Take the guesswork out of gardening with a tutorial on how to start a stock tank garden! Simple, clean, and totally Pinterest worthy! These tips are great for any raised garden planter or raised garden bed, too!

how to start a stock tank garden, an easy how to

There are so many lessons we learned last year, and we know we will continue to learn more as we grow a new garden this year. But since I have been getting lots of questions about our stock tanks, I wanted to share with you how we are going about it this time around. Here you’ll find my garden layouts, how we set up the stock tanks on our front patio, how we are choosing what to plant – and where – based on our sun, and more!

This stock tank garden makes for an easy DIY project that will take about 1 day for four tanks, and is fun for the whole family if you are getting into gardening and growing your own edible plants for easy harvesting!

a 6 foot stock tanks fits in a subaru

And yes, a stock tank does fit inside the back of a Subaru!

All About Stock Tanks

Where to start? How about with the stock tanks themselves? Stock tanks are made out of galvanized metal, and very resistant to rust, hard weather, and well, animals kicking them. Depending on the space you have, you can go a few different ways since they come in all shapes and sizes. I opted for sheep stock tanks that are short, at only a foot tall. Ours galvanized stock tanks measure 6 feet long, 2 feet wide, and 1 foot deep.

Some plants do better in deeper stock tanks, and for those I would get the 2 foot deep stock tank planters. Tomato plants do better with planters that have significant depth, so that their roots can go down really deep. If you want to plant tomatoes in your raised bed, make sure the soil depth is at least 2 feet deep.

Veggies like carrots, beans, and beets do well in 12 inch raised beds. You can also grown any other number of vegetables or pepper plants, like jalapenos, in shallow tanks. Fruits like strawberries can do really well in the shorter tanks, too.

Where Do You Find Stock Tanks?

We got ours at the local feed and garden store. Depending on the time of year, or if there is a sale, you can find them for anywhere between $110-$140 a piece. Behlen is a common brand you might find. It is a bit of sticker shock at the outset, but they will last for years. They are a lot less prone to icky things like slugs, where plastic pots were magnets!

how to prep a stock tank for a garden box

Tools Needed

To create these tanks you will need:

  • Drill
  • Drill bit, 1/2″ drill bit is great
  • Landscape Fabric,
  • One 8 foot 2×4, per tank – cut into 4 equal 2 foot lengths
  • Raised Bed Soil

To ensure adequate drainage, you will need to use your drill to drill drainage holes. You will want at least one dozen holes in the bottom of the tank to ensure proper drainage. Since these are meant to hold water and feed, you need to make sure there are enough avenues to get excess water out of the planter.

The next step is to line the bottom of the tank with landscape fabric to prevent soil wash out through the holes. The holes are small enough that it doesn’t require anything robust like wire mesh. And if you skip this step, it isn’t the end of the world, you can leave the bottom bare, it’s not the end of the world. Or you can add a layer of gravel as well. Options are endless!

Place the four 2-foot lengths of 2×4’s, or even 4×4’s equally spaced under the bottom of the stock tank  to allow for airflow and extra drainage. You can also set them up on cinder blocks.

Filler Materials

Some people swear by adding cardboard, sticks, or other filler material to the bottom of your metal stock tanks. You can absolutely do that, but for the shorter tanks (mine are 12″ deep) I don’t find it necessary. Just use a raised bed mix in the tank. If you are using 2 foot deep units then filled material will help cut down on your cost of potting mix. 

It’s dealer’s choice on what works for you.

Think About Your Layout

What do you want to grow? And how much? These tanks are great, because you can fit a lot into them. More than I initially thought! When you are doing a layout of your tanks, think about how you want to move around them. It sounds silly, I know, but it is really worth consideration. This year we added a fourth tank, and had to re-lay out our tanks to get the right spacing, and even distribution. It mean unloading three tanks of dirt just to move them a foot over!

Along with the layout, take the sunlight into consideration. Do you crops need only partial day sun, or full sunlight to thrive? Our plants need 8 hours of direct sun to flourish.

how to lay out a stock tank garden on a limited foot print

How to lay out a stock tank garden on a limited foot print

For me, I need to be able to bend down and get into the pots without banging my knees into the sides of the tanks and two foot spacing is perfect between the raised garden beds, and mean I could sit on the adjacent tank while working on another one! No bum knees. And we can still get a broom between the tanks to keep a clean space.

