The Lettuce is Growing ...

Here are my first two homemade self-watering planters (my instructions are here). The one at the front has Mesclun Mix and the one at the back has a Gourmet Heirloom Leaf Lettuce Mix.

Both were planted last Saturday (it's now Wednesday) and both are sprouting nicely.

The planters are working really well! No additional soil has leaked into the reservoir besides the soil that leaked when I first filled the planter. I still haven't had to refill the reservoirs (they're quite large for the size of the planter) so care of these should be really easy.

Self-Watering Planter DIY

It only takes a few minutes and a few supplies. I used a CLEAN empty apple juice bottle, some masking tape and scissors.


Step 1:

Cut the bottle in half. The top half of the bottle will hold the soil and your plant. The bottom half of the bottle will be the water reservoir. Take your scissors and gradually trim both halves until the top half of the bottle fits snugly upside down into the water reservoir. The neck of the bottle needs to firmly touch the bottom of the water reservoir.


Step 2:

Cut a "U" shaped hole in the top of one side of the water reservoir for watering.

Step 3:

Place the planter inside the reservoir. Hold it down firmly so that the neck of the planter is touching the bottom of the reservoir and tape them together with masking tape leaving the "U" shaped hole unobstructed.



Step 4:

Fill the neck of the planter with your potting soil and tamp it down firmly. Make sure the potting soil is slightly damp to start with. This seems to help with it's ability to wick up more water from the reservoir.


Step 5:

Fill the rest of the planter with slightly damp potting soil.



Step 6:

Fill the reservoir with water. A small amount of soil will probably work it's way into the reservoir but nothing problematic.








Step 7:

Plant normally and make sure that the reservoir is never empty!

Let There Be Light!

I mentioned to a friend that I wanted to start my seedlings indoors with a grow light and she happened to have an extra setup that she's lending me (Thanks Jennifer!). This was pretty easy to set up, and I put it quite high on the wall so that the kids wouldn't be able to easily destroy my baby plants.


I got self-watering seedling starter trays from Lee Valley -- they came well recommended and they mean a lot less watering and a lot less risk that the seedlings will get too wet or too dry. I also picked up a nifty package of 4 spray tops that you put on top of a reused pop bottle so that you can use it to gently water your seedlings -- extremely affordable compared to expensive seedling sprayers.

I also created my first 2 self-watering planters from a reused 2L pop bottle and a reused apple juice bottle. It was super simple, I just needed scissors and masking tape. They seem to be working really well. I planted mesclun mix and heirloom leaf lettuce mix in them and the seeds have just started to sprout (after a couple of days). Here's the planter I made out of the apple juice container:


New Materials Purchased:

• 2 Brackets, 3' of chain, small package of "S" hooks to hang the flourescent lights
• 3 self-watering seedling trays
• 4 lids to turn pop bottle into watering can
• 1 bag of soil-less seedling starter
• Seeds
  

Reused Materials:

• Flourescent Lighting setup including bulbs
• 2L pop bottles, apple juice bottle
  

Hanging Tomato Planters Not Just for Tomatoes!

Apparantly they're also good for peppers, cucumbers and eggplant!

More Seeds!

I've added to my seed purchases! I'm going to try to find room for:

• Cocozelle Zucchini
• Five-Colour Silverbeet Swiss Chard
• Waltham Butternut Winter Squash
• Little Finger Carrot
• Danvers Half-Long Carrot
• The Cottage Gardener's Coloured Carrot Mix
• The Cottage Gardener's Mustard Green Mix
• Red Currant Tomato 'Sweet Pea'
• Jaune Flamme (Cherry Tomato)
• Beefsteak Tomato
• Slava Tomato
• Chadwick's Cherry Tomato

As for how I'll make room for all of this plus what I've already bought? I've found instructions online for making my own hanging upside-down tomato pots so that my tomatoes can all grow hanging down from my porch roof (3 per pot). This frees up tons of growing space for the other vegetables.

Next steps:

1. Set up indoor grow lights this weekend and start my seedlings.
2. Find large food-grade plastic containers to make my self-watering planters out of and also to make my hanging tomato planters with.
3. Plan the layout of the backyard for maximum growing room (while still leaving enough room for the kids.
4. Find an extra rain barrel to collect overflow from the first rain barrel; Set up the overflow so that it is directed away from the house.
   

SPIN Seminar

On Thursday, last week, I went to a seminar at City Hall on SPIN gardening: Small Plot Intensive Gardening. The expert who gave the seminar basically runs farms in urban backyards. She pays "rent" for use of the backyards in weekly vegetables.

It was a useful seminar, though not totally applicable to my situation -- I don't want to roto-till my entire backyard -- I still want the kids to have room to play.

The most useful bit of information was regarding the growing season -- she recommends throwing the last and first frost dates out the window and starting on the spring vegetables as soon as the soil can be worked adequately.

The question/comment section was pretty useful too. I discovered that Tim Horton's is probably the best bet for finding food-grade plastic containers that we can convert into self-watering containers for growing larger vegetables (cucumber, tomato, etc.).