Grande(WINTER SOW)
BURGESS Seed & Plant
Black Zucchini 0
Summer Squas Early Prolific Straightneck-0
Kohlrabi Early White Vienna
Annie’s Heirloom Seeds
Cherokee Purple Tomato (WINTER SOW)
Black Krim Tomato(WINTER SOW)
Black Beauty Zucchini 0
Howdin Pumpkin(WINTER SOW)
Spaghetti Squash(WINTER SOW)
Sugar Baby Watermelon (WINTER SOW)
Husk Tomato Ground Cherry-0
Tomato San Marzano(WINTER SOW)
Moon And Stars Watermelon (WINTER SOW)
Minnesota Midget Melon (WINTER SOW)
Basil, Genovesa 2 Seeds (WINTER SOW)
Okra Clemson Spineless -0
David’s Seeds Victoria Rhubarb-0
OLD SEED Mustard/Collards Vates
SAVED SEED Clematis Red Violet (WINTER SOW)
Marigold Looks Small(WINTER SOW)
Red/Orange Short Sparky(WINTER SOW)
Sparky(WINTER SOW)
Valley Greene
Candytuft (WINTER SOW)_
Cosmos Early Sensation (WINTER SOW)
Table Queen Squash (WINTER SOW)
Forget Me Not Cynoglossum Blue Flower Garden by Bell 0
Saved Seed
Squash (WINTER SOW)
Buttercrunch Lettuce 0
Tomato Cherry (WINTER SOW)
Spinach Sensation Hybrid
Lettuce Paris Island Cos (WINTER SOW)
Garden move number three. I managed to move the four gallon buckets and crates down the hill. Bill had to move the five gallon buckets. After the rain had watered the buckets they were too heavy for me to move. There was an area off the patio where we had added a concrete extension to the patio and put in a sidewalk. The sidewalk extended around the side of the house so I had access to the front and back yards on my wheels! We had a strawberry patch here under a burning bush that was more like a tree than a bush! Bill did some pruning to the bush to let more sunlight in. We thought of taking the bush out but liked the beautiful bush in the fall when the leaves turn a brilliant red. It also had blossoms in the Spring. It also provided privacy from the neighbors deck. We avoided sitting buckets and crates on the strawberry plants. We saw a sale on half whisky kegs and thought it would be good for larger tomato plants. We bought three planters the first year and have bought more each year they are on sale again. We now have nine containers. We have lined them up along the cedar privacy fence on the north end of the garden and I am working my way up the hill as the sun reaches along the fence line. (But don’t tell Bill. He wants us to cut back on the garden size.) So far this is working out well. I do have to avoid sprinkler heads and avoid blocking the sprinklers from doing their job of watering the yard and garden. We do have another problem and I will tell you all about it later. It’s those cute little bushy tail critters. That’s a long story in itself!