As our garden grows.... an experiment too

[mommy4ever]

We are struggling with black thumb syndrome here. But in chatting with somebody, I realized the real issue is all the mature pines and spruce trees. It's a losing battle trying to change the soil...so she suggested trying a few things.

1 - we already know the rhubarb does well
2. plant other acid loving plants. I'm going to create a raspberry patch in one section
3. blueberry enjoys acid soil, so I'll add a couple of those to see what happens.

OK< anyway, so the only way I'll grow is in containers....

But we're away most weekends. But I did an experiment this week... here is where we started:


6 pails: free
3 garbage bags: .18
pvc pipe: $13 for the 2 lengths. This will be enough 12-14 of what I'm construction.

Next:

Made 1 approx 3" hole
1 1 inch hole
and several 1/4 inch holes in bottom of 3 buckets.

Next:

drilled 1/4" holes approx 3 inches up.

Next:


Cut pipe to it was about 8 inches taller than pails. It is cut at an angle.


Next I took a disposable drinking cup and cut 4 slits around the cup.


I wanted a little more space between the stacked buckets so I use a glass jar. I chose the jar as it wouldn't affect the water quality, and it wouldn't be ruined.




Then I put the really wholey pail into the one with the side holes.



I placed the drinking cup in the large whole, and the pipe in the next size hole.


Then I filled the cup with dirt, it was packed firmly.


I continued to fill the pail, still keeping it firm in the center, but looser around. The plant was added and the dirt filled to be a dome in the pail


Next I covered the pail with plastic to keep out weeds.



And then we watered it.


I'll post more on the experiment tomorrow. We built 3 of these.

[mamamia]

Sheer genius!! I want to show this to my hubby. It only stands to reason that this will work, and I really can't wait to hear the final results. If it works, I'm going for it.....even with my own black thumb syndrome.

It looks like you're already off to a good start there. Just what is it that you're growing?

Thanks for this post!

Theresa

[Spirit Deer]

I've seen this before online. I'm sure it works well, but what I don't understand is why they want you to make the water reservoir so small. When I made our self-waterers, I set the top pail on the lid of the bottom one so the entire bottom pail could be filled with water, creating a large reservoir that seldom needs water added. We took a two-week vacation last year and our plants didn't even know we were gone.

We made our first ones with small fill tubes, too. The later ones have 2" and 3" tubes instead. Much easier and quicker to fill because we can just drop the hose inside and now we can look down the fill tubes and easily see if the reservoir needs water.

I also drilled overflow holes at the top of the bottom pail, so water will run out when the pail is full. Then we know we're not overfilling them.

Our self-waterers made a big dent in our black thumb syndrome. I'm sure yours will do great, too.

[mommy4ever]

Spirit Deer,

Not sure why so small, but I didn't have lids, so I did what I could.

Now that I see yours, I know what I'll do next round! I'll definitely be requesting with lids My only concern would be topping if it was windy. But I think once they are placed, a rebar would work just fine on 4 sides to hold it in place.

I know it does work, over night the first night, it absorbed at least. I was going to install a self watering system from the rain barrel, but Spiritdeer's idea is much easier..lol

What are you using for wicking under there?

[Spirit Deer]

The wick tubes go all the way to the bottom. I packed dirt down into them, and the water wicks up through that. Start here and continue clicking 'next' for the full tutorial on how to build my version.

I came up with these when I wanted Earthboxes but was too cheap to pay for them. So I just took the concept and, IMO, improved on it. Although the Earthboxes look nicer, of course. Since we have five cats and therefore an overabundance of litter pails, I didn't have to look far for the pails. The PVC I used was just some excess we had laying around. The only thing we ended up buying was the dirt.

Our tomatoes aren't doing very well this year, but I've decided that's due to lack of fertilizer. We really are pretty ignorant gardeners, but we're slowly improving our skills. I think adding Miracle Gro powder every time we fill the reservoirs would work well, so I plan to try that and see if it improves production.

The first year we had these, I grew a tomatillo that was about four feet wide and four feet high and produced like crazy. Since someone had told me tomatillos wouldn't grow this far north, I couldn't resist the challenge!

I've tweaked the original design of our planters a little. Now I just cut the back section off the lids so it's easy to plant things, so no drilling holes in the lids. I added overflow holes as I mentioned above. It turns out weeds will grow under the lids, but it takes minimal effort to pull them. And we'll never build any planters with the small fill tubes again.

The wick tube seems to be the right size though. The soil stays damp but not soggy.

If you live where it freezes, be sure to drain the reservoirs in the fall. We have two or three planters we had to set in new pails due to freezing and cracking.

Lately I've been contemplating how to build a self-watering system for our table garden. It seems challenging due to its large surface area and shallow depth. We shall see.

If the planters are not allowed to dry out, I'm not sure tipping would be a problem. They are top-heavy though when water levels get low, so I guess if it's extremely windy, it might tip them. They're very stable when kept full of water, of course. Anchoring them with rebar is an option of course, but an extra expense.

[mommy4ever]

We have access to materials, FIL company, when they jobsite is complete, whatever materials are left over, we're able to recycle them. We can get river rock, rebar, landscape fabric, used 2x8's all kinds of different things that otherwise end up in the landfill. The company loves us, this spring so far we've saved them almost $2000 in landfill fees. And we got materials for free..lol

I just placed an add on earthcycle for kitty litter pails.

I'll be collecting for awhile.

Just a thought, my mom is asking my uncle for the barrels they have from the molasses they feed their cattle. (I didn't know you gave them molasses), if you know any farmers, you might ask to see if they have. I'm looking into that too My uncle is 5 hours away from me, so not an option..lol

[Debbie-cat]

Looks great!!

[Spirit Deer]

Good idea about the barrels, but no farmers up here.

You don't have to use cat litter pails. Any stackable pails would do.

[mommy4ever]

Oh, I know, but I'm having a hard time getting pails of any kind... just putting the idea out there. The restaurant pails, people are selling them for more than Home depot.

[mommy4ever]

Oh, we can grow tomatillos here, my girlfriend just showed me what they were. Hers is massive. We're in Northern Alberta.

Out of curiosity, what is your hardiness zone, we're a 3a/b

[Spirit Deer]

We're in zone 3, northern Minnesota near the Canadian (northern Ontario) border.

[mommy4ever]

We're in zone 3, northern Minnesota near the Canadian (northern Ontario) border.

Cool, so similar conditions A gardening buddy!

[frugalfranny]

What a neat idea...................thanks for sharing.

And keep us posted..........