Self Watering Mini Garden

Step 5 Wait...

Now wait and enjoy your little garden. This is a picture of mine after about a month. Everything has grown beautifully!

Please note that the basil was a lot bigger the day before I took this picture. But I had used a lot of in my pasta sauce. :-)

Some tips from experience:
- Drill some holes in the lower box just underneath the point where the top box ends. This way you don't have to worry about overfilling the lower box (accidentally of if there are heavy showers)
- The one liter reservoir lasts for about 2 days of intense sunshine. (but that's here in Switzerland This may vary in other climates)

Comments

[cameronlaferney]

thanks so much im gonna try this ,but do you still have to fill up the bottom container with water every few days. : D

[RomanH]

As mentioned in a comment further down, you can increase the size of the reservoir by finding some method of raising the top container. I've played around with several containers and setups and they all have different "refill needs". :-) And you can always improve the design by adding a refill tube through the tob container. Nevertheless, the gardening season has just started this year and as long as there isn't much foliage at the plants there is not much water evaporating. So for the moment refill about once a week.

[susantoliu]

Great Idea.. are the plats can absorb water from the bottom by self? I will try this method. I will report to u next time. Thx.

[aceitunita]

Do you have this self-watering system for your mini apple trees that were grown here?

[RomanH]

Since the mint took over the entire box within a couple of weeks I had to build a separate (slightly smaller) system for the apple trees. They are still alive I guess. We shall see how the do once spring finally arrives where I live... :-)
I've got big gardening plans for this season. I've already got a couple of chili plants growing in self-watering-systems like this one. (indoors for now)

[LancePenney]

Nice, simple, cheap and effective. Great work!