The Rubbermaid Solution for Large Plant-Containers

Well, as I said last time, I was off to Walmart to do some Rubbermaid browsing. Indeed, I believe this is a good solution. I found a selection of a non-brand-name plastic containers, like Rubbermaid, but cheaper. For the low price of $7.50 each plus tax, I purchased these four containers, including the lids. The total for all four came to $33.46 after tax.
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I think these containers will do very well for me. I'm thinking potatoes, carrots, broccoli and kale. Maybe I'll even buy another one or two later, to experiment with. There is room. I'm also glad I was able to find something relatively light coloured, since this balcony gets so hot in the height of summer. Gardening pots are black and as such, attract heat which might cook the roots in the pot. So the lighter the colour the better, I figure.  

I also stopped by the hardware store Rona today and purchased three five-gallon pails. They were $3.99 each for the three pails, and I bought one lid for $3.29. I was going to buy five pails and three lids, but figured I'd hold off for a little while just to see how much space develops on the deck. I am considering using two of these pails to plant vines, with wooden trellises staked into them, and placing them along the back wall of the deck. The lids would fit nicely underneath as a tray to capture drainage water.

But also, I want to start a compost bucket with one. As well, being out on the balcony, I have no wheelbarrow. Bringing stuff in, or refuse out, is kind of a pain in the butt, so I figured two sturdy buckets would do better than garbage bags for this purpose, and they can be neatly stacked underneath the bucket that will hold compost when they are not being used. So, I bought three for now, and I might buy two more later to use as pots for the vines. In the meantime, I'm going to test them out this weekend by going to the river to get some gravel for the bottoms of my containers. Hopefully, I can have the containers ready for plants to go in them by the beginning of next week.