Stock Tank Raised Beds-DIY
In this article, you’ll learn exactly how to turn those metal watering tanks into beautiful galvanized stock tank raised beds!
Last year, we moved out of our old place and waved goodbye to our rickety wooden garden beds. So, this year we figured we’d take the opportunity to start fresh with some upgraded raised garden beds. There are plenty of options when it comes to raised beds, but my wife and I decided to go with 2’x2’x6’ galvanized metal stock tanks for our backyard garden.
There is a little bit of upfront work that needs to be done to get these stock tanks ready for planting, because stock tanks don’t come garden-ready. So check out this little tutorial on how to convert your stock tank into a raised bed and let’s get right into it!
Check out our full step-by-step tutorial on YouTube!
Advantages of Stock Tank Raised Beds
Depth
The 2-foot depth of these stock tanks will be great for growing vegetables with larger root systems (ie. pumpkins, squash, and watermelons), and veggies with long tap roots (ie. carrots, beets, parsnips, and rutabagas.)
Surface area
With 12 square-feet of surface area in each bed, these large stock tanks are ideal for growing lots of fruits and veggies in a relatively confined space. The square-foot gardening method can easily be employed here to maximize both yield and variety.
Ergonomics
Since these stock tanks stand 2-feet high, that means the working area is also much higher than that of a traditional garden. This translates into better ergonomics, less strain on your knees and back, and an overall more sustainable experience throughout the growing season.
Style
Finally, and this is purely my opinion, but I just love the way galvanized stock tank raised beds look. When done correctly, they really pop and create an eye-catching display in your garden. They can be strategically positioned to create borders, line driveways, or simply just fill otherwise unsightly spaces.
Metal Stock Tank Raised Beds- Step-by-Step
Step 1- Install Drainage
The first step in turning stock tanks into raised beds is to install drainage holes into the bottom of the tank. Even though most stock tanks come with a removable drainage plug, I don’t believe this will be sufficient to adequately drain the soil. To do this, I’m going to use a 1-1/8” metal step bit. If you don’t have a step bit, a regular drill bit with a high torque drill will probably work, but will take you much longer than a step bit.
Warning: Always wear eye and ear protection, as well as work gloves when cutting or drilling metal. Drilling WILL produce razor sharp metal shards that could easily cut you or damage eyes. Plus the sound of drilling into metal is loud and obnoxious which can damage your hearing. Safety First!
Flip the stock tank upside down in a safe and open area, and drill drainage holes evenly across the entire bottom of the tank, roughly 6-8” apart. This should allow for adequate soil drainage when properly positioned.
Step 2- Position Stock Tank
Next is a potentially overlooked but crucial step. Decide where your raised beds will live for the foreseeable future BEFORE you start to fill it. Once they are even partially filled, the tanks may become too heavy to re-position.
Choose a spot in your yard that is fairly level and receives at least eight hours of full sunlight a day. Once you’ve found your spot, it’s time to start filling!
Step 3-Line Stock Tank With Organic Fillers
There is a bit of an economical factor to consider when trying to decide how to fill these huge stock tank raised beds. If you were to fill an entire 24 cubic-foot raised bed (or six of them in my case) with pure top soil, that would get pretty expensive. So consider ways to reduce that expense by decreasing the volume of soil that you’ll need to get the tanks filled.
Since a majority of your plants’ root growth will occur in the top 12” of the tank, it would be wasteful to fill the entire tank with valuable top soil. So here’s a creative and effective way to fill the bottom half of your stock tank raised beds.
Use other organic matter like logs, sticks, twigs, rocks, leaves, etc. Placing rocks or larger logs in the bottom will not only take up ample space without affecting growing potential, but will also help to further improve drainage.
Once you have some larger rocks or logs in there, follow with smaller sticks, twigs, and leaves until the tank is about half full.
Don’t forget to fill in the gaps! You’ll want to fill in all the gaps between the sticks and twigs to further conserve valuable top soil. You can do this with mulched up leaves or pine shavings.
An 8 cubic-foot bag of pine shavings from Tractor Supply only costs about $6/bag. You’ll probably only need about half a bag per tank because they pack A LOT of pine shavings into each of those cubes!
The great part about this method of filling the bottom of your stock tank with organic material is that it will break down nicely over time and eventually become part of the soil. The rocks will remain and continue to aid in soil drainage.
Step 4- Mix Gardening Soil & Finish Filling Raised Bed
You’ve put a lot of work into your stock tank raised beds, so now it’s finally time to mix up your soil and finish filling them up! When it comes to gardening soil, there are literally thousands of mixtures, each better suited to this or that fruit or vegetable plant. But those specifics are beyond the scope of this article. Chances are, almost any pre-mixed standard gardening soil or raised bed mix will suite your needs just fine. But if you wish to mix your own soil, you have plenty of options.
I’m making a 1:1:1 mix of peat moss, organic gardening soil, and a compost-manure blend. This should be more than sufficient to get my plants off to a good start, at least for a while.
Bear in mind that mixing soil is a messy process so take that into consideration before you try doing it in your living room or something.
A wheelbarrow is much too small to get the job done unless you plan on working in very tiny batches. I would suggest either throwing a tarp on the ground next to your raised bed, or mixing in the bed of your truck like I did. Make sure to break down all of the clumps and mix it thoroughly!
Now just shovel it in to your raised bed until it’s completely full. Level it off with your hand and you’re all done building and prepping your stock tank raised beds for planting!
Conclusion
Hopefully this article provided a little inspiration for you to get out there and make your own stock tank raised beds. Follow these instructions and you’ll have a beautiful raised bed garden in no time. Also, make sure to look us up on YouTube, Instagram, and Pinterest for more farm and garden content.
Happy Gardening!
Cody
Thistle Downs Farm
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