Buckets and pails as flower containers in your garden? What!?? Yes, you read that right. With spring now almost done and summer on the way, bountiful outdoor life is buzzing. Now gardeners galore are getting out and tending to their plants. What better way to be cost effective than to use spare pails you have around to be planting pots?

Buckets and Pails as Flower Containers in Your Garden (BASCO Remixed)

But before we jump to the DIY breakdown, let’s break down plastic pails and why they (and steel pails) are so good (and safe!) for this sort of project.

Plastic pails are highly versatile containers for various product types. At BASCO, we have many wholesale plastic pails like closed head plastic pails, 5 gallon bucket bulk, and 5 gallon metal pails wholesale. Pails like square plastic buckets can be your next food storage container or water pail. We have 120-plus metal pails and plastic buckets from 1 to 12 gallons that range in FDA compliance for food products, UN ratings for hazardous packaging, open head or bulk closed head style, multiple colors for quick product identification, and covers with fittings.

What type of plastic are buckets made from?

Plastic buckets are typically made from a polypropylene, polyethylene (LDPE and HDPE), or polycarbonate. But plastic pails with lids and without lids can come in other varieties too.

Polyethylene is the most common plastic used in the world. It accounts for roughly 35% of the plastic on the market today. Polyethylene is a popular choice for manufacturing packaging because it absorbs almost no water. So it’s an ideal polymer for creating vapor-tight packaging.

High-Density Polyethylene (HDPE) – Known for its high strength-to-density ratio, HDPE is the thickest and strongest of the bunch. It is especially mold, rotting, mildew, impact, weather, and chemical resistant.

Low-Density Polyethylene (LDPE) – More flexible and moldable than HDPE and MDPE, LDPE is used for manufacturing products that require softness and pliability.

DID YOU KNOW? There are even more plastic varieties beyond polyethylene or polypropylene? To learn more about other plastics, check out this article.

Plastic pails are light and durable and great for storing in shops, plant facilities, and food sectors. The closed head plastic pails are ideal for pharmaceuticals, detergents, lubricants, and agricultural products. The screw top pails are suited for extra fine substances, pool chemicals, or high viscosity liquids and even hazardous materials in some cases. They also are conveniently child resistant.

A sector within plastic pails are screw top pails, which are excellent choices due to the security they offer in more ways than one. They have a unique trigger mechanism to automatically secure the lid when closing so that children cannot easily access the pail contents. This is particularly important if you have products that are dangerous or just shouldn’t be indigestible. Therefore, these pails also provide security in properly enclosed hazardous materials, so they are UN rated. They are also ideal for extra fine substances, pool chemicals, or high viscosity liquids.

Yet, returning to the matter of screw top pail lids and their trigger mechanism, a dilemma for many is how to remove screw top lids for 5 gallon pails. To be honest, the process is pretty simple. The procedure is very similar to a child resistant cap on a medicine bottle where you press down on the top and then twist a quarter. This releases the locking tab and opens the pail.

And yes, they are food grade buckets too! What does a food grade bucket mean? A food grade bucket is a plastic container that has been confirmed to be able to hold and store food products safely. That's what makes a bucket food grade. How can you tell if a bucket is food grade? You can tell if a bucket is food grade by looking at the bottom of your bucket and understanding its plastic coding. Find out more here. On the bottom of the bucket, there should be a recycling symbol, which also contains a recycling number between 1 and 7. This number will be stamped between a triangle of arrows. Generally speaking, the numbers that denote food grade standards are 1, 2, 4, and 5.

 Are food grade buckets BPA free? Food storage buckets are inherently BPA free. Food storage buckets are made with #2 HDPE plastic and BPA is found only in #7 plastic products.

But did you know that plastic buckets are for more than just storage?

Many use them for different DIY projects and crafts. In the new edition of BASCO remixed, let’s take a look at food grade 5 gallon pails being made into flower beds and planters! If you want to show some patriotism for the Fourth of July this summer, how about using some red, white/natural, and blue plastic pails with sturdy carrying metal handles as your patio or garden planter decor?

If you side with non-plastic pails, steel pails that are phenolic lined can work just the same because of their chemical resistance to properly store and preserve food and chemical products. These works great for any fertilizers and soil you might use. Furthermore, metal pails are made from high-quality, thick gauged steel to both ensure the integrity of products and protect them. That means that these will certainly hold their own and hold up for your gardening needs.

DIY Garden Planter from a 5 Gallon Bucket

Supplies

3 5-Gallon Buckets (Steel pails can work just fine here too)

2 Cans of Outdoor Enamel Spray Paint

Fine Sandpaper 

36 ft of Sisal-Style Rope, cut into three 12 ft pieces

Drill with 1/4" Drill Bit 

Your choice of rocks and high quality garden soil

Directions

Step 1: Remove the handles from each 5 gallon bucket by pulling on them until they pop out. 

Step 2: Roughen up the bucket surface with a fine-grit sandpaper. Nothing fancy, just rub it down and brush off the dust after. This will help the paint adhere to the plastic bucket.

Step 3: Set your 5 gallon pails out in a well-ventilated environment, preferably in a spot where you can spray the buckets from all sides.

Step 4: Spray paint each bucket with light coats, according to your spray paint can's instructions. Don't worry if the words show through after a coat or two! You will likely need 3 or four light coats for full coverage of the bucket.

Step 5: Allow paint to dry, and I recommend then flipping over the buckets face up to check for any spots you may have missed. Touch up with spray paint.

*Note: I chose not to spray paint the interior of my buckets because I was concerned with spray paint interacting with gardening plants. 

Step 6: Wrap a 12 ft piece of rope around the top diameter of the bucket, just inside the outer lip. You could be fancy and glue the ends to the bucket, or you can just chose to tuck each rope end into itself.

Step 7: Drill 1/4" holes in the bottom of each planter bucket. This will help the soil drain properly.

Step 8: Fill your planter buckets with gravel or lava rock (optional) then gardening soil. Then add your plant! And take a step back to admire the lovely planters you've upcycled! 

*NOTE: You can always forgo painting the pails.

Here are some more additional ways you can use a 5 gallon pail in your garden.

With knowledge of plastic pails and the equal knowledge of how to use them for other unconventional uses beyond typical transportation and storage, you can now make an already versatile container even more versatile.