Hosta Buckets

                                                                                                                                   By James L. Haworth

 

Planting hostas under trees can be a problem. Hostas like at least some shade, and trees seem to be an ideal place for them. The problem with trees is that they need vast root systems to support themselves and will form dense mats to soak up every bit of nutrients and water they can. Your hostas are forced to compete with these larger, very aggressive plants in order to eke out a living. Too many hostas suffer from this competition and may even die as a result.

            There is a way to deal with this, but it takes a little work. The results, however, will be well worth it as you see how vigorously your hostas will respond.

            The answer is to use something as common and useful as duct tape, the good old plastic five gallon bucket. Recycled, if possible. There are millions of these buckets produced every year, most ending up in landfills as soon as their contents are emptied. Knowledgeable gardeners can tell you these pails have a gang of uses, hauling rocks, compost, gardening tools, water, weeds, etc. They are also an always-available seat when turned upside down.

Buckets come in a multitude of flavors

            First, where do you find them? Please don’t let the term “dumpster diving” turn you off. You don’t really have to dive into some foul smelling container awash in pig entrails to get a clean buckets . Many dumpsters have two large sliding doors on their sides, which will allow you to simply reach in and pick your containers. Bakeries and restaurants discard buckets which formerly held used cooking oil, peeled potatoes, cookie dough, donut filling, icing, and so forth. Some restaurants put out five-gallon pails of used cooking oil, which you may use if you have a diesel automobile, or warm your home with heating oil. You simply take the used cooking oil and…well, you can find that information elsewhere on the Web, we’ll stick to the gardening stuff for now. Scrub out as much oil as you can before using your five-gallon pails for plants.

            Contractors buy five-gallon pails that contain drywall mud, which you might want to scrape out before using. During the summer, schools strip off the old floor finish and recoat. Floor stripper and finish often come in five gallon buckets and there are plenty of them. Just wash ‘em out before using. So look around, there’s millions of containers out there, peer into dumpsters and locate your own free supply. If you prefer, go to a place like Home Depot and buy them. They’re made from petroleum and their cost has gone up as crude oil has risen, so be prepared for a small shock at the prices!

           

School floor stripper

            Now, remove the lids. You will quickly find this is not always easy. Examine the lid itself and see if there is a tab on it that will easily break away. If there is, pulling the tab will unzip a continuous plastic strip around the lid, which can then be popped off with little effort. These containers are a dream to dehead. Other lids will require more effort to remove them.

There are five gallon bucket lid remover tools available on the Web for around ten dollars, which are made for these tops. They are made of plastic and about six to eight inches long. I have found they require strength to use and may result in a sore back if you are not careful. It helps to put a short piece of metal pipe over the tool handle to get more leverage, which makes it a little easier. After the lid is off, the bucket bail is then sawed through with a hacksaw and the two pieces can be removed from their swing holes.

Lid remover and how it's used

 

Here is a method of removing five gallon bucket lids with just a utility knife and your hands. A heavy duty utility knife with a retractable blade can be bought for a few bucks in the tools section of a hardware store or a home center. Stand over the plastic pail with your feet braced against the bottom and one hand holding the top. Keep your hand out of the way of the knife. Hold the knife downward in your fist and cut upward from the bottom of the lid lip to the top. You may have to cut twice but even if it doesn't go completely through, it should be enough. Move the knife over four or five inches and cut again, continuing around the lid. Now retract the blade and put it down. Use your hands to pull the four inch tab upward over the lid gasket. Keep doing to each adjoining tab until you are almost all the way around at which point the lid should come free. Discard the top. After you do this to a few buckets, you may find that the whole process takes less than a minute.

Now that the lid is off, what next? Well, that depends. If you are going to put your hostas on your deck or completely above ground somewhere else, appearance will count. Some five gallon buckets have the label and directions embossed into the plastic and cannot be removed. Reserve these for your deeper ground planting, such as under that large tree. Other containers have peel-off plastic labels that leave hard-to-remove glue. I have used a little lacquer thinner (outdoors) along with an abrasive pad and rag to remove the glue. Every pail that I have seen has a deeply carved warning sign on its side that says not to leave water-filled buckets where a toddler may fall into and drown. That makes sense to me. Just turn the label around where it can’t be easily seen if you are going to fill with earth and display.

Plant the container in the ground near the tree, but not too close to the trunk! If you encounter huge roots, my advice would be- don’t cut them! It would be better to just leave the plastic pail sit on top of the ground. I think of these large roots that are next to the tree as brace roots. If you cut them out with an axe or maybe a chain saw you don’t like, every time a strong wind comes up, you may start to sweat. So if that large tree can reach your abode and you have grown fond of your house, don’t cut the brace roots.

Plant the bucket as deep as you like as long as tree roots can’t enter over the top.  It depends how much of a yellow, black, or white five gallon bucket you want showing. The larger hostas will soon grow over the edge of the container and hide it anyway.

You will want your five gallon pail to get rid of excess water so it doesn’t fill to the top and rot the hosta’s roots. Drill three or four weep holes in the sides of the bucket, about one quarter inch to one half inch in diameter. Make the holes about three to five inches from the bottom if you want a water reservoir for your plant. If you don't want a water reservoir, drill close to the bottom. For under-tree planting, you could file small, barely noticeable notches in the top edge of the pail exactly over the holes you have drilled. The tree will seek out your weep holes and insert its roots there to get more water and nutrients. The roots always start out small, and then expand as they fill the pail, so the time to remove them is while they are still small. At least once during the growing season and perhaps again after the tree drops its leaves, rotate the bucket at least one full turn without lifting it from the ground. This will tear the tree roots and it will have to start all over again invading the hosta’s space.

 Now you can fill your container with good soil and plant your hosta. One hosta per container, please.

 Still wondering about the notches in the top edge? In the event you can’t or don’t want to turn the hosta bucket to break the tree roots, thrusting a shovel down past the holes where the roots are entering will sever them. The notches will show you where to insert the shovel. Be sure the shovel scrapes down the bucket side to prevent the tree from sneaking in by keeping its roots close to the sides before entering the holes. See? It helps to be smarter than a tree!