(Bottom view of jury-rigging) ---
(Top view of jury-rigging)---
Back in early spring, I bit the bullet and bought twelve (yeah, I know) self-watering containers, also known as SWCs. There are plans online for building your own, but I really didn't want to go there. Besides, most of the homemade ones are ugly... and, though it vaguely shames me to admit it, aesthetics are important to me.
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So, what's a self-watering container? I bought a model called The Grow Box, by the company Garden Patch. Basically, it's a horizontally divided box: There's a compartment for dirt on the top, and a reservoir for water beneath it. Poking down into the reservoir are two little "cages" for packed dirt. The dirt in the cages wicks the water up to the top layer of planting medium. The reservoir must be kept filled with water for the boxes to work, but you use a lot less water than in an ordinary container garden- or in a traditional in-ground garden (one exception might be the in-ground, no-till method). The design is quite ingenious. Other designs of these boxes tend to be more complex- say, they have cloth wicks in them for water uptake. But I liked the simplicity and the good looks of this design.
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Garden Patch claims any vegetables that grow in the ground can be grown in their Grow Box. It might be true, and the issues I experienced could be due to operator error. But some plants are definitely doing better than others. An admission here: Each box came with a plastic mulch cover and some pelleted mystery fertilizer attached to the underside of it; I did not use it. I prefer using organic fertilizer, homemade compost, and my own worm castings; never mind that I'm highly distrustful of plastic mulch. I prefer instead to mulch heavily with leftover, uneaten bunny hay- there's never a shortage of the stuff in my house. And it's so much better for the soil. Plastic mulch cuts down aeration and solarizes the soil, which can kill the beneficial critters in the soil food web (but that's another post altogether).
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What WORKS:
Tomatoes
I'll start with my pride and joy- my tomatoes. I must say, the tomatoes are doing no better then when they were in my Really Big Pots (50 gallons, give or take). But, here's the benefit: I am growing eight tomato plants in only four boxes, with much less growing medium. Remarkably, my yield per plant appears to be about the same as last year, even in the considerably smaller containers. The plants do need a lot more food, and the roots are really crowded, but the tight growing conditions don't seem to stress the plants too much. Thank goodness they are short-season annuals.
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Peppers, Eggplant, Basil, Lettuce, Spinach
The peppers, eggplant, and basil LOVE these boxes, especially now that it's high-summer hot. These heat-lovers had struggled in the Grow Boxes through our unusually long, cool spring this year, as the water reservoir keeps the soil temp much lower than in ordinary pots. Now they are loving the combo of cool feet and hot leaves. Early in the season, lettuce and spinach did very well in them, too. The spinach did not bolt nearly as quickly as it usually does; I'm certain it's because of the much cooler soil temp. I will start late season lettuce and spinach in the boxes shortly- I'll report again at the end of the season regarding my fall crops.
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What DOESN'T WORK:
Big Leafy Greens (Brassica rapa and Beta vulgaris)
The big leafy greens did not do well in the Grow Boxes. The Fordhook chard remains quite dwarfed. About a month ago, I moved the Silverbeet chard out of the SWC and into one of my ordinary big pots, and it quickly grew to it's normal, giant size. The Red Russian kale fared a bit better, but three plants is the maximum for these planters, and the plants are still quite small. The Asian greens (Happy Rich, Vitamin Green), being equally kale-like, didn't do well either. The naturally deep root systems on these plants just can't adapt to such a shallow box. Live and learn.
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Squash
The other disappointment is squash. No, I'm afraid "disappointment" is just too subtle a word. It's been a flat-out, heart-breaking, abysmal failure. The instructions claimed that I could grow two squash plants in one box. Maybe I could have grown one plant. I've had only eight zucchini fruit between two (!) plants. I'm ripping these sad puppies out today. Again with the live and learn. Last year in the Really Big Pots, I had exactly what you expect with zucchini: Way-too-freaking-much. It was glorious. That's how zucchini should be. This year I'm actually buying zucchini at the farmer's market, which is darned depressing for a gardener.
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My #1 issue with these planters (see pics above):
The biggest problem with these planters is the utter lack of an external trellising system. Because the dirt is all of seven inches deep in these planters, you simply cannot stake into them. In most photos of these planters, folks have them sitting directly on terra firma, and so are able to stake their trellises right into ground soil below. Since mine are effectively on a rooftop, we had to improvise a way to externally trellis the tomatoes. I ordered 4-foot and 7-foot lengths of bamboo without anything resembling an actual plan. My husband came up with a clever solution that works well, involving zip-ties and more zip-ties. Even still, it's what you'd call jury-rigged.The trellises need weight on the bottom for stabