Troughs: Getting ready for the plants

I'm going with Alpine Plants for everything as they are hardy and don't mind getting wet but need to drain well. Plus I actually prefer them as the tend to be smaller or at least if you manage them - that's the idea anyway.. I bought 2 troughs as planned and drilled plenty of drainage holes in the base.

Above you see each trough has a bar through the centre which actually sits on the balcony and so is very secure. However, it does constrict the inside of the trough but not for our use as you will see.
Next I placed some netting and plastic mesh over the drainage holes...

After the netting which creates a gap above the holes in the base I put some gravel. The gravel I used was mixed and not larger than 1cm. At this stage I din't add any compost - these trough are quite large and I needed to raise up the bottom somewhat.

as you can see by the ruler there is still plenty of room to the top of the trough... I used gravel but you could use anything which does not absorb or retain water.
Next we build up to the top - firstly add plenty of compost - you need the type which drains well like bulb compost for instance... According to Google that is - and peoples advice has been wrong before so I will let you know how it works out.

As you can see there is a good 10 cms to the top of the trough - I filled it to the bar across the centre at this stage. For the top section you need to mix the compost with some agricultural grit apparently. I used the left overs of my gravel so quite a coarse mix - you need to mix 1 scoop of compost to 1 scoop of grit or gravel etc.. This makes sure it drains well and is very important - again I'm not sure if my method works just yet but I will soon enough!

The next stage I did slightly differently on each trough - I wanted to add some broken slates to break up the display. In the first trough I put the slate in first - topped up with grit and compost mix and in the second put the mix in first, planted and then topped up and added slates..
Let's show you the first one on this post. Firstly break up some slates by scoring them and placing them over something and breaking them.  Be aware they do not break evenly and also create a lot of fibres and dust!

Once you have plenty of shards like above then lay them in the trough and top up with the compost and grit mix..

you are ready for planting!

Next part: HERE