I was out of town for 10-days around Thanksgiving and filled up the the self-watering containers on my balcony garden the morning that I left.

When I came home you would never know that I wasn’t there to water and take care of them. Just check out the pic above and watch the video below.

This is partly due to how the self-watering containers work and how the plants absorb the water from the reservoir container.

When I explain to people how to build a self watering container, one of the first questions that’s usually asked is, “How often do you water it?”

They will say that they are too busy to water their garden everyday or travel too much. This just shows that you don’t have to dedicate a crazy amount of time.

There are many factors that determine how often you need to water them – such as weather, direct sunlight and type of plant. Generally, I change out the water in the reservoirs once a week.

This time I went away for 10 days, but I have gone away for 3 weeks and they’ve been fine. Anything past that and it starts to get iffy.

Share this post with those that tell you they don’t have the time to water a garden or travel too much.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k61EtHo2Mas

After 10 Days of Not Being Watered, This is What my Garden Looks Like from Urban Organic Gardener

Isn’t it mad frustrating and annoying when you start your seeds and they don’t sprout? Generally seeds will take somewhere between 7-14 days to sprout, depending on the seed. Once it hits that 14 day mark with no sprouts, start getting concerned.

About six-weeks ago, I started some lemon balm seeds on my balcony garden. They were planted in four parts of the container. I planned on thinning them out when they grew their true leaves so only the strongest stood. Six-weeks later and still nothing.

I shouldn’t say nothing, but very little. There are some small sprouts that appear to be attempting to forcing their way through. Not much though.

They have been watered regularly and get at least four hours of direct sunlight a day. I am going to say that the problem is with the soil that I’m using. It’s something that I’ve been suspect of for a while, but this solidifies it for me.

When taking a closer look at the soil, it has lots of twigs and bigger pieces. That’s not a great growing medium for containers. I’m going to toss the soil into the compost and get some new soil. Unfortunately, I don’t have the space to make my own potting soil like I did in Brooklyn. Damned soil.

What are some other reasons that seeds won’t sprout?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRJc05CmoSU

Your Seed Starting Soil Should Not Have Twigs from Urban Organic Gardener

People (haters) often bust my balls about how ugly my balcony garden is. They say that it’s beaten up and used 5-gallon containers and not very pretty.

I’ve decided to take the challenge of the haters and decorate my self-watering containers. One of my containers was decorated by my girlfriend, Anita, who did a much better job than I could ever do. Since I’m not nearly that artistic I got some inspiration from Life on the Balcony. Her finished containers are more stylish than mine, but I’m working on it.

This would be a great project to do with your kids and get them involved.

I removed the reservoir containers and painted them a solid color for now. I’ve been contemplating creating stencils for them, but am undecided at this point.

What do you think of the new look containers? Should I leave them solid colors or decorate them a bit more? If so, what should I put on them?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=whJeTiFjHRY

Decorating Your Recycled Container Garden from Urban Organic Gardener

If you are using manure tea to amend the soil in your there are a couple of different ways that you can use it.

Directly in the reservoir container. If you made your self-watering containers with the pipe, you can pour the manure tea into the pipe as you would normally water. If you aren’t using the pipe, then you can remove the planting container and pour the manure tea directly into the reservoir container.

When you are done watering, sprinkle some of the manure tea on top of the planting container and allow the self-watering container to do it’s thing.

Pour on top of the soil. You could also use the manure tea by watering the container from the top like you would normally water. The tea will eventually filter it’s way down to the reservoir container where it will be stored.

Either one of these methods is fine to use. I’ve been using the manure tea about once a month.

Are there any other ways that you could apply the tea?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=baWq2ciASMo

Two Ways To Use Manure Tea In Your Container Garden from Urban Organic Gardener

The one question that I most often get from people is where I get the containers for my garden from. When I posted a question on Facebook asking what posts people would like me to write, it was mentioned again by some friends.

The first thing is that I never buy the containers brand new. I don’t for a few reasons. The most important is that I don’t want to use any unnecessary resources and materials, especially plastic. The other reason is that there are much cheaper ways.

Here are some places that you can easily get the containers for free or for a $1:

Bodegas
When I was living in NYC, the containers used on my fire escape garden, I got containers for free from the local bodegas.

All bodegas use the containers to put their flowers in. When I walked by and saw a big stack, I’d ask if I could take 3-4 of them off their hands. The usual answer was no. I’d follow up with how about just 1 or 2. They would usually say yes just so I’d stop bothering them. Free containers. That simple.

Farmers Market
Since I’ve moved to Los Angeles, and stared my balcony garden, there aren’t many bodegas where I live. So I’ve been sourcing them from the flower vendors at the farmers market for $1 each. It’s not free, but still not too bad.

Other places that you can likely get the containers from are:

Restaurants, Delis, Bakeries and Deli Section of Supermarkets
All of these places usually get their shipments of mustard, mayonnaise, pickles, etc in the 5-gallon containers. Check with them to see if they have any that they aren’t using.

It’ll be much easier if you are a regular customer or have a relationship with them. If you aren’t, it’s still worth inquiring.

Where you don’t want to get your containers from:

Construction Sites
It’s likely that the containers from construction sites had plaster, concrete, paint or something else nasty mixed inside of it. You don’t want to be growing your food out of that.

What other places are good to get containers from?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4jNbC2-hhCA

Where To Get Containers For Your Container Garden from Urban Organic Gardener

A common excuse that people often give to not grow their own food is that they don’t know when or how much to water their plant.

I was away from my balcony garden for nearly two weeks during the holidays. While on vacation, I did not once travel back home to water my garden.

This wasn’t the first time that I was away for an extended period of time without having someone water the containers.

That doubt and thought started to creep into my mind as well. Some of the plants I started from seed and weren’t doing too well. A lot of the plants were dying or just looking pathetic. I just kept on though.

I started to think that I was under watering or over watering. Everyone was telling me something different. Then I stepped back and just let the plants do their thing.

One of the reasons that I use self-watering containers is that they allow plants to drink up the water naturally. It takes out a lot of the guess work. If you think it’s too dry, you can stick your finger in the overflow hole to check the water level or just remove the planting container all together.

Though the water in the reservoir container should be changed every week or so even though there are holes to allow for circulation. The water can get stagnant and nasty.

If you take a look at the picture above you can see how well the collard greens are doing.

There goes another excuse as to why you can’t grow your own food shot down.

What’s your excuse now?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7-ecHC7KGs

Eliminating Another Excuse Not To Grow Your Own Food from Urban Organic Gardener

I have about 10 self-watering containers on my balcony garden. In taking care of them, I’ve started to notice that the reservoir containers have been starting to stank and form algae.

The reason for this might be because there is no room for the air to circulate. The air can get in through the overflow hole, but no other way to get out.

What I’d recommend is to add 2-3 additional drainage holes around the reservoir container to allow the air to freely circulate.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3Bkaytx2zE

Allow for Air Circulation in Your Self-Watering Containers from Urban Organic Gardener

We know that you need to feed your plants and amend the soil in your container garden. Here is a quick how to on amending the soil.

You’ll need the following:
• Container that is free of plants
• Cultivator
• Compost
• Water

How to amend the soil:
• Use your cultivator to break up the soil
• Add some compost to the container
• Work the compost into the soil
• Water the container and let it drain through

Your container is now ready for the next round of planting.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DIv2lkvxX2A

How to Amend the Soil in Your Container Garden from Urban Organic Gardener