4' x 8' Cistern Garden

A few more comments about the 4' x 4' deep root garden are made.

The framework for the stand of an 4' x 8' six inch deep bed garden is displayed.

Transcript:

I forgot to mention that in order to check here I just stick a stick down in this. It should hit bottom. Amazingly it is Spring and it is a solid block of ice in there. So interestingly it will have to thaw and when it does it will be water that will wick up.

0:24
As you can see the bottom has not been damaged by any ice expansion. I was worried about that but it looks like it is going to be OK.

0:33
However my rain barrel did not fair so well. We had a nice solid block of ice in my rain barrel. Those holes right there are a result of the expanding ice. I will go ahead and put a drain in there and use epoxy to seal that. I will have a rain barrel that I can just hook up a hose to and water my gardens with after the rain comes down this handy, dandy gutter. (Technically a downspout from the gutter.) It is what I used last year to fill this thing up. So it is ice. Very solid. The dipstick will measure how much water is in the bottom. I measured last year. It was four inches. It is still there just solid ice.

1:22
Now on my next project that I have got going on here is I am now going to make a four foot by eight foot garden. Now this is not going to be the deep root system that I made there but it is going to be more like this six inch deep box. There is very solid construction hopefully on the base because this is like a waterbed. Again I do not want it falling on anybody and cruching someone. That would be a sad, sad thing. If anyone noticed a problem with my construction let me know. It is screwed and glued and that is about as solid as I think I can get it without really going overboard and filling it full of concrete or something ridiculous. I plan on just putting a little garden underneath for shady plants. I will show you the rest as I construct it and you will get an idea of how I line the boxes and set it up to be a wicking well.

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• square foot garden
• bed garden
• water reservoir
• cistern garden
• wicking well