4/23/2008

DIY Self-Watering Planters

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You know, I can't stand to pay a lot of money for something I know I could probably make myself without having to spend near as much.  Take, for example, self-watering window boxes and planters.

Since I divide my time between the mountain and town, it's impractical to have pots of flowers or window boxes at the cabin.  Last summer was proof enough of that.  I filled planters with lovely summer blooms and one pot with a tomato plant only to have them about die of thirst.

This year I found self-watering window boxes and planters online.  What a great concept!  They have reservoirs that hold extra water and so you don't need to be around every single day to give your thirsty plants a drink.

And for that privilege, you pay way too much money.

I put them on my garden "wish list" and 2 window boxes and 2 tomato planters as presents. But I could use a lot more of them, as the cabin gets sun while the house in town doesn't get much.

When I opened the boxes and saw how the things were constructed, I thought, hey, even I could do that! Maybe.

My rule for such projects is simple- you have to use what's lying around.  No spending money on things that may not work out. (New rule set in place after the black landscape fabric fiasco.)

 

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So, I had a pottery bowl that had been given to me as an intended future sink for one of my renovation projects that never happened, a broken fireplace grate left behind by the cabin's former owners, a plastic plant liner and an old dog pull toy made from braided rope that I found out in the field, abandoned.

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The plastic liner becomes the reservoir.  The un-braided dog toy becomes the wick to fit through the hole in the planter and slowly provide water and the purple sink is the new planter.

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I suppose we shall see what we shall see.

 

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