After getting the news yesterday that the vegetable gardening season already started and some plants should already be out, I need to get moving quicker.

I went out to visit the ‘rents place today in Staten Island to make all of the self-watering containers at their crib.

All of the materials were there, so it was just a matter of putting everything together. At their spot, I have am going to have two containers and two buckets set up. Each container took about a half hour to put together regardless of the size.

There are two 30 quart containers that are about 17X12X11. In those I built room for a 3-4 quart water reservoir.

Also going made two buckets a five gallon that’s about 15″ diameter and 14″ height. I built about a 1.5 gallon reservoir in that. The other bucket is a little taller at 15″, but it’s more square shape. The reservoir holds about 3-4 quarts of water.

Each of the containers was marked at the bottom with the reservoir size, so I know for the future.

The biggest challenge is still cutting out the circles, but it’s getting somewhat easier. Cutting the circle around the pipe was a bit of chore. I am hoping that duct tape will sure things up.

At this point I have two concerns. The first is the level of the water reservoirs. Are they too much? Not enough? I have most of them measured off at about one gallon. That’s all part of this project though, documenting and learning for the next time.

The other concern is that the wicking containers and vinyl tiles will be able to handle the weight of the soil. I am thinking there will be some leakage of the soil into the water, but the soil won’t be as heavy because it won’t be water logged.

Completing the Self Watering Containers at My Parents from Urban Organic Gardener

I took a trip to the Farmers Market at Union Square today to find out when it’s ok to start putting the containers out and how many plants go in each bucket.

Yes, it would make sense if I had all of the containers and buckets ready, but I have just about zero complete. Still want to know how much of and what can be grown.

Went straight to the Silver Heights Farm stand and spoke to Trina, who was helpful.

Much to my shock she told me that it is the season for vegetable gardening. The containers should be out now because there are some vegetables that don’t stand the heat. That puts me behind a little bit then huh?

So now I need to truck ahead and build all of these containers. Oh yea, I also need to figure out what I am going to grow where. She said that I can email her any questions that I may have about what can grow in the containers once I have decided.

Now I need to decide.

It’s the Season for Vegetable Gardening from Urban Organic Gardener

Instead of buying one of them fancy upside hanging planters, I decided to reuse 2 liter soda bottles. Finding them was actually much easier and cleaner than expected.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJ_4QqBuOJw

Video: Getting Soda Bottles from my Basement from Urban Organic Gardener

by jamieleto

After securing the garden space in Staten Island and sleeping on it the past few days, I came up with a plan to make this more affordable and environmentally friendly.

I did as much research as I could into what would be the most affordable, environmentally sound and healthy way to do this project.

The first thing that I looked into was which plastics are food safe and environmentally safe? The numbers on the bottom of the containers surely mean something. Sure enough they do.

Then came across another site, which spoke about which plastic water bottles don’t leach chemicals.

So now I have a better idea on the quality and grade of the plastics that I’ll be recycling and using.

Next onto the self watering containers. Instead of using two buckets or bins, Inside Urban Green filled in the hole that was left from the Incredible Vegetables book. It had a post on building a Simple Sub-irrigation Insert using vinyl tiles.

Vinyl tile likely isn’t the best option in terms of water leaching, but need to balance the affordability with the money.

Up until this point, I still hadn’t thought about the wicking container. I could easily go to the pet store and buy a pond basket, but that would cost money and I’m sure that there ways to make my own.

I started to rummage through my grandmother’s shed and came across the jackpot. She had some old slot containers from Atlantic City (Now get it. Jackpot. Slot containers. Atlantic City). That gave me the idea to use plastic deli containers also that I can drill holes into.

So I asked my grandmother to start to save hers, even though she has an entire cabinet filled with them. She swears she needs and used all of them. My gram, always willing to help, put out a bulletin to all of her friends as well. Also, called my parents to ask them to save as well.

Now that I got the building aspects behind me. Need to compile all of these materials and put all of this together. Oh yea also need to figure out what I am going to plant and where. There’s that too.

Recycling and Making a Cheap Vegetable Garden from Urban Organic Gardener

I took my first crack at making the insert for the self watering container today. The hardest part was cutting a square into circles that would fit snuggly into the bucket. Yes, I just said snuggly.

Tools that I needed:
• Razor blade
• Scissor
• Pen
• Thumbtack
• Rope or string
• Something to measure water

Materials:
• 5-gallon bucket
• Coin cup to use as my wicking basket
• 1 12″x12″ vinyl tile
• Drill with 1/4″ bit

Steps in making the insert:
• Put the cup in the container and fill with water. Stop when the water reached the top of the cup. Was about 9 gallons.
• Next I traced the top and bottom circumference of the bucket onto the tile.
• Cutting out the circle of the tile wasn’t as easy as this website implied. Eventually I cut out the circle with the help of a scissor.
• Once the big circle was out had to cut the circle out in the middle for the wicking basket. This was fun.
• Now I had to trim down the outer circle so that it would fit into the bucket. Used the scissor for this. It was much easier than the razor blade.
• Then I had to drill holes in the cup. I used a 1/4″ bit and drilled a bunch of holes to allow the soil to soak up the water and feed the roots.
• It was then put all together and a 1/4″ hole was drilled in the side of the bucket just under the insert for overflow of water.

One insert down, many more to go. There has to be an easier way to cut the circles.

Building My First Self Watering Container Insert from Urban Organic Gardener

So in a matter of two days I’ve greatly expanded this project from a small garden on my fire escape in Manhattan to a large garden in Brooklyn and my parents in Staten Island.

That’s a lot for someone who has zero experience in this, but that’s how I do. When I get involved in something I go full steam ahead.

Now that I have all of these spots, the costs drastically increased. I need to let this sink in, figure out what I am going to grow and how. Also going to take another read through the book and catalog to see what’s reasonable.

The one thing that I know I’m definitely growing a lot of is greens. No doubt on that.

Starting a Vegetable Garden in Staten Island from Urban Organic Gardener

As you can see, by this time I am expert at getting buckets. Once I get my Flip Video camera I’ll have to record and educate you on my ways. For now just be in awe of my splendor.

I’ve also been doing more reading into building the self watering containers and what can be used. As of now, I am going to go with the bucket in bucket or the plastic tote in plastic tote approach. Those seem to be the ones that best suit my needs.

Recycling Buckets to Build My Containers from Urban Organic Gardener

First off, I scored my first bucket last night. On the way back from the movies (I checked out Anvil and highly recommend to any 80s metalheads out there). I saw one laying out next to a dumpster, so I snagged it. Soaked it over night in some baking soda and vinegar. Like new. My Gram sure is smart.

Besides being a ridiculously gorgeous day outside today, it was a productive one as well. Picked up the Incredible Vegetables from Self Watering Containers book from the library.

I went to the park, laid out in the grass and started to plow through it. It all seemed simple and doable. I liked that. The thing that I didn’t like about the book is the most important part of how to build the insert for the self watering container was completely left out. Luckily, I came across those other resources on self watering containers last week.

The entire back section listed all of the vegetables that can be grown in the containers – beets, carrots, onions, leeks, all kinds of greens (i love me some greens), cauliflower, broccoli, peppers, squashes, turnips…you get the point.

With this knowledge, I headed back to the Farmers Market at Union Square to see what plants I were available to buy. This time my trip wasn’t as disastrous as the last one.

I spoke to someone at Silver Heights Farm who answered my questions about shade, sunlight and watering. She also gave me their catalog since they don’t bring everything with them to the market. They have about 1.5 million different kinds of tomatoes.

To top off this day, I scored two more buckets.

Reading More on Self Watering Container Gardens from Urban Organic Gardener