Self watering square foot garden

From the ground up, this self-watering, mass vegetable producing, rainwater harvesting beauty is yet another DIY rainwater innovation from the folks at Second Rain.

Just build 2 rainwater reservoirs (using DIY or DIY465 RainBench kits) with your own lumber according to our instructions, slide them together, pop a 3'x8' raised garden bed on top, install the wicks (also according to detailed instructions on website, with another video coming soon!) and plant some seeds!

Don't worry about losing your plants if you have to leave for the weekend, or the week, or two! A massive 130 gallon reservoir will keep them watered, especially if you hook it up to your downspout! (We know where you can find a nice diverter...)

Thanks for watching!

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• Self Watering Garden
• square foot garden
• raised bed
• raised garden
• vegetables
• easy garden
• low maintenance garden
• rain bench
• rainwater harvesting
• DIY rain barrel
• DIY water tanks

[mduffor1]

When the reservoir gets low, is the wicking action able to lift enough water all the way up to keep the soil moist? I thought wicking was only able to lift water about 30cm or so from the surface of the water. How deep is the soil in the planter, and have any of these benches been built and successfully used to grow vegetables?

[2ndrain]

@mduffor1

Great point. That is exactly what we have been testing since developing this video-- there are many variables, from soil/peat/compost mix to wick design to evapotranspiration to climate... one thing we know is that the wick needs to be saturated and as long as the pull from capillary action/ drying above creates enough vacuum, water will be sucked up. We figure if trees can do it, we can find a way to emulate them.

Soil depth = 10-24in dep on varieties, not consistent

[whothehellgivesadamn]

WOW, I THOUGHT OF THIS AND STARTED LOOKING AROUND TO SEE IF ANYONE HAD DONE IT, BECUASE I WAS AWARE OF THE EARTHBOXES AND WANTED SOME MORE FLEXIBILITY....THANKS A LOT FOR POSTING, I'VE THOUGHT OF ALL KINDS OF VARIATIONS ON THIS KIND OF CONCEPT, BUT YOURS IS THE FIRST ONE I'VE FOUND, THANKS AGAIN FOR YOUR WORK, ITS REALLY APPRECIATED