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There are so many ways to spend one’s hard earned cash when they decide to become a gardener or to do some landscaping. There are so many ways to save one’s hard earned cash when they decide to become a gardener or to do some landscaping. The decision is yours.
Personally, I am a “do it yourselfer” even when there are things I have never done before. I have more things I want to do than money. I have more things I want to buy than money. Thus I am always thinking of how I can have or do these things with less or little money or sometimes just simply for the pleasure of doing it or being able to say, “I made that myself.”
Making a Stone Trough is one of them. Of course I can buy one at my garden center, but after checking out the price and the fact that once they put it into the back of my Jeep I would have to hire someone to get it out for me. The simplest thing was to look at it from every angle, measure it, perhaps make a quick sketch of it and go home and make it and make it right where I wanted it to be because it would be heavy to move also.
You can make this trough to be any size you want it to be by just changing the sizes of the plastic bins and by compensating for the amount of cement or Quikrete you will need. Also you can get creative by making round one or square ones.
First thing I needed was some material and tools and these included 2 plastic bins about 18” x 14” x 6” each, spade, level, a 2” square plastic flower pot with the top half cut away, 3 shovelfuls of coir compost (a growing medium (pronounced "koya"), 9 shovelfuls of builder’s sand, 3 shovelfuls of cement (one can eliminate these last 3 items with a bag of “Quikrete’), a wheel barrow, 2 pieces heavy poly plastic, screw driver, hammer, wire brush and a small piece of wood.
1. Select the area where you want your trough to be and turn one of the plastic bins upside down and mark out the size of your trough by pushing your spade in about 2 inches wider all around the bin. Remove bin and dig out the hole to the required depth you want your trough to be piling your removed dirt on one of the pieces of poly plastic to use later to fill your hole back up.
2. Using your small level check and make sure the bottom of your hole is level. Place the plastic cut off 2” square pot, bottom side up, in the center of the hole to create your drainage hole.
3. Mix your Quikrete according to the directions on the bag or mix your sand, coir compost and cement in the wheel barrow. Slowly add water and mix to a workable consistency. Do not make it too wet or too solid.
4. Pour some of this mix into the hole to the level of the bottom of the upturned square plastic pot and gently tamp down with your small piece of wood.
5. Take one plastic bin and wrap it in a sheet of heavy duty poly plastic bringing the plastic over the edges and into the center of the bin. Fill the second plastic bin with grit and place it in the first plastic bin to secure the heavy duty poly plastic.
6. Center the two plastic bins in the hole and then pour the remaining concrete mix all around the edge until you are roughly level with the top of the bins.
7. Tamp down the concrete all around.
8. Cover the trough with poly plastic and leave to harden slowly for about 3 weeks unless you used Quikrete and you can leave it cover for about 5 days.
9. Dig out the ground around the trough and lift out the plastic box mold.
10. Lift your hardened trough out of the hole.
11. Scrape the soil off the sides and base using your spade.
12. Remove the small pot and define the square hole it has left with the sharp end of a screw driver.
13. Take your hammer and knock off any odd bits of concrete and soften the edges of the trough.
14. Take your wire brush and brush top and sides to give it a weathered finish.
15. Fill your hole back in with the save dirt.
16. Place your raised planter over that dirt.
17. Fill you planter with whatever you want, making sure you have the right plants for your zone. The best thing is to use drought resistant perennials and crowd them in. Another good thing is to put the tallest ones in the center and work your shortest ones down towards the edges of your stone trough.
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Author Bio Box: Arlene Wright Correll
 For more gardening or cooking information click http://www.learn-america.com/
To see Arlene’s Gardens and to read her gardening diaries and to take a walk through her pictorial garden or click on Arlene’s Books where you can download or buy her gardening & cook books, including her new book, “The ABC’s of Wine and Beer Making”. Many of her articles written for Greenthumbarticles have paintings she has created of the subject and they can be seen at her “How to Do It” site. Remember to check out her artwork, especially of her fruits and vegetables. Many of her paintings are sold internationally and many of her works of art have been reproduced on note cards, post cards and other functional items and you can get Giclee prints of her artwork starting as low as $11.89 Arlene says, “All my royalties from the sale of my books, art, etc. go to the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and I thank you for visiting my sites.”
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