I needed a planter for a blackberry bush and didn’t want just to buy one. I found several ideas and one, in particular, caught my attention – a way to make it have a reservoir system, so it’s self-watering for a couple of weeks! I also am hoping for fruit at some point, so I made it have a seating ledge. It’s heavily sealed, but I wanted the rustic, industrial feel of the pallets. It has a homemade trellis mounted to it, which is nothing more than an upcycled scrap from a local cabinet maker’s computer-aided cuts. I stained/sealed it and mounted it to sturdier pallet boards and then secured it. The planter has a sealed heavy liner with about 6″ of gravel, covered with a water-permeable barrier (I used weed block), and then the potting soil mix is put on top. It has a piece of PVC pipe that is drilled throughout and an overflow tube that exits the back and when the reservoir is filled, it never drowns the plants and overflows onto a nearby rosemary bush. This will keep it safe if we ever get rain, haha! It has a hidden filler tube that hides beneath one of the bench slats, and I just use a regular hose to fill it until it overflows. I saw a video from a .org site, but I CANNOT find the video anymore to give them a proper nod.
https://www.treehugger.com/how-build-raised-garden-bed-waters-itself-4857403
how do you make this? Thank you!
The self-watering planter idea – I wish it was mine, but I read about it elsewhere. First, you build a planter box – whatever size you want, but you have to keep a couple things in mind… You need to allow at least 12″ for reservoir water and then you cannot have more than 18″ of dirt above the reservoir… Here’s a summary, but I’ll go into detail after. 1. build box. Account for min. depth of reservoir (12-20″), and then for dirt depth (max 18″). 2. Line box with heavy-duty plastic – nontoxic if using for raised garden bed… Read more »