How to Make a Self-Watering Container

I am always on the lookout for practical and frugal gardening ideas. I stumbled upon a few ideas that have gotten my garden creative juices flowing and I hope they will you too. I have three that I think are wonderful ideas to try. Here goes...

The video and directions for this self-watering container are well written and recorded. This made my imagination run wild over the possibilities of how I could apply it in other containers I already have here.

One thing I can tell you about gardening in Texas. One season you are fighting flood-like conditions and the next, drought. Summers here are hot and dry making it necessary to water your plants in containers once or twice per day. Now you can see why I jumped all over this idea when I found it!

I do have one reservation though and I need to do some research on it. The vinyl tile with what seems to be a glued surface on the back. I am concerned about chemicals leaching into the water, especially when our temps hit 100+ here. It may be perfectly safe, but I always err on the side of caution. I'm sure I can easily find a substitute for this when I think about it in depth. I just need to put on my thinking cap. Any ideas?

How to Make a Self Watering Container

Here is another do-it-yourself self-watering container. This one is based off of the design of an Earthbox(TM). I LOVE using totes for so many things, that this just seemed to be a natural pick for me also. The link I am including will direct you to a .pdf file website. (thus the download of it when you click on it) The pictures and instructions are well written, so you should be able to follow them easily.

I do have a concern about this one also if you live in a hot climate. Although most of us have PVC for water pipes, there has been concern that PVC may have the potential to leak harmful chemicals into the water. So, do the research yourself and do what you are comfortable with when building this. Of course PLASTIC itself has raised a lot of concern in recent years about how it affects our health. So, that said, I still think that all of these plans are worth trying even if you modify them to your standards of safety.

Here's the link to make your own: Self-Watering Tote

I really like the professional look of the next self-watering container. It is huge also! I believe the container is a 30+ gallon tote. This is a great size to grow tall vining plants such as tomatoes. The size of the base will help in keeping the plant from toppling over in windy conditions. The video and instructions are very well made also.

Welcome to Tomato Festival's EarthTainer(TM)

Hopefully this will give both of us some garden projects to do while the weather is cold and yucky. I am looking forward to getting started!