Trough Gardening
By Stan Barrett, Colorado State University Cooperative Extension Master Gardener, Denver County
If you thought there were no new gardening ideas under the sun, you likely haven't been introduced to trough gardening.
Trough gardening is an old English custom of recycling the watering and feeding troughs of farm animals into beautiful container gardens (figure A). This gardening technique dates back to when farmers used stone basins to feed their animals.
Trough gardens are a great way to grow small drought-tolerant perennials, succulents, and alpine plants. Here are some of the best.
By Denny Schrock
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Make a Hypertufa Trough
Reprint of an excellent article from Fine Gardening Magainze with a pictorial step-by-step and design suggestions for creating hypertufa troughs.
Troughs
Trough gardens aren't all that unusual, but how about making your own? Give homemade samples an artistic edge by using uncommonly shaped plastic containers as the initial mold.
Trough it Out
Concrete troughs are made to withstand all weather and provide unique plants a wonderful place to grow. Learn how to make your own for a rock-solid container garden.
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An ancient stone trough, with a lion-shaped spout, turns a rustic garden wall into an unusual water feature. Box, erigeron and bamboo edge the area, giving it a magical appearance.
Box
Erigeron
Bamboo ...
Choose a real stone trough or a realistic-looking plastic replica. Put the trough where it's to stand permanently and cover the drainage holes at the bottom of the trough with a layer made up of broken terracotta pots.
The same applies to troughs and patio planters. Good drainage is essential. Much of
what applies to window boxes will also hold true for these. Containers of any kind
must be able to hold sufficient volume of compost to accommodate plant growth ...
They are best grown in troughs or rockeries where their needs can be catered to and the beautiful display they create can be fully appreciated.
After all, most bulbs & perennials enjoy a popularity cycle which peaks & troughs over a period of 3 - 10 years. However, Nerines were still enjoying the high & steady level of popularity that they had been experiencing for many, many decades.
Create your water distribution hose by drilling several small holes in a piece of irrigation tubing cut to fit the bottom of the trough. Connect one end of the tube to one of the fittings on the inside of the trough.
Planting a Sempervivum Trough
Sempervivums or Hens and Chicks as they are commonly called, are an incredibly hardy, and drought tolerant succulent that can take a fair amount of abuse, yet when I was starting out on my roof, ...
It may be placed in shallow pans or troughs, near the bees, and they will gather about it in great numbers. Large apiaries have often consumed a hundred pounds of this meal in a single day. Wheat meal is taken by them, but rye is preferred.
Even if you choose to discard the plants in fall, your tufa trough will last longer if you bring it inside and store it in your garage or basement when temperatures drop below freezing.
It's kept damp by a gravity-fed system wherein water flows from the eavestrough to an underground pipe and into a French drain (a gravel-filled ditch) leading to the bog, which is filled with an assortment of moisture-loving specimens.
Whiskey barrels, troughs, birdbaths, lotus bowls, your college ceramic project, basins, wooden boxes... almost anything goes! When choosing a container, keep in mind what you want to put in it.
I am growing my parsley in a trough with some other herbs out in my garden, it appears to be doing ok, however just one thing I need to ask, ...
The nutrient film technique (fig.1 shown below), uses a plastic trough or tube as the container through which a constant, thin film of nutrient solution flows. Plants are suspended through holes in the top of the trough.
On the other hand, the structure on which the containers are placed must be able to support them (so a large concrete trough would be less than ideal for a balcony or wooden porch, ...
In shallow trays like cafeteria trays, make a trough around the edge and mound the soil slightly in the center. This keeps the water in the trays and prevents overflow accidents.
The mold being used for this trough is a standard plastic dishpan, however almost any plastic or wood container can be used. In order to keep the hypertufa from sticking to the mold, line the inside of the dishpan with plastic.
Aqueducts-Water pipes, channels, or troughs that carry water, usually by gravity. Sometimes cut through rock and out of view, the most famous aqueducts were built of rock by the ancient Romans and towered above the landscape.
A galvanized metal horse trough purchased at a feed store filled with water and a submerged pump with a continuous spray fountainhead does the job nicely. This can be incorporated into the garden and hidden by shrubs or placed on a patio.
American pennyroyal can be grown indoors in troughs or outside in the kitchen garden. Pinch the terminal ends of the herb to stimulate bushiness and a more compact growing shape. Grow pennyroyal as a ground cover in sunny areas with junky soil.
Eager to outgrow his friend, he bought five container-gardening kits; each $65 "self-watering" tub has a recessed trough that lets plant roots drink from a reservoir filled from below.
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For the cook who doesn't have a garden, herbs can be successfully grown in window boxes, troughs, shallow tubs, hanging baskets, bowls or pots.
Do it with a house-hose, an eaves trough bucket or overflow from the swimming pool (pool chlorine doesn't hurt garden plants) but do water your plants.
At that point the garden's structure was essentially complete, though this past year -- their eleventh season -- they added a raised pool built around a galvanized water trough from a farm supplier. Each time the garden grew, Tom built more fence.
Start out with a clean system by properly disinfecting trays, rafts, beds and troughs. Effective chemical disinfectants include strong solutions of chlorine bleach or commercial grade hydrogen peroxide based-products.
Any waterproof container that holds at least four gallons of water makes an excellent water garden. Some possible containers include a galvanized horse trough; a large, glazed pottery crock; an old claw-foot bathtub; or a whiskey barrel.
Gardening Advice Tip: Uneven watering can cause blossom-end rot. Do not water with sprinklers or from above. Instead, use irrigation hoses or dig troughs among the plants for irrigation.
As well as the plants listed here as suitable for general container gardening, a number of rock garden, or alpine, plants are suitable for troughs.
Keep plants in a warm room, around 18°C (65°F), but keep the humidity around the plants as high as possible by grouping them together to create a humid microclimate. Spray the plants with tepid water or place pots in troughs filled with pea gravel or ...
Sandstone Handicrafts - Manufacturers and suppliers of stone bird baths, bird feeders, stone balls, garden planters, garden troughs, garden vases, garden furniture, garden benches, garden chairs, fountains, statues and fireplaces.
HYPERTURFA - Lately this has become very popular. A replica lightweight rock material created by equal amounts of dry cement, sand, perlite, peat moss, and water. This is made into troughs, planters, and rock all in the manner of looking old.
Asparagus roots need a lot of room, so you need containers 20 inches deep and 20 inches wide. There are plastic containers this large, wooden half barrels, old bathtubs, horse troughs... just be sure there is good drainage.
You can even try and use an antique bathtub or troughs as long as you're able to drain them properly and they're long enough and the proper size configuration to accommodate the plants you're planning on growing.
around (1) calf hutches, especially inside corners; (2) silo leak and spill areas; (3) animal stalls and pens, feed preparation, storage and manger areas, near water sources; (4) calf, hospital, and maternity areas; (5) water tanks; (6) feed troughs; ...
Do not use ceramic or other earthen fountains. This is a common mistake. The Earth element blocks water and neutralizes the positive effect of the Water. A metal trough, a fountain, or even a fish pond can act as an environmental solution.
The nutrient film technique (NFT). In an NFT system, plants are suspended above a trough that was nutrient solution flowing through it. The roots of the plants dangle down into the nutrient stream and are fed constantly.
 See also: Plant, Water, Planting, Container, Growing
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