DIY Project~ 5 gallon planters with water reservoir

Yesterday, I posted a long post with pictures of the garden and all of it's progress. I was feeling quite content with it all, and then went out to water the garden, and bring in a bag of new soil I had gotten. Well, somehow, that turned into a few projects! One involved some replanting and moving of a few plants, one was the creation of more planting containers, one involved clipping all the "path weeds" with scissors, and another involved rearranging the containers and securing the fence better.

I made 2 planting buckets, with a water reservoir and "drinking straw" for the plants. I don't know what I am going to plant in them, yet. So far, I've been testing the containers ability to drain. Another round of watering or so, and I will know if the overflow hole works too. :D I'm sure you would LOVE to see what I did, so I will make another one and take photos of what I did at all the important points.

***Time lapse***

While those are sending to my computer, I will start writing it all up for you. :)

I took 2 5 gallon buckets, that I have been very blessed to be getting for free from my hunny's workplace. This works out great, because I can use them for many different things. He mentioned the other day that my supply of them was REALLY BIG, and suggested that I put them to use. I suspect that if I didn't, he was considering not bringing me more. *grin* My buckets are not round, but if yours are, it changes nothing.



I took the bucket on the left, and flipped it over. Using my trusty mini drill, I drilled 4 holes in the bottom, somewhat near the corners.



Perfection will not matter, as no one should see this part when it is done. 4 holes, too small for a pencil to fit through.



Now, I took a towel, and put it in the bucket with 4 holes in the bottom, and fit that on top of the bucket on the right. By putting a light source behind the stacked buckets, I can see where the top bucket stops in the bottom bucket. My finger is on the line, under it is lighter, above is darker.



I took a pen, and marked a spot above that line (about a cm or so).



Then I REMOVED the top bucket and set it aside. I drilled a hole on my marked spot. This is now an overflow spout.



You can see in the above picture both buckets, and their drilled out holes.

Now, I was trying to figure out HOW the water was going to get from the bottom bucket to the top one, and was stumped for a moment or so. Then I remembered that I have yarn on hand. Yarn can make a great wick! So I snipped off 2 strings of about 18 inches long, and poked it through 2 of the 4 holes.



Then I pulled both strings out the bottom, about 6 inches.



Ta Da! Now I have my self watering planter bucket!

I took my buckets outside, and started gently scooping in the dirt. You might choose to add a 1 inch deep layer of pebbles or packing peanuts there in the bottom first, if you are worried about over watering, but here where I live, I cannot water my garden enough at times, and some plants are thirstier than others. I made a mound of dirt, and then layed the strings down in the heap, so that the strings are are about 1/3 of the way up the container, and then finished covering them up.



Now my containers are ready for planting. I left room for whatever plants I put in, and their covering soil. Since I just planted 6 mini buckets with various big plants with vines, I am happy to have square feet to put them into soon... Now, had I remembered to label the mini buckets before setting them out, I would know exactly which was going where. I will be writing in sharpie on the bucket planters, you can be sure!!

So there you go, some of my Pininterest findings, put to use and shared with my friends and readers. I hope this idea can spark off some of your own creative solutions, that perhaps you will even come back and share with me!