Ah... the humble shipping container. Sturdy workhorse, but kind of plain. We decided to deck ours out a bit and make it not just a place to store our tools, but to also build David's "man cave" and put in some vertical farming elements. We also installed a living roof to grow some shallow rooted veggies. We were also pleasantly pleased when we noticed how much of an insulating effect the roof and pallets provided.
Shipping container arrives. We put in two windows, a dividing wall on the inside dividing the container into 2 20 foot halves, and put in a door to access the right half (the left half is accessed from the container's swinging doors).
The container is slid off the semi truck and in place
Put up a series of 2x8x12's along the sides to act as support beams for the pallets and also to aid in holding the living roof borders. Placed a pond liner up top and put some drainage holes to allow the soil to drain.
After stacking the pallets and securing with screws and zip ties, we secured in rain gutters
4 inch gutters along the front wall on in place. Inexpensive 3 inch gutters are placed on the eastern wall. The 3 inch gutters are shallow, but should be fine for small herbs. Holes were drilled on the bottoms of the gutters, and drip irrigation/emitters were stringed along the top. As one gutter saturates, is drips to the gutter below, etc.
Basil are coming up nicely!
Drip tape put in on the top of the container... and just in time... the kale were beginning to look parched
The view from the roof top looking back at the house