Lamar, Mo. — Ernest Winslow contends he can grow all the string beans a family cares to eat in a 14-inch by 12-inch plastic foam container.
At age 67, Winslow loves to play with raising different flowers, fruits and vegetables in unique ways.
Used tractor tires, old cattle feed bunks, water tanks with rusting bottoms, large cans and flower pots are some of his plant containers.
Tractor tires, he says, make great planters. Using a circular saw, he cuts a hole into the sidewall near the tread and then cuts off all the sidewall, expanding the planting area.
He says many of the methods he uses can be used by space-crunched city dwellers.
He fills containers with a material from a pile not far away. The pile contains material from old hay and some cattle and horse manure. The outcome is a moist soil ready for plants.
Such gardening means less ground to work and it conserves water. Picking crops is easier and so is pulling weeds.
Peppers are growing in an aging water tank. "They almost give these tanks and feed bunks away at sales," he says.
Strawberry plants are growing in one-gallon cans. A flower bed is formed with old utility poles. Nearby are tomatoes growing in flower pots. Some of his containers are home to more than one crop. Take for instance the one used to grow string beans and potatoes or another shared by petunias and onions.
His gardens contain a variety of beans, squash, tomatoes, corn and other crops. Some grow in rows that share space with huckleberry bushes. He says all his produce is grown organically.
He does a lot of transplanting. A cattle feeder holds strawberry plants and sweet potatoes grow in an old tire.
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