From Chick Brooder to Strawberry Planter???

When I first got chicks a year ago, I decided to raise them up in a livestock water tank, and it worked like a charm.

I spread pine shavings in the bottom, put the food and water on wooden blocks to try to keep them clean, and then attached the heating lamp to the side. And it worked, for a while at least. Then about 3-4 weeks in they started feathering out pretty good and figured out how to fly out. Which in case you hadn't figured out...is kind of hazardous to their health. lol I would walk into the shed, where they were kept, and hear them crying because they were separated and cold. Then I'd have to go find them and put them back. So, to fix the problem my husband fashioned a sort of top. We cut a piece of chicken wire, that we had left over from the coop build, and attached it to 2 boards to use as anchors on each side. The cover worked great.

Fast forward to this past March when I purchased 10 more little fluff balls with beaks. I set up my "brooder" as I did before and all 10 chicks grew up, feathered out, and eventually moved out to the little coop to get acquainted with the older chickens. After about a week or so they ended up being moved into the big coop and run with the older chickens. And of course there was pecking and bullying, but they don't call it a "pecking order" for nothing. It's quite literal in the chicken world.

Now that all of the chickens are grown and in the big pen and coop together I haven't had a use for my stock tank. This is because in the future when it's time for babies we will just move a broody mom to her own pen and let her raise her own chicks before we add them back to the flock.

So the question is now, what do I do with this stock tank? I don't have any other animals besides a dog. So I really don't have a use for it. I cleaned it out really well and then it just sat on the side of the shed with all of my outside gardening tools. But recently I thought of a use. Why not use it as a planter?

After dragging it across the yard and into the greenhouse I decided it was time to start filling it. So the first thing that went into the bottom is the used and dirty nesting pads from the chicken coop. They're compostable but my compost tumbler is currently full, so into the tank. Then I started putting in dead leaves and eventually emptied one of my potato buckets into it. Now that I had a base of some dirt it was time to get the plants in. But one thing after another happened and almost 3 weeks later it still was just sitting there.

Last night I set to the task of finishing filling the stock tank. I recently purchased a bunch of bags of cheap top soil, which honestly, with everything else I add to the soil works just fine for me. I added 2 bags of top soil and spread it out, then started moving things around to get my plants in. I had 3 big plants that I've had for 2 years now, and I wanted to make sure that they had plenty of room to continue growing, so I put one in each corner and then one in the middle but on the other side. Then the 3 smaller plants that were babies from last year, went in between. I filled the rest of the tank in with compost and another bag of top soil. I also put some strawberry fertilizer in as well, I got it from Gurney's a few years ago. Then watered everything in really well and now we wait.

I grow Charlotte Everbearing strawberries, and have loved that I get multiple small harvests throughout the growing season. I've thought about growing a June-bearing strawberry as well, so that I could have a bunch of berries at once, but I think I'll stick with what I have for now.