Fishbox Makeover

Great idea.

Thank you I will do a blog on it if I ever get the time. So much to catch up with at the moment.

Know the feeling, but so cold outside keep having to put my old winter garden coat on when i'm in the garden, can't believe its May.

looks great

I like this!! So much more portable than stone/cement troughs. :-))

Very easy to do and very effective and not nearly so heavy as concrete ones would be. These are just painted with masonry paint. I have about 20 boxes waiting to be done. Half of them I planted up without treating so I will transfer the contents of them to the new boxes and then carry on scraping, painting and filling.

They look great. I thought they were stone sinks at first.

The masonry paint is quite effective unless you are close up. We made them on my basic gardening course at Suntrap.

I have a couple that I've been saving to use, but all the hints I could find online were about using them as moulds to make Hypertufa troughs out of, which I wouldn't mind so much if I could use them for that more than once; the only patterns I've seen involve wrapping chicken wire around the outside for strennth and then covering them inside and out with the hypertufa mix

We took a wire brush and roughened the outer surface of the sides of the box, remember to take it up over the lip and down past where the soil level will be. Then it is just a case of painting it with the masonry paint. If there is writing on the box and you do not get it all off then you may need to give that side a few extra coats. We only used 2 coats. Cut a couple of holes in the floor of the box, put broken crocks in the bottom for drainage, fill with compost, general purpose is fine with some extra grit added and you are ready to plant up. We did the work above over two lessons - one preparing and painting and on the 2nd we filled and planted up the dry boxes. The paint goes off quickly at this time of year and you can do a 2nd coat of paint if you leave them then for a week to dry thoroughly. Unfortunately I ran over one of the boxes above and then my husband picked up the second and dropped it so neither have survived very long but I have lots more. We painted them on a production line basis taking turns to wire brush and paint them. I want a living top for the garden wall so I have some done. They are filled with bright yellow flowering sedums. I managed to get some of the larger size fish boxes and I have day lilies in them on top of the wall.

thanks for that, Scotsgran! That's extremely helpful - I'll have a go at mine as soon as I get through all the "must do's" on the list.

Do you have a regular supply of boxes? I can't remember where I got my two, wondered if you had any hints on that too!

I used to get some in Sainsbury's but they are so H&S conscious that it was difficult being there at just the right time. I was in Makro one day and the fishmonger was just emptying a box. I asked him if I could have it and explained what I wanted it for and I came away with a pile that day, then for the next 2 weeks I went back for more which he had kept for me. They have to pay to get rid of industrial waste so it was a win win situation. I would have gone for more but the weather was awful and I could not get them processed. As soon as I had a good day we got stuck in to them and the end result was pretty good. Asda,Tesco Sainsbury and independant fishmongers should all have boxes but it is up to the manager if you can have them. Some fruit now comes packed in polysyrene boxes so that might be a possibility and they would not smell. They do not smell once you wash them out and have them filled.

thanks again! there's a mini-supermarket just up the road that does a lot of fish, I'll have to ask there. lol I really should sort out the garden - got so many "it'll come in handy" that I need to make space to add more!

final (I hope!) silly question - just basic,ordinary masonry paint?

YesFranl155. bought in a diy store. We found it hard to get the right shade. It is expensive and we did not see any tester pots. I have now posted a blog about how I have used them.