I'm turning my room's bathtub into a small garden (don't worry, the apartment I live in has a second bathroom), and I was wondering if it would be a good idea to mix spices into the soil, such as turmeric powder, sage powder, and cinnamon, to keep it anti fungal as well as antibacterial. is it? or could it hurt or even kill any of the plants in it? if it helps, I'm thinking of planting leeks, dandelions, and teft grain to start.
Cinnamon won't hurt them, and neither will turmeric, but be moderate in your amounts. I wouldn't reccomend sage, but that's through personal experience - it killed some medicinal flowers I was growing. Other than that, go to! Although, since it's a bathtub and has only one little hole for drainage, you should make sure your soils are pretty loose to prevent compaction. The dandilions won't care if the soil compacts, but the grain will, and it will impact the deepness of the white portion of your leeks.
Post some photos when you get it going. Interesting! Yeah, and put one of those screen thingeys in the drain hole...too much dirt down the pipes will play havoc with the plumbing, as well as your security deposit. And how about light?
sorry to dissapoint, but my dad just told me that it's not going to happen :( . Maybe when I (hopefully) get an apartment in the future, I could buy a bathtub and use it for my idea, but thanks for the info!
Or you may get an old tub in the garbage and use it in the back yard, unless your father get concerned, because when you use things like that in you gardening you better have a very clean beutiful garden, because if you dont just is going to look like a dump, I am glad you did not use your bathtub for gardening, is very hard to keep the bathtub clean, did you ever help your parents to keep the bathtub clean? is one of those shores that I hate, I clean my on daily basis. Godspeed...
actually I live in the city, so I don't have lawn. However, my country house has one, but my parents would probably never let me put a bathtub there. oh well...
Maybe if you put it somewhere and sourround it with old wood (box planter) I have a tub in a rockery that is behind the front wall and I have laid old worn fence wood on the edges to hide the black polythene liner and bath edge. Liz
Dont look down look up, the roof, when I was a kid I kept a lot of plants in the roof and some birds, and a couple of hens, until one of my neigbors complained about the hens, but I kept plants for a long time, up there, our Land Lord didnt care, and he gave me a key for the roof, eventually I was the only one with the key, when I grew up I took the plants with me, I didnt have any pet then. The only problem I had, and this was not really a problem, I had one of my neighbors Vito a very friendly Italian guy, he loved to go up there and take the sun, he wanted his privacy, so whenever I was going up to water my plants I had to call him, to see if he was up there or not. Just suggestions, tell your parents to allow you to do a garden in "the Other House" these are skill we all have to develop. Read The Gardener by Sarah Stewart, you are going to love it, the message of that book is about when you are a real gardener doesnt matter what you do or where you are you are going to do things better and more beutiful, I treasure that book.
I would love to make a planter out of a tub, especially an old fashioned claw foot tub! It would make a great watergarden with a cork in the drain. It could look very nice, if tastefully done and edged. A newer style tub would need an cover around it. You could do that with bricks or tile over wood, anything natural to cover the sides and give it a built-in look. You can also paint it black or very dark green so the edge wouldn't show. I am considering doing that with fieldstone but its a big job and is pretty far down my list of projects. I already have the tub but I have several acres and a raw material storage area at the back out of sight.
