I am a lazy gardener. As such, I often find that I haven’t watered my garden nearly as often as I should. So when I saw plans for a self-watering bucket garden, I knew I had to try it.
I got lots of tomatoes!!
start with two identical buckets
drill a 3″ hole in the center and a 1 1/4″ hole at the side
cut slits in the side of a plastic cup
insert the cup in the bottom
fill the cup and bucket with potting soil. Insert a 1″ PVC pipe in the smaller hole. It should be long enough to extend above the top of the soil. This is your water filler tube. Put the soil-filled bucket into the other bucket. Drill a 1/2″ hole two inches from the bottom of the second bucket. This is your water overflow. Lightly mix 1/4 cup of 10-10-10 into the top of the soil. Cover the bucket with strong aluminum foil to keep rain out.
see how vigorously the roots grew?
Every few days, put water into the tube until it flows out the bottom. Water is wicked up by the soil-filled cup and slowly dissolves the fertilizer from the top of the soil.