Job:06-700309 Title: CPS - Container Gardening Complete
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Job:06-700309 Title: CPS - Container Gardening Complete
#175 Dtp: 229 Page: 131
Job:06-700309 Title: CPS - Container Gardening Complete
#175 Dtp: 229 Page: 130700309 - ContainerGardens_001-272_FINAL.indd 131 5/24/17 12:10 PMSTEP 4 Gather the strips of hand towel together and
insert one end through the hole in the bottom of the
inner bin. Enough of the towel should extend through
the hole to reach the bottom of the reservoir bin. Then,
spread the upper portion of the towel strips out into
the bottom of the container, in a “+” shape. The towel
strips will serve as a wick, drawing water out of the
reservoir and delivering it to the soil in the upper bin.STEP 5 Fill the inner bin with a 50/50 mixture of high-
quality potting soil and compost. Don’t overfill with
the soil blend; leave 1 in. of headspace at the top to
collect any rainfall. Now you can plant. This 50-gallon
self-watering planter will house two patio-type
bush tomatoes, two basil plants, a cucumber vine, a
miniature watermelon vine, and a hot pepper plant. If
you use smaller bins, you’ll have to whittle down your
plant list. Water the plants after planting. This will be
the only time you’ll need to water from the top.STEP 6 Insert stakes and cages, if necessary. For this
example, we used two colored tomato cages to support
the tomato plants as they grow, but you could also
incorporate any of the trellising ideas discussed later
in this chapter.STEP 7 Though you won’t have to add water to the
reservoir every day, you will have to check it from time
to time. Fill the reservoir by inserting a hose into the
hole in the back of the planter and letting it run until
water starts coming back out of the hole. The amount
of water needed depends on how empty the reservoir
was when you started.130Text Black5
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Caring for Your Containers 131The Water Delivery System
There’s no single best way to deliver water to your
container garden—it’s only important that the
water is focused on the plants’ root zone rather
than on the foliage. Plenty of gorgeous container
gardens are watered by hand, with watering cans,
buckets, or pitchers full of water. Others are hand-
watered with a gentle spray from a water wand
nozzle attached to the end of a hose. But if you
really want to cut down on the amount of time you
spend watering, consider setting up an automatic
irrigation system to water your containers.
This is a particularly useful method if you
grow a large number of containerized fruits and
vegetables, or if you’re growing for commercialpurposes. Automatic irrigation systems deliver
water to containers drop by drop, which is very
efficient because the water is delivered straight
into the pot with very little lost to evaporation
or misapplication. This type of system is usually
installed by distributing irrigation tubing along
rows of containers, and then running a section
of small, flexible tube out from the main tubing
and into each of the pots. Irrigation kits are
sold at nurseries, farm supply stores, specialty
greenhouse and irrigation supply companies,
or you can build your own automatic irrigation
system by following the step-by-step instructions
found in the next project sidebar.
Once installed, irrigation systems can be
hooked up to a programmed timer, or the system
can be turned on or off with a simple twist of
whatever spigot it’s connected to.Commercial container growers often use automatic
drip irrigation to water many pots at the same time.
The next project shows you how to make a similar
system to use at home.
This bucket-in-bucket system at the rooftop garden
of Dinette Restaurant in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania,
utilizes an automatic irrigation system to make
watering easier. Water is added to the bottom bucket
via a drip system and then wicked up into the top
grow bucket as needed.Job:06-700309 Title: CPS - Container Gardening Complete#175 Dtp: 229 Page: 130 (^) Text Black Job:06-700309 Title: CPS - Container Gardening Complete #175 Dtp: 229 Page: 131
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