Large Homemade Self Water Garden Container
Attached to Rain Barrel for Automatic Watering of Grapes :)
One of our favorite garden beds, is the large self water container. Using a float and attaching it to the rain barrel, we plant grapes around Bryson's entry to his earth bag room :)
Links
Self Water Strawberries from Four Years Ago Click Here :)
Shelly
June 24, 2016
Transcript of Video
We bought some grape plants and needed to get them planted before we took off for a few days. They weren't going to survive the heat in those little pots. Everyone was busy working diligently on their comicon costumes but luckily, Garen finished early so he agreed to help me out.
One of our favorite ways to grow plants is by using a self water raised garden and we found the perfect spot for it.
This is where we're gonna put our self watering grapes.
We like to do the self water planters because well, they work really good off the rain barrels for one with the float in them but also in the desert, it's so hot out here in the afternoon. And you never really know what that plant needs. Self water works good because the plant just takes what it needs when it needs it.
Bryson wants climbing plants and grapes seemed like a good choice.
So what are you putting on that?
Gasket Maker
Gasket Maker. Okay [laughing]
Garen digs the rain barrel down a little and digs a ditch to lay the pipe under the railroad tie.
He then connects the pvc pipe from the rain barrel to the blue self water container.
Garen uses a hose to pvc connector.
The pipe is installed permanently to the self water container.
The float is responsible for keeping the water level up.
He places an off and on valve so we can turn it off during the winter months.
Once he gets it leveled, we add water to the barrel and let it set for a day to ensure the float is functioning properly.
The next day Garen constructs a platform from a plastic bucket. He cuts hole around the top and cut outs around the bottom for water flow.
The platform is placed in the container. A piece of fence is used to distribute the weight and the garden cloth keeps the dirt from falling in.
We almost forgot to add the pipe we use for testing the water level. So Garen makes a quick cut out of the garden cloth and slips it in.
The dirt touches the water and wicks to the plant. It works like any other self water container.
We water them for the first day or two to start the wicking process.
When we get back from Comicon, Bryson installs the gutter.
The grapes did well while we were away.
We want to eventually put gutters around Bryson's entire building but for now, we'll start with the entry.
We've used plastic in the past but these metals ones seem to be better and they're 5 inch too, so bigger.
The same afternoon it rained. We got to try out the system and it worked like a charm.
I found this on sale for $3 on clearance because I was looking online at rain chains and they can be quite expensive. They can be as much as, just shy of $100. And so, I'm gonna go ahead and use this.
We want to have as little intrusion on stuff that's flowing down that gutter as possible.
Four years ago we did a video on our first large self water container. You're welcome to watch it but be warned, it's REALLY corny.
We've had those strawberries going for I don't know, they've been there for a few years now. It's been very successful. Every year the strawberries pop back up. And then in the winter months, we shut down the self water so that it can dry out a little bit. Because otherwise it can get root rot if those roots sit inside the water. So each year, they pop back up.
I don't know if it would be successful with every plant, but it's definitely been successful with the strawberries. So, we're hoping to get the same results with the grapes.
Mom is working diligently to create a garden atmosphere in the courtyard. We will periodically bring you updates on how that's all going. Until next week, we'll see ya next time!
But we just use him, there's a pool under him. Like a kiddie pool you can see the shape is round. This one works too. And then we'll plant either sweet potatoes or bell peppers or something like that when the rains come.
This one you can see, he's kinda dried out because I have to water him by hand because this one stopped working. It's a blackberry. It's not thornless so it's not really a fun plant anyway. I think the problem with this one was, it is very high and there was a lot of dirt here. And my guess is that the weight came down too much maybe on the float. Anyway, we'll see when we take it apart.
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www.greenhomebuilding.com/adobe.htm
www.earthbagbuilding.com/articles.htm
www.earthbagplans.wordpress.com
We moved from the city to the country in 2005. Since then, we have been building structures, raising livestock and growing some of our own foods. We are crazy about family, nutrition and want the best for our growing family.
