Will Drainage Holes On The Side Of A Planter Be Effective?

Question

Hi, I’m having a planter built – it’s tricky to describe but here goes! It will be a long narrow planter combined with a storage bench, the front of which lifts up so you can store stuff in it, and when the lid is down, it will be a Bench seat. I can either have one long, 1 metre deep planter with the Storage bench in front of it, or I can have a 0.5metre deep planter built on top of the back half of the storage bench seat. If I have the 1metre deep planter, I’d obviously just drill drainage holes in the bottom, then chuck a load of hardcore or similar in – it will be deeper than necessary and I don’t want to waste topsoil. If I go with the other option, itll only be half a metre deep so I won’t need as much soil to fill it. But, I wouldn’t be able to drill holes in the bottom, as the water would then drain directly onto the storage bench it will sit on top of. So I’m wondering if it would work if I drilled holes along the sides instead, along the bottom of the planter. This would mean that any excess water that runs off from the planter would run down the sides of the bench beneath it, rather than sitting on top of it. Which of those two options do you think would make the most sense? Sorry if I haven’t explained it very well, I’ve attached a pic of a rough sketch which might make it clearer – any help would be most appreciated!

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Answer 1

Any of your ideas can work as long as you make sure of one very important thing! Make sure that your drainage holes, even if they are on the side, are even with the bottom of the container. If not, some water will sit in the bottom of that container, which can promote rot.

This article will give you some ideas and tips on creating raised bed gardens, which may prove helpful to you:

https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/edible/vegetables/vgen/raised-vegetable-gardens.htm