Ideas for Growing Veg & Flowers in Vintage Sink Planters

From farmhouse kitchen to shabby chic gardens

Vintage sink planters don’t only look great, they’re also great for growing vegetables, flowers, and even creating mini-ponds. This piece includes tips on where to find them and how to plant them up. Video at the very bottom shows how to plant them with spring flowering bulbs

A couple years ago I noticed a beat up old Belfast sink at our allotment garden. There’s a path that leads from the car park to the field and someone had left the sink just off to the side. It was as if they’d unloaded it and were going to move it onto their plot. It sat there for six months before I decided to take it home and give it new life.

Stoneware sinks of all kinds are perfect for growing veg or flowers. They have a built in drain and the thickness of the stone can protect plant roots and bulbs from extreme temperatures. They’re also built to last so a belfast sink will become a shabby-chic garden feature that outlives all your other planters.

A beautiful alpine planting that I found on Pinterest

Ideas for Vintage Sink Planters

I was incredibly excited to take the abandoned sink home. It looks good and I knew from other gardeners that stoneware sinks are incredibly versatile planters. You can plant them with all manner of greens and flowers or even use one to create a mini-pond. Not only are they practical but their crisp white lines are a contrast to the living green that pours from them. They add so much character to the garden, no matter how you have them planted. Here are some ideas:

• Create an alpine garden
• Plant them with spring bulbs
• Grow culinary herbs like coriander (cilantro), basil, and thyme
• Fill them with water to create a water feature
• Pack them with succulent plants like hen and chicks
• Insert a trellis in them and grow sweet peas

A mini-pond will attract frogs and wildlife to your garden — image via the RSPB

Finding Vintage Belfast Sinks

I actually damaged my car getting the thing home and probably hurt my back a little in the process. It doesn’t look that big but it weighs a ton. A little less actually, 47 kilograms (103 pounds) of dead weight to be exact. I managed to get it into the passenger side of my little car, scraping the inner part of the door frame in the process. Moral of the story: when you find your own planter, make sure you ask someone to help you move it.

You can find old belfast, butler, and other vintage sinks online

Here on the Isle of Man I’ve seen quite a few vintage stoneware sinks being used to feed and water livestock. If I were looking for another one locally I’d probably ask a farmer or go to a Buy-and-Sell group on Facebook. On a small island like ours it’s amazing how things can come out of the woodwork if you just ask if anyone had one for sale. As for price, I’ve seen old ones like my own for £5-30 being sold online. In the UK, check Gumtree, Ebay, and reclamation sites.

Across the pond, belfast and butler sinks are more difficult to pick up. I’ve just done a quick search on Craigslist for ‘vintage sink’ though and there are plenty of listings. Ebay is the same and my search just now turned up some pretty funky pink, blue, and green retro sinks.

Herbs planted in a Belfast sink — image via Klaus and Heidi

How to plant Vintage Sink Planters

The trick to a successful vintage sink planter is to make sure the drain isn’t plugged up with soil. Placing gravel, crocks, shells, and pebbles in the bottom can help excess water to escape. On top of that place your compost, then whatever you’re growing. Finally, a layer of grit or gravel on top to keep the compost from drying out and eroding. Plants have no problem pushing through.

• Place the sink in its final position before planting. It will be back breaking to move afterwards
• It will help drainage if you can place the sink on bricks or wooden blocks
• Fill the bottom of the sink with 1-2″ of gravel, crocks, shells, pebbles, or small rocks
• Fill the sink with compost up to 1″ from the top or overflow drain that might be on the side
• Sow with seeds or dig in your plants
• Top dress with grit or gravel and then water

Not only did it provide greens, but this heavy belfast sink kept my greenhouse in place during storms

See how I planted my Belfast sink with flowering bulbs

For the past couple of years I’ve been growing edibles in my sink planter — rocket, lettuces, and radishes to name a few. I plan on growing veg in it again next year, but not before it puts on a pretty show in the spring.

In this week’s video I show the progress of the new back garden, prune the fruit trees, and plant the belfast sink with crocus and tulips. Well first I struggle bus it up the slope — please don’t laugh. Have a watch of the planting video below and let me know as a comment what you’d plant in it if given the choice.

Watch the video above to see how I’ve planted the vintage sink with spring flowering bulbs. There’s a short ad at the beginning and the video will begin just afterwards.