Kiddie Pool Garden- Garden experiment 2010

Photo: The Oregonian

I have done a few experiments in the garden over the past years. Last year I made a hanging wall garden out of a shoe organizer, and found it worked best if I put the plants in a coffee cup. (two fer- I get to reuse disposable coffee cups I find in the trash and I have a plant) The year before I tried making Topsey Turvey planters- with mixed success (I found it depends on the variety of tomato plant to work) and also made self watering planters with success. This year I am going to make a salad bed out of a Kiddie Pool I found at mom’s dumpster.

First I picked a nice spot for the kiddie pool-

Then drill some drainage holes.Then I plan fill it with compost and soil and plant some seeds (OR rather SeedBallz)

I know it is not much in the science department, nor is it an automated grow box Light that cheap veggie gardener would make. But what I am going for here is an easy way to make a complete garden bed with little work and great results. A neat idea if you have little gardeners around is make their first garden in that old Kiddie Pool. It help teaches them to grow their on food! And it keeps one of those big old plastic kiddie pools out of the waste stream (at least for a season or two)

Here are simple instructions (Instructions? Yes, I didn’t invent this-so see I didn’t make it up) To making your own Kiddie Pool Garden.
I also found a lot of good how to info at Wondering Chopsticks blog- she also found her kiddie pools when a neighbor was throwing them out!
And over at I dig my Garden, they have a whole forum dedicated to using kiddie pools for gardens!
Over at ehow.com, they have instructions on using kiddie pools to grow pumpkins.
And finally, in Portland, Or., a restaurant uses their rooftop to grow arugula, using kiddie pools. Hopefully this will work. And another easy way to garden!