How Do You Build A Self-Watering Container?
Filling buckets and bins with plants may seem like a great idea in the spring, but when summer temperatures soar, watering each plant takes time. Neglect of a day or two may spell disaster, making it impossible to leave your plants in the middle of summer. Building self-watering containers takes the worry out of being away for a day. Select a bucket of the appropriate size for the plants you intend to grow. A 5-gallon bucket is ideal for growing tomatoes and peppers, but a small 2-gallon bucket is adequate for flowering plants like geraniums, impatiens and petunias. Stack the two buckets so one rests inside the other. The rim on the inner bucket should rest on the lip of the outer bucket. Measure the distance from the top of the inner bucket to the top of the outer bucket to determine the depth of your water reservoir. The reservoir is the space between the two buckets and equals the distance between the top of the inner and outer bucket. Wash and dry a 2-liter soda bottle, and mark th
