Planting in an iron kettle?

[A. Lyric]

I have an old iron kettle in my backyard, 21 x 11 inches. I planted petunias in it one spring and hard neck garlic in it last fall. Didn't see hide nor hair of the
garlic, which made me suspicious, but the petunias did okay. I just wanna make sure there's nothing about an iron kettle that I'm not aware of and taking into consideration.

Thanks.

 

[Oliver Buckle]

Couldn't say definitively, but there is plenty of iron in the soil around here and I grow garlic. It doesn't like acidity, I use wood ash and lime, could the iron produce acidic salts? In a container you are probably watering it, what with? Tap water with chlorine ? There are not a lot of diseases, but I have had birds yank the cloves out when they see the first shoot.

 

[A. Lyric]

Tap water with chlorine ? There are not a lot of diseases, but I have had birds yank the cloves out when they see the first shoot.

Yes. I water everything with a hose with a few exceptions. If I make "worm tea" or mist my worm bins, I let the chlorine and chloramine dissipate first. I've actually tried filling a bin with the hose and using vitamin c tablets to neutralize the chlorine and water my garden that way, but it was just so time consuming I went back to the hose. I've also called my local water dept to get an idea of the
levels of chlorine and chloramine in the local water, but I swear -- I'm not sure they even understood the question -- and they never got back to me as promised. I definitely don't want to mist my worms with bleach or include bleach in worm tea, and I don't like using it in the garden, either, but I never considered how it might interact with the iron in my kettle. That's a new consideration!

I do seem to have a lot of birds that like my back yard for whatever reason. But I planted soft neck garlic in my raised bed at the same time I put the hard neck in the kettle, and the garlic in the raised bed did great. So it's a mystery.

 

[Oliver Buckle]

Guess your water co. charges a fixed rate, they put a water meter on our supply. I made the downpipe from the roof go straight into a barrel, which is connected to two others half way down and at the bottom of the garden. A bit of rain and I collect 600 litres of chlorine free water, then feed an overflow to my driest bed half under the oak tree canopy. Mosquito can be a problem, but I float a bit of bubble wrap on the surface so the larvae can't reach it to breath, problem solved.

 

[A. Lyric]

Guess your water co. charges a fixed rate, they put a water meter on our supply. I made the downpipe from the roof go straight into a barrel, which is connected to two others half way down and at the bottom of the garden. A bit of rain and I collect 600 litres of chlorine free water, then feed an overflow to my driest bed half under the oak tree canopy. Mosquito can be a problem, but I float a bit of bubble wrap on the surface so the larvae can't reach it to breath, problem solved.

That's a clever idea! I'd love rain water for my garden so I might just become a copy cat! I'm not very handy but that doesn't sound complicated, really. Thank you!

 

[Oliver Buckle]

I use tank connectors on the butts with a short length of copper pipe and then plastic mains water pipe with a bit of sealant and a circlip. Before I expanded down the garden I used a take off that attached to the down pipe and let overflow continue down the drain. The only tricky bit is getting the levels right so everything fills properly.

 

[A. Lyric]

I use tank connectors on the butts with a short length of copper pipe and then plastic mains water pipe with a bit of sealant and a circlip. Before I expanded down the garden I used a take off that attached to the down pipe and let overflow continue down the drain. The only tricky bit is getting the levels right so everything fills properly.

I've copied this to put in my gardening journal. A future project, hopefully. Thanks for the details!