‘In Ground’ Planters
You can see here that my heirloom bell peppers that were planted in one gallon containers have clearly outgrown them. It’s actually quite amazing that they reached this current height of 2′ and were quite productive in such a small pot. However, the pots were transpiring too much water and the roots had pushed to the edge of the pots.
What I have done here is cut the bottom few inches off of a free backery container which I acquired from Walmart (the same ones used for my DIY earthbox). I have then dug an accomodating hole, buried the 5 gal container, filled it partially with a vermicastings soil mix, and placed the pepper from the 1 gallon container therein (after removing from its pot etc.). Of course, I then filled the new 5 gallon container with this vermicompost soil mix.
So why did I go through all the trouble to do this? Well..1) This allows me to have an in ground “shield” in areas that I don’t want root intrusion from shrubs and trees etc. 2) I can provide a local plant soil that is very rich and minimize the influence of outside soil pests and maintain better moisture control. 3) Burying the container allows better temperature moderation from the surrounding soil, but still allows the plant to “breath” through the open bottom. 4) It keeps potted plants from getting blown over in strong winds and allows me to disguise unsightly pots etc. 5) By somewhat containing the root structure, it will be easier to transplant later on if desired.
