Potential trough - just an idea

Submitted by Mark McD on

Not sure why I hadn't thought about this before. While looking to clean up old debris and discarded household paraphernalia behind my garden shed, I'm reminded that I must get rid of an old metal file cabinet. I have tried to dismantle the file cabinet, I even tried my trusty "Mr. Sledgehammer" on it, but it's built like a battleship, so it has sat behind the shed for 4-5 years outside, still as sturdy as ever. Suddenly I had an idea, what if the file cabinet was turned over, open side up, it could become the frame for a large trough!

So next spring, it will become a trough project. Drainage holes will be drilled through the back panel (back panel becomes the bottom), I'll mount narrow wood furring strips on the sides, then wrap heavy gauge wire mesh around the perimeter, and cover with hypertufa mix. The cabinet is large, and when filled, will be very heavy, so I'll have to make the trough "in place" in whatever destination I pick for it.

On the front side (presentable side) of my shed, I have several smaller troughs. Touring the yard on this sunny but cold day, I'm was reminded about troughs, studying the winterizing growth of trough inhabitants. It struck me just how relatively large and robust the single tiny rosette of Arabis koehleri had grown this year, now multiplied and rather plump (center lower edge of trough), with Townsendia rothrockii to the upper left setting its spring buds now, and a nondescript Erigeron on the left that came from NARGS seed as a Townsendia (not!). For comparison, a photo I already posted before, is the little sprig of Arabis blepharophylla Arabis koehleri flowering this past spring, April 2011. Cute, isn't it.

Comments

Submitted by Mark McD on Sun, 11/20/2011 - 17:49

Hoy wrote:

A special idea, Mark. Not unlike your wheelbarrow trough ;) How does it look like now btw?

Good color on the "semps" in spring, but the whole affair got weedy during summer, I tried to pull some weeds here and there, but many of the weeds are taprooted dandelions that seeded between the semp rosettes... I plan to extricate the perennial weeds in spring.  The area my wheelbarrow planting was also ignored, as was my main Allium garden... this year with this new & crazy job, I had so little time in the garden that parts of the garden became disastrously weedy. 

Submitted by penstemon on Mon, 11/21/2011 - 07:31

Quote:

So next spring, it will become a trough project.  Drainage holes will be drilled through the back panel (back panel becomes the bottom), I'll mount narrow wood furring strips on the sides, then wrap heavy gauge wire mesh around the perimeter, and cover with hypertufa mix.  The cabinet is large, and when filled, will be very heavy, so I'll have to make the trough "in place" in whatever destination I pick for it.

You could fit it with wheels.
The bottom two thirds could be filled with stryofoam peanuts, which the roots will grow into, thus making it easier to move.
And not cover it with anything, just leave it as is. A phylum cabinet.

Bob

Submitted by Mark McD on Mon, 11/21/2011 - 08:21

Nold wrote:

The bottom two thirds could be filled with stryofoam peanuts, which the roots will grow into, thus making it easier to move.
And not cover it with anything, just leave it as is. A phylum cabinet.

Bob

;D

Submitted by IMYoung on Tue, 11/22/2011 - 06:44

Nold wrote:

America's answer to the Fish Box. ....

Bob

Though not quite so portable!!  ;D But the recycling aspect is one we'd applaud! 

Cheers from the home of the fish box trough.....  ;)

Submitted by Mark McD on Wed, 11/23/2011 - 09:30

IMYoung wrote:

Nold wrote:

America's answer to the Fish Box. ....

Bob

Though not quite so portable!!  ;D But the recycling aspect is one we'd applaud! 

Cheers from the home of the fish box trough.....  ;)

Yes, I'm pleased to recycle the filing cabinet, hopefully into something that is both presentable looking as a finished project, and amenable to the plant inhabitants.  I'm thinking of drilling a few holes in the sides too, and sculpting depressions or holes in the outer hypertufa mix to correspond, to grow some small cushions.  As I do on some projects, I sketch up my plans; it is my intent to post the plans here, and nest year, follow along with the project.

Just googled hypertufa, and now with information so accessible and mainstream, here's a wikipedia link on hypertufa :)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypertufa

Submitted by Mark McD on Fri, 11/25/2011 - 12:19

Hmmm, I'm wondering what's the true identity of the plant I showed above as Arabis koehleri, the leaves of my plant don't look anything like the photos in this link, another misnomer.
http://www.calflora.org/cgi-bin/species_query.cgi?where-taxon=Boechera+k...

I take it that most Arabis in FNA are now Boechera.  
http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=1&taxon_id=104152

Update 04-23-2012: This Arabis grew much larger with many flowering stems; I believe it is Arabis blepharophylla... sigh.

Hi Mark, just a couple of comments on this post.  The images on the earlier part of the chain don't show up.  Maybe a broken link?  I came to this page trying to search for Boechera Koehleri which was the nominal name for a wonderful little plant that I got via the 2013 NARGS seed distribution.  Like you my plant doesn't look anything link the nominal namesake.  Instead it's a pretty little yellow flowered plant that is very hardy and flowers abundantly .  I'm still trying to puzzle out what it actually is since I don't see any listing for a yellow rock cress.

Hello John, welcome to NARGS Forum.  Regarding the missing images, when the previous NARGS Forum was migrated over to the current web-format NARGS Forum, images in the very first post of numerous topics were lost in the translation.  Regrettably it appears to be an unfixable item.  Your yellow "cress" looks like it might be an Erysimum.

Submitted by RickR on Mon, 02/17/2014 - 21:24

Nice to here from a fellow seed grower, John! 

I'm an addict, and proud of it.  I'd like to welcome you to the forum, also.

 

The occasional misidentification in seed exchanges is unfortunate, but I easily overlook it and revel in the huge assortment of choices not to be found anywhere else in commerce.  Sometimes you get something even better!