May 12th, 2011 
Mamma Blogga 
Soil mixture supplies used in our self watering litter buckets
We added a cotton sock to the reservoir for wicking
Back on April 4th we posted a video showing how we made our single self-watering buckets and today we took a few photos of what we put into them. Last year we had good luck using dried leaves and since we couldn’t find any vermiculite at the neighborhood Home Depot, we decided to use it again this year to keep the soil loose. We used some larger leaves in the bottom of the bucket to keep the soil mixture from getting past the outer edges of the platforms we installed above the water reservoir. Then we mixed the three ingredients in the photos, including finely chopped leaves from our leaf mulcher
We added large leaves to keep soil from getting around platform edges
Without knowing whether our mixture would ‘wick’ properly, we cut some old cotton socks in half, lengthwise, and added them from top to bottom. I had seen one person post a video using ONLY a cotton wick without adding any soil to the small container in the lower reservoir so it seemed like good insurance.
By days end, we had managed to complete six buckets with three Celebrity and three Big Boy tomato plants. We also planted eight pepper plants, four per bucket. We may be sorry that we put that many in one bucket but we were running out of our self watering buckets.
Buckets were then filled to the top with soil mixture
Tomato plants were added (Celebrity and Big Boy)
Today, we stopped by Ace Hardware and decided to add a few more plants to our 2011 crop. To add to our Celebrity and Big Boy tomato plants, we bought some cherry tomatoes, some Early Girls, and some Jet Star plants. To go with our Carnival and Habernero peppers, we bought some green and yellow bells and also some Hungarian Wax to use in our 2011 salsa sauces. The next several days will be busy making more self watering buckets since we can’t use last years buckets. I thought about trying to seal up all the drain holes in them but decided against it. I have a number of litter buckets in the garage with things like fertilizer and weed-and-feed in them. They will get a good scrubbing before using them.
Lids were labeled and installed along with a 5' stake
The rectangular holes that we added to the litter buckets seemed to hold the tomato stake quite well and once the soil compacts more from the moisture, it should remain solidly in place. I’m not sure what I will do if the plants grow higher than the stakes since it will be too late to install tall tomato rings or longer stakes. Last year we allowed the taller plants to lean on one another and that seemed to work well since the buckets were fairly close together due to the large quantity that I planted.
Six self watering buckets completed with tomato plants
Hopefully the predicted storms will hold off until the evening hours so that I can complete planting my latest purchases. Then again, I may not have my additional buckets ready in time. It takes less time to build them now that I have my system down pat and a lot of extra platforms already cut out. My favorite support under the platforms has become 1/2 of a large metal coffee can. Instead of drilling holes in it, I just use a ‘church key’ to puncture a number of holes along the bottom edge. The only holes I drill in it are the two for attaching it to the platform with two plastic wire ties. Being so large in diameter helps to support the weight of the soil in the bucket. We’ll post more photos once we have completed this years ‘bucket brigade’.
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Lil, thanks for stopping by and leaving a comment. I read all of your pages as you walked your viewers through the process of making wicking gardens. We are both doing similar processes. When I use two litter buckets I drill drain holes in the bottom of the top bucket to allow the roots to breathe and excess water to drain back into the water reservoir. After marking where the top bucket ends inside the lower bucket, I drill a 7/8″ hole at that line. This allows 7/8″ of airspace between the bottom of the top bucket holding the soil and the top of the water level in the lower reservoir. Where you are using a monitoring container to also fill your reservoir, we simply use a flexible funnel and fill ours until water starts running out. We eliminated the fill tube due to the questions on the use of PVC in a food product plus the fact that it really isn’t necessary.
In our single buckets, as shown in the videos, we use a platform that has a slightly wide space along the edges due to simply rough cutting them with a sabre saw. I hadn’t thought about using newspaper instead of larger leaves but that would work as well to keep the loose soil from dropping into the water reservoir until it gets compacted. Leaves have always been used, specially finely mulched ones from my leaf mulcher. I layer my soil mix and the fine leaves as I fill the buckets which also helps to keep the soil loose.
Today, I checked my self watering buckets and they all seem to be ‘wicking’ well. I topped off all of the reservoirs yesterday now that the soil seems properly moistened. Now I will be better able to monitor (using my pinky finger in the reservoir fill hole) just how many days can go by before any of them need water in the reservoirs.
My husband showed me you site on the self-watering buckets. I have not seen your previous video. I also have found upside down growers to be a problem. I have had success using cloth-covered cans in wading pools to grow flowers and some vegetables. I have a website which describes the process I used http://sites.google.com/site/wickgardening/. I thought you would find it interesting.
I saw the mark in your video where you drill your drain hole. I did not know how many inches up you go. Apparently you put leaves in the bottom. Do you put a barrier between the soil and the water at the bottom? When you add water to the bucket, what is the method? Do you have a way to monitor the level of water in the bucket?
This year I added newspaper on top of the cans and then added the soil. I have not added that method to the website yet. I am waiting to see how it turns out.