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buried bog garden out of an aluminum tool box?


ijason

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greetings.

i am needing to build a sort of long-term no-maintenance bog garden. i have several Saracen growing in self-watering pots, but am about to depart on a 3 year contract abroad. i have someone who will be renting my place, and although they are entirely competent i would much rather they not have to do anything for my plants. to that end, i am planning on digging in a bog garden.

it will be watered with drip-off from a dehumidifier running inside, and the drip-off from an air-conditioning unit's evaporator coil. so there will be plenty of water even during dry spells. i already have a scheme for building a water entrapment in the bottom of the container that will hold many more gallons of water than simply saturating the aggregate, AND avoid making a home for mosquito like an open container would.

my question, then, is about the container itself. i have been looking at various water-troughs for livestock... mostly made out of recycled rubber or plastic. but none of the ones in the size i like give me the depth i need. and then it occurred to me that i have an abandoned truck tool-box just sitting in a shed! the box is 13" deep, 17" wide and 50+" across.

is there any risk to my plants from using a container made of raw aluminum to hold them?

i know aluminum-oxide is toxic to ingest for animals, but do plants have any problem with it?

plan b is a large plastic storage bin, also buried.

thanks for advice :)

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Can you try both then you hedge your bets?

Are you sure it is aluminium and not galvanised steel? Not sure about leaching of aluminium salts into the compost so what I would do is line the inside with some thick black polythene but it sounds like you will be making holes in the bottom (?) so this may be no good.

'Rust' comes from iron based metals like steel. Aluminium naturally forms a thin surface coating of oxide which is fairly inert but, like I say, not sure about the slightly acidic nature of general CP compost. It does not dissolve in water but it may react a bit with the acidic compost and I think aluminum salts are quite harmful to plants. I would not try it unless I was housing surpless plants.

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