Beginner Gardeners Will Love This Dollar Tree Bucket Trick For Growing Onions

Whether you're using fresh produce you grew yourself or dried varieties, onions (Allium cepa) are a pantry staple that elevate the flavor of your food. They're also rich in health benefits, especially when it comes to your heart. As a result, if you're planning out your next garden lineup, onions are definitely a good vegetable to consider. With this trick using a Dollar Tree bucket, you can take the hassle out of caring for flavor-packed onions of all varieties and create a mini-raised container garden that's easier and perfect for gardeners of all skill levels.

Before diving into this helpful hack, it's important to learn the right conditions in which to grow onions. After all, choosing the perfect planter is only part of the process. Overall, onions are fuss-free, beginner-friendly plants though they are slow-growing, with a harvest of mature vegetables taking several months. If you're just trying out your green thumb with onions, it's recommended to start with sets — immature, small bulbs — rather than seeds. Onions grow well in USDA zones 5 through 9, and they require full sun. This means they also need to be in a location where they won't be stuck in the shadows of other taller plants, which is why this bucket hack will be extra helpful.

Dollar Tree offers a wide variety of plastic buckets with handles. And, as the content creator shows in the video, by making a few easy alterations, you can transform these buckets into your dream, fuss-free onion garden.

Start by cutting out the bottom of each bucket. There are many ways you can go about this — such as using a soldering knife — just make sure to practice proper safety techniques. By cutting out the bottom of the bucket, you can plant onions at their preferred depth while giving plenty of room for their roots. It also allows you to place them anywhere around your garden that works best. Once you've finished this step, you can add your soil mixture and your seeds (or sets). Lastly, cover your seeds or sets and buckle in for a few months of care before you enjoy the harvest. Thankfully, onions don't need much to thrive, just provide them with the right fertilizer depending on their variety (onions tend to require more nutrients than other plants). Keep the soil moist while avoiding waterlogged soil (which the open-bottomed buckets will help with).

Using Dollar Tree buckets for your onion garden takes away much of the kneeling and crouching involved with caring for alliums. That's not their only benefit: Because these buckets can come in many different colors, it also allows you to organize multiple crops. You can also tailor the soil to better fit each plant's needs, whether that's changing the pH or adding fertilizer. Plus, if you're wanting to personalize to your garden, you can easily add DIY appliqués to upgrade boring plastic planters.