Here is what our tanks and pots look like right now.

final layout of our garden with tanks

What Are You Planting?

For the most part we are growing what we did last year in our stock tank garden, you can find new varieties that are more “container friendly”. There are so many different kinds, but different varietals react differently to different conditions – like in ground, or in containers like our stock tank garden. So, if you picked out something that doesn’t specify “container friendly”, all is not lost! Plant them anyway, because you may have success! Don’t be intimidated.

This year, we are doing more squash, and peppers, and strawberries (because Emmett loves them). Green beans, carrots, snap peas, and herbs have all wildly successful in our metal stock tanks. Lettuce would also be a good one to include here, too!

Stock Tank Friendly Vegetables

  • Zucchini
  • Jalapeno or Spicy Pepper varities
  • Strawberries – they will throw runners out, so dedicate one whole tank to strawberries.
  • Green Beans
  • Carrots
  • Snap Peas, or snow peas
  • Basil
  • Thyme
  • Chives
  • Lettuce
  • Carrots
  • Garlic – they require far less water, so plant alongside plants that like dry soil. Or plant a whole tank on their own!
  • Radishes
  • Beets

Using square foot gardening techniques lend themselves well to these planters, giving them enough space for them to grow, but not be overly crowded.

how to make a raised garden layout for a garden

I had mixed results with beets and Swiss chard last year (and by mixed, I mean it sucked), so they won’t make a reappearance. Bush beans, snap peas, and carrots were all huge hits and I got enough out of our basil to make an endless supply of caprese, and homemade pesto.

Plant 75% of What You Like, 25% You Haven’t Tried

For me, I wanted to strategize what we were planting a couple different ways – plant what we love to eat, and plant a couple of things we wanted to try. Think of it like a 75/25 approach. 75% what you will eat, cook, or preserve right away, and 25% what you want to try that is new to you. That way you don’t get overburdened with a “WTH am I going to do with THIS?” problem and letting your hard work go into the compost because you can’t use it fast enough.

how to plan for sun in a stock tank garden

Dirt is Dirt, Right?

One of our biggest lessons learned for raised garden beds is that not all dirt is created equal. In ground gardens can typically handle a slightly tougher dirt, but our raised beds did not tolerate the heavy top soil that we put in last year. What we got from our local garden center was what they called their garden soil, but it was definitely more suited to in-ground gardens than our tanks. It was too firm, to solid, and basically was concrete when it got wet and then dried.

To help lighten the stress on our plants, we amended our tanks and pots with a blend of half top soil (from last year), and half potting soil out of bagged potting mix we got at the local hardware store. Each stock tank garden container takes about 6 cubic feet of soil. After blending it was much lighter and fluffier than last year, and I think it will be a much bigger success for starting ground sown seeds, and make a much easier transition for our started plants.

I know that I will need to use a fertilizer as well. And because these stock tanks are low, you might have to protect your young garden from ground scavengers like squirrels or bunnies. Especially early in the growing season.

Hand Watering or Drip Irrigation System

Really, this is up to you, what you have in your budget or space. While I would love to have a proper drip irrigation system, we are perfectly placed to hand water with our hose right next to the tanks. Drip irrigation can be really convenient, but come at a cost. 

I suggest start with one season of hand watering and then if you need to change plans, work on that next season!

Any questions?

This is just a recap of how we chose to start a stock tank garden for ourselves, and really, there is no totally wrong answer here. Your plants need three things, water, sun, and dirt. So even if you’re making your first garden as a way to stave off the boredom of isolation, or taking a stand in your own Victory Garden of sorts, the best place to start is just to start! Buy stock tanks, dirt and seeds and you’re good to go! If you have questions on what we have done, please let me know!

These are the seeds I will start ahead of time. Everything else will be direct sown into the ground.

How to Start Garden Seeds is about how I am starting my seeds for items like peppers, and herbs that need a little extra TLC before going into the ground. I have taken a lot of lessons from my expert garden mother, so I hope that it translates well into our own practice of starting seeds this year!