I recently saw a you tube that demonstrated self-watering garden buckets. Since my husband and I have land in Arkansas which we hope to retire to eventually, we travel up there whenever we can. This left me with needing someone to water my plants if I wanted any type of garden here. With gas being so high, I hate to ask anyone to do that and our good neighbor recently moved so what to do?
Then I saw a lady in Hawaii(sorry can’t find her to give her credit) who made a self-watering bucket that seemed very simple. All you needed was a bucket with a lid, a drill with a few different bits and an old towel.
You start out with any 5 gallon bucket. I found ours at Home Depot for 7.00. The lids were about a buck. (seems unfair to charge you for the lid). You also need 1 inch PVC pipe that you will need to cut in lengths(it should be long enough to reach the bottom of the bucket and be 2-3 inches above the top) and soil to fill your buckets.
Here are the steps:
- Cut the ring off the bucket lid
- Drill several holes in the what’s left of the lid for the wicking material ( I used an old towel cut into strips)
- Use a special auger bit to drill the one inch hole for the PVC pipe. You should do the drilling before you cut the ring off the bucket lid as it is easier to drill.
- After you finish you will end up with a lid that looks like this.
- You then get your smaller container and drill holes in the bottom. I did 4. This is to allow the water to fill the small support bucket under the lid and increase the space for water.
Bucket with container already inside ready for the lid and the PVC fill pipe.
- Next you put the lid on the small support bucket with half the towel strips hanging down into the water reservoir and half on top. These will be your wicks.
- Then you put in your PVC pipe which you cut at an angle on the bottom going into the bucket so it won’t be flat and the water can flow easily
- Fill bucket with a good potting soil mix and add fertilizer
- Fill the reservoir with water using a funnel in the 1 inch PVC pipe
- For the first fill you want to water the top as well but after that you can just fill the reservoir and your plants will be watered from underneath
- To avoid rain water flooding your buckets drill drain hole right below where the soil is sitting on the lid inside. (that’s easier to see on clear buckets but I could see OK.) I drilled 4 hole for drainage. Don’t forget to do this or your plants may drown when a hard rain comes.
There you have it! A self watering, raised bed grow system that you can use over and over every year just amending the soil as needed. I planted veggie’s in mine last week and they seem to be doing well.
I’ll let you know how they do this week while we will be gone.
Addendum: These worked well except I did not have sturdy enough support containers under the dirt and some of them collapsed. They held enough water to keep my plants going for the 4-5 days we are often gone. Not sure they’d make it longer in the dry hot part of summer. You’d need a bigger reservoir. Still, overall a neat idea with potential.
Here’s a link to my husband doing a video of the process.
Automated Watering System for Garden with Repurposed Plastic Bottles