Frustrated with Beachmere's Sandy Soil? Make Your Vegie or Herb Garden with Milk Crates

We made these today with a few basic materials. Milk crates work really well. Compact. Space efficient. I've been using milk crates for growing herbs for years. I'm not sure how these crates 'insult' each other but if they hugged, they could 'insulate' instead.

Milk crate gardening is a simple, cheap and gradual way to overcome the brutal sandiness of Beachmere 'soil'. Ideal if you are renting.

Here are some sample patterns:

As it is the cheapness and convenience of the crates makes the  appealing and very convenient.
Anything bigger is very hard to move -- and even a full crate with moist soil may require a hand trolley to shift.
I think we usually pay $2 per crate from dump shops.

Longara in Brendale sells their milk crates for $6 each,.
Butted together and compared to the cost and the far less moveable metal raised garden beds -- a 200 x 100 x 41cm will set you back close to $100 -- 6 milk crates  (36.2mm x 36.2mm x 32.5cm)  make for good lego at almost a third the price. And you can elevate them by adding a layer of crates underneath for easy no bend  gardening.

 At home here we use milk crates in so many ways. I've been collecting them for close to 20 years.

Over time, the soil becomes a bolus and holds itself together as an ecological entity and even if the weed mat frays or splits, there's no leakage of earth.
Some plants I've had colonise the crate next door to the one they were planted in.