Buckets: Your Free Containers

If you’re building your first container garden, or just looking to add on to your current set-up, look no farther than your local bakery for all of your container needs.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, container gardening can be incredibly cheap or incredibly expensive depending on how you set up your space. In this article I will be talking about why I recommend planting in buckets and how they are an incredibly budget friendly option.

So let’s get right into it. You should consider planting in buckets because:

They’re cheap (you can often get them for free)
They’re heavy duty
They come in various sizes
They’re often food grade
You can stack them for a self-watering system
You can use them with their lids for a hydroponic growing system

They’re Cheap

Selling point number one: buckets are cheap. You can go to your local hardware store and often buy a 5 gallon bucket for less than $5. If you chip in a couple extra bucks you can get the lid as well. If you’re open to the idea of using a little bit of elbow grease, you can usually call up your local bakeries and find one that is willing to give you their old frosting and batter buckets for free. This is what I do, I call the bakery in my local grocery store and they will set aside a variety of buckets for me to pick up. All I need to do is stop in, pick up the buckets and then bring them home to clean (they’re often super sticky and covered in frosting).

In contrast, for an official pot of the same size, you’ll probably be paying upwards of $12 or sacrificing quality.

They’re Heavy Duty

Speaking of quality, buckets tend to be pretty heavy duty. Where a nursery pot will only last you a year or so in the sun before it becomes fragile and breaks apart, a bucket will last you multiple years. Bonus, buckets are much more resistant to weed wacker damage as well.

Buckets ranging in size from the bakery.

They Come in Various Sizes

When it comes to gardening, one size does not fit all. Everything can grow in a large container but not everything needs to grow in a large container.

The buckets from my local bakery range in size from 1 gallon to 5 gallons. The 1 -2 gallon buckets are perfect for herbs while the 4-5 gallon buckets are perfect for tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers.

Bonus, buckets are true to volume unlike nursery containers, so a 5 gallon bucket is a larger container than a 5 gallon nursery pot.

Elderberry in a 4.5 gallon bucket and a tomato in a 5 gallon bucket.

They’re Often Food Grade

If you are someone who worries about what kinds of plastics you are using around your food plants I have good news. You can buy food-grade plastic buckets and the buckets from your local bakery will be food grade because they held food. Most of your plastic planters at the garden store will not be made of food grade plastic.

Stacked buckets make a great self-watering planter.

You Can Stack Them

If you acquire multiple buckets of the same size you can stack them to create a self-watering garden system. Just thread a little bit of cotton cord through the drainage holes in your top bucket and let the cord dangle into the reservoir of the bottom bucket and ta-daa! A self-watering bucket planter. This is great for plants that really thrive in moist soil like tomatoes, basil and summer squash.

Tomatoes grown hydroponically in an old frosting bucket.

Hydroponic Growing

Because buckets don’t come with drainage holes, you can choose to not drill holes and instead to fill the bucket with hydroponic nutrient solution. I used a 4 gallon bucket this year to grow dwarf tomatoes and Serrano peppers inside over the winter.

The Only Downside

The only downside I have ever found to growing food in buckets is that some people think buckets are tacky. The bright white plastic draws the eye and is just not a ton of fun to look at. Luckily, this issue is easily remedied. You can wrap your bucket in burlap, paint it, or build a little box around it using pallet wood.

All in all, buckets are a great resource when it comes to container gardening and you should consider picking some up today.