GardenBanter.co.uk - View Single Post - Do you think this would work as a container garden?

David E. Ross · 01-01-2008, 09:08 PM posted to rec.gardens

On 1/1/2008 7:29 AM, wrote:
Hello,

I am new to this group, so please forgive me if this has been
discussed before.

I have come to the conclusion that the one best place I can put my
garden is on my deck. I do not need a really large garden, just a few
tomato plants, some lettuce, a pepper plant or two, etc. As such, I
tried a self-watering pot this summer on my deck. It more-or-less
worked pretty good. But I am perplexed. It seems that somehow the
soil sits on top of a grided plastic shelf (for lack of a better term)
and the plants above stay watered. I contend that if there were some
sort of wick, the system would work better. Nonetheless, it seemed to
work pretty well and I got a lot of tomatoes off the one plant I had
in the pot.

As a result, I thought I would build my own planters. Maybe one to
start. I was going to use a Rubbermaid plastic container that is
fairly shallow but holds eight gallons of water for my experiment.
The container is about 42" x 21" (forgive me but I do not remember
the depth--it was about 4"-5"). I will put this in a box that is made
of composite lumber. I was thinking about using a bulk head fitting
to drain the container in the winter. Inside the box, I thought I
could put a row of 1x2 just above the plastic container. I would then
build a screen using galvanized steel mesh wire using a mesh small
enough to keep the soil out of the water. In lieu of that, I would
put a piece of screen on top of the mesh.

Do you think this design would work? Do you think a wick of some sort
would help? If so, what material would be best? An old T-shirt?
Strips of old towel? Nothing?

Or would this be a stupid idea?

Any and all comments welcome!

Just be careful you are not putting too much weight on your deck,
especially all in one spot. Using the Rubbermaid container, 8 gallons
of water weighs 64 pounds; add the dry weight of the container and soil.
One such planter is likely to be okay.

Also, if the deck is wood, be sure that the container is raised so that
air circulates underneath. Otherwise, you risk rot.

--
David E. Ross
Climate: California Mediterranean
Sunset Zone: 21 -- interior Santa Monica Mountains with some ocean
influence (USDA 10a, very close to Sunset Zone 19)
Gardening pages at http://www.rossde.com/garden/