Posts Tagged ‘food-grade’


The life of a container Gardener

Thursday, August 18th, 2011

Living in an apartment and condo does NOT mean you can’t garden. And people, I’m not talking about one or two hanging plants. I am talking about really gardening… fruits, veggies, flowers, and herbs. Right now I have tomatoes, potatoes, onions, corn, jalapeno and cayenne peppers, plus a herb garden and a few flowers for accent, all on my patio. You must be wondering just how I fit all that on my small 5′ x 10′ patio? Well let’s just say, very creatively. By utilizing hanging hooks on stands that fit four pails each, and two half pallets (I sawed one in half basically), I can make a varying array of configurations that are both beautiful and at the same time add a sense of privacy to our patio.

Another benefit of my container garden is the family activity it creates. My fifteen month old daughter grabs my hand and begs to be a part of the gardening experience. I supply her with her own little watering can and a plastic spade shovel to dig in the dirt with me. This is a family garden. It has become a central part of our family life. Whether it is the wife and I relaxing after the baby has gone to sleep, or working together to harvest some basil to make pesto for dinner, it is enjoyable and bring us even closer together. If you live in a apartment or condo and think that gardening is just too much to handle, reconsider. Give it try. We have previously used food grade 5-gallon pails perfect for starting your very own garden. Please email me at joshua@maxicontainer.com for a free consultation. We can design your pails to fit the types of plants you want to grow. We have three styles right now for our 5-gallon pails, they are:

  1. Traditional planter
  2. Hanging tomato planter
  3. Pepper / strawberry planter (Can hold up to 6 plants)
    *can easily be made into a self-watering planter

We also have experimented with our 30-gallon plastic barrels, turning one into a strawberry planter. We cut a plastic juice drum in half, attached wheels and handles to make a movable planter perfect for all types of plants. Like I was saying before, the possibilities with container gardening are endless. You only will be limited by your own creativity. So, what are your waiting for? Try it now. Give us a call today and get the low-down on what you’ll need to get started. And please, if you don’t get your container from us just make sure the containers are food-grade. Ask what the previous contents where. If it was something questionable, DO NOT USE IT. If it had food in it before, then its fine. It’s better to ask then to just say “ohhh it’s fine because it was free.” You will be growing and eating food from that container. Plastic absorbs some of its previous contents; there is no way around that, it is in the material’s nature. So any reconditioned or used plastic barrel, is not always safe for growing plants. Hope this information helps get you started container gardening. Here is some photos from our Flickr photoset “Container Gardening”.

[slickr-flickr search=”sets” set=”72157627032002916″ items=”20″ type=”slideshow” delay=”3″ captions=”on”]


Previously Used means exactly That!

Saturday, August 13th, 2011

Green Breeze - Rick

So when you buy previously used… You don’t get to be picky. Sometimes there is a dent or a scratch. Maybe each container is not the same size. These difference are what make our products unique, why they still sell better than their corporate counterparts. We don’t just sell you a rain barrel, we sell you an idea… We help you reduce your carbon footprint and “point-source-pollution”. When you buy a Home & Garden product from Maxi, whether it be a drum stove made from a steel drum or a pickle barrel turned into a rain barrel or compost tumbler, you are reusing a container for a sustainable purpose. Your rain barrel or compost tumbler’s function is exactly that, to save rainwater and make nutrient rich compost but there is more too it the that, we want you to know that we do this so you can be proud of that barrel. You can tell your friends, family, neighbors, the clerk at the local grocery store, just tell whoever about it’s environmental benefits and hopefully they will tell somebody. We believe in what we do and thats a start, hopefully soon more people will realize it’s not about how the barrel looks (though we try and get the best style “terra cotta” color barrels we can find) but what it does. I guess it’s the age old argument of what matters more, fashion or function? What do you think about aesthetic versus the purpose or function of a rain barrel? Let me know here or please go ahead and tweet me @MaxiContainer.