Apr 16 2011

Earth Buckets

Today I worked on “Earth Buckets”.  I got the idea from my buddy Jerry who is growing lots of veggies in “Earth boxes“.   It is a very cool product which mirrors natural hydrology principles to create a self watering growing eco-system.

I have terrible soil and sparse rain so I wanted to do some experimentation with grown veggies in such a system.  Didnt want to pay the money to buy a bunch of Earth Boxes, so I came up with my own solution from a landfill waste stream.   Earth Buckets.

The principal is:  Water is stored in the bottom section,  you fill the water reserve via a tube, water is wicked up to the main growing area via capillary action and you put GOOD grown soil in the top secton of the bucket.  Easy.

I have been collection old 5 gal buckets on the side of the road to use  as supports for the soil.  I also purchased a bunch of buckets from Lowe’s because I wanted my garden to look consistent.

Drill a large hole in the bottom of the old bucket, then saw off most of the bucket to make the shelf and using some scrap PVC to make the tube for the wick and filler.

The assemble bucket.  Simple.  Be sure to drill a hole in the side of the bucket just below the soil shelf to allow excess water to drain out.

A bunch of the read for dirt and planting!