Gone Feral In Idaho

this is a fully photo documented tute on how to make your own self-watering container for large plants. hopefully this one will support two pumpkin plants.  we also make smaller 5 gal bucket versions with only one "well". step one, find a suitable container: drill multiple holes with a large bit in 4 inch PVC tubing, we used two 7-inch pieces. the length and width will depend on the overall size of the container. here's what the "wells" will look like in place. the holes are to allow water from outside the wells to permeate inside the two columns of potting soil. next, drill a bunch of holes in an old lid from a container cut to fit on top of the wells in side the container.  this is for the platform base that the wells sit under.  the wells will go in the two circles with x's in them. drill holes very near to those circles so that you can zip-tie the wells on to them. also drill holes near to the top edges of the wells for this purpose.   here is the bin...

We broke out the salad bar Kyle build last year out of a rubber-maid style storage bin. It is self watering and we will post some how-to's when we convert our now defunct recycling bins now that the city has changed to big city-style garbage and recycling cans. The concept is basically a perforated shelf lined with landscaping fabric (to keep the soil from washing out) and landscape fabric lined wells that go down into a water reservoir. The soil wicks the water up as needed and they usually only require weekly refills making gardening in the high desert a breeze.  Homemade self watering tubs are great because they don't cost much, you get to say you made it, and you can move them around to meet the needs of your plants.   The PVC pipe is the watering tube we drop a funnel into for weekly fill up. The set up worked so great last year we decided to keep this one a salad bar. We have several varieties of leaf lettuce, three varieties of radishes, and som...