The Self-Watering Container

Do you want to grow your own vegetables, herbs and fruits, but have little to no space to do it?  If your answer is yes, then think about taking the plunge into container gardening.

1. Take a container large enough to house whatever you want to grow
2. Make sure your container has a drainage hole at the bottom
3. Fill the bottom of your container with gravel, rocks, or a piece of broken pottery over the hole
4. Fill with potting soil
5. Plant...your plant(s)

*You don't want water pooling at the bottom of your container and keeping the roots doused with water, thus the reason for a drainage hole(s).

*The gravel/rocks/pottery ensures that proper drainage can occur (and so your potting soil doesn't wash away through the drainage hole).

*Potting soil is needed because it's less dense than garden soil, so drainage will be better.

I took it one step further after looking at some cool projects where people had converted their containers into self-watering containers.  The concept goes something like this: the plant draws moisture from the water reservoir at the bottom of the container via a wick, and you're left with easy maintenance as far as watering goes.  But wait, how can there be a water reservoir at the bottom if there's a drainage hole at the bottom too?  This is where it differs!

Here's a rough diagram (and by rough, I mean ROUGH) that was made in MS Paint in approximately 1 minute.  It's pretty easy to understand.  There's a lot of different designs out there for self-watering containers, so don't take it that this is the only or best way to do it.

And now for the real deal!

List of Materials

• Potting mix
• Rocks
• Drill
• Measuring tape
• Sharpie
• Box cutter
• (2) PVC pipes cut to length
• (2) Plastic containers
• (2) Buckets
• Plastic bags

Steps

• Clean buckets and PVC pipes.
• Mark 4" from the bottom of the buckets with sharpie.

• Drill holes for drainage.

• Mark 4.5" from the bottom of the plastic containers.

• Cut them!

• Save tops of plastic containers for something else (funnels etc.)

• Poke/cut holes all over plastic containers. Don't poke/cut holes in your body.  Unless you're into that sort of thing.

• Line plastic containers with a plastic bag and poke/cut holes in the bags.

• Fill containers with soil and pack tightly.

• Place containers in the middle of your buckets and fold the flaps in.

• Place PVC pipe and rocks around the plastic containers.  Make sure the PVC is close to your drainage hole so it's easier to see when to stop watering.  You want the rocks to come up to the top of your containers.

• Unfold bags and place more as needed to create a barrier on top of the rocks.

• Fill with soil, but don't pack it in tight.  Less dense = better drainage.  Place plants in at appropriate level and fill around with more soil.  Don't soil yourself.

• Deeply soak the plants since you're transplanting them.

• Fill PVC with water until the buckets start peeing.

• Place in sunny location next to their brothers and sisters.  Welcome to the family Mr. Zucchini and Mrs. Artichoke!

• Fill the water reservoir as needed via the PVC pipes.  You could get all fancy and take this design further by automating the whole watering process.  Fertilize as needed and hope for a bountiful harvest!