Using Milk Crate Liner Smart Pots for Small Space Gardening

The grow-your-own food gardening trend is far from cancelled for would-be gardeners who don’t have a spot of soil in which to plant. All that’s needed is a container to grow in. And thanks to a range of products from Smart Pot, the fabric container alternative, hopeful gardeners with as little as a sunny patch of sidewalk or as much as a full apartment rooftop can plant and harvest as the weather permits. It’s time to unpack your milk crates from storage and put them to use.

Put Milk Crates to Gardening Use

The Milk Crate Liner from Smart Pot in particular is well-suited to gardening situations in urban areas or are in tight-fitting spots. As its name implies, the Liner simply fits inside a milk crate to hold the growing media, acting as the container. The crate provides the structure. And because they have a repeatable size and shape, a milk crate garden can be stacked and moved and replicated as your needs and space change.

The reliability in size and shape also makes calculating the amount of potting mix needed a snap. Just determine the volume of soil based on the dimensions of the crate. Smart Pot offers two sizes of Milk Crate Liners to fit commonly used 12-in. tall crates:

• 12-in. x 12-in. square = 1 cubic foot
• 12-in. x 18-in. rectangle – 1.5 cubic feet

Benefits of Growing Above Ground in Milk Crates

In the case of milk crates, the benefits of growing above ground in these containers are four-fold:

• The crates are easy to move even when filled with soil,
• They fit together squarely to offer lots of growing space in a small are,
• The Milk Crate Liner allows for maximum drainage and airflow to the roots enabling plants to thrive, and
• The crate garden can be stacked on top of empty crates to limit the amount of bending and kneeling to ground level

Growing above ground in general, not just in milk crates but also in raised beds, window boxes, patio containers and a range of other vessels, is good for the garden and good for the gardener. Here are just a few of the ways growing your veggies and flowers in above-ground containers can be a benefit :

• Garden where there isn’t any ground. Only a sidewalk, deck or driveway? Containers let you put growing soil where there isn’t a space to plant in-ground.
• Grow in iffy ground. Maybe your soil is filled with toxins, unknown materials or construction debris. Bring in your own and keep it separate from what’s might be contaminated.
• Protection from pests. Underground pests can eat away roots and cause plants to fail. Make accessing your crops that much more difficult for them.
• Garden with the weather. Your ability to move crate and container gardens allows you to plant your crops earlier and harvest later—just move the gardens into a protected space when the weather is too cool outside.

Now that you know all about growing in containers and crates, scour your basement and unpack those books to free up your new growing containers (or order some online) and get your Milk Crate Liners today. You can be gardening before you know it!