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Re: Preventing bottoms of planters from rotting

Square Foot Gardening List - http://www.flinet.com/~gallus/sqft.html

On 11:23 AM 3/24/99 -0500, Elizabeth Snively wrote:
>Square Foot Gardening List - http://www.flinet.com/~gallus/sqft.html
>
>Hi all,
>
>This year I am adding some redwood half-barrel style planters to my square
foot 
>garden. These are for perennial herbs and flowers.
>
>I plan to set the planters directly on the dirt, and I'm afraid the bottoms 
>might rot out quickly if I don't protect them. I don't have any flat
stones on 
>hand at the moment, but I have a large piece of scrap plywood that I could
cut 
>to shape with my scroll saw.
>
>Any thoughts on whether this will work? I'm in zone 7B, where it's hot and 
>humid in the summers. The dirt here is orange clay, which holds moisture, so 
>rotting is definitely a concern.

You need to protect the planter from moisture from BOTH sides (bottom and
inside).  I don't think your plywood scraps are going to help any, I'd get
some 2x4 (or 4x4) scraps and set the planter on 2 2x4s to raise it up off
the ground to help with the moisture on the bottom problem.  For the
inside, you can use the non-decomposing type (put them in a bucket and fill
with water and let sit for a while, the decomposing type will turn to mush
and the non-decomposing type will be unaffected) of styrofoam peanut as a
light weight air gap at the bottom of your planter (spread about 2 inches
of peanuts before putting in your potting soil) or you can use the old
standard pottery shards or rocks but they make relocating the barrel a real
challenge because of the additional weight.

HTH

jc


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