My Little Bucket Garden - Part 3

     Am I obsessed with water conservation in my garden?  Maybe.  With a limited income and living in an area with extremely high water cost, it is a must.  Although I believe I would do the same thing if my situation was different.

     So here is another little thing I'm doing.  This is the first for me.  Not the first time I have grown strawberries but the first time in such a container.  I am very pleased with it so far.  I will continue to inform you all on it progress.

     Simple idea here - came to me when I was at the 99 Cents Only Store and saw these little three part planters.   I stood in the store and tried stacking them in different heights and liked the way it looked.  Originally I thought I would plant flowers in it.  The came the thoughts of strawberries.

     I don't need to explain much.  It is that simple.  I stacked 4 trays that had been filled with a little soil in each.  I do add soil to all the layers from the beginning so that there is a bit of weight; the unit will not be top heavy. I planted a small plant in each of the top sections.  For me, I placed the stack on a few clay pots to give it some added height.  I do think that I will move this into my garden soon.

     Now - you may have noticed that there is a little bottle sticking up from the center of the stack.  What do you think that is for?  Bingo - mini watering tube.  Now that I am a little obsessed with, but it works.

     The sections just don't hold much water.  That is the only draw back from using this type of container for strawberries; maybe be better suited for a rock garden type plant like portulaca moss rose or aptenia.  I drilled a small hole in each section of each planter for good drainage.  Added my plants to the top section only.  I am hoping that when they send out their long trailing stems called stolons, those will attach themselves to the soil of the lower sections, thus producing new plants.  After established and the stolons are cut, the process will start all over again for the lower levels.  Then I got my mini tube ready.

     Yep - here I go again with the watering tube concept. The mini tube can be any small bottle with a tight fitting lid.  Cut a small hole in the end of the bottle, just big enough to add water.  Drill a tiny hole in the lid.  Dig away a small area in the center of the planter (to the bottom of the planter's center) and insert the bottle, lid end first.  Now you can fill the bottle and watch it 'not' empty too fast.  My little planter, after I have watered the plant, takes anywhere from 6 to 20 hours to empty.  With such a small amount of soil, I would be watering every day if not for the added water.  It's a perfect way to prolong that moist soil for the berries, and with out flooding or washing the soil away.  When the plants start to trail, I will then add a bottle to one section of each level. Again - I will follow up on how that works out.

     What do ya think?  This could work anything you have planted.  The larger the pot and plant and larger the bottle. House and flowering plants.  Yard planters, especially if you are going to be gone for a few days during the hot summer days.

     If strawberries aren't your thing, open up your head to the other possibilities.  Try this idea to add some color to your porch with flowering plants.  Or - you could even use this in your garden area for those all important 'benificial' plants.

Think about it.

     Hummm -  you could always buy some of those expensive and very breakable water bulbs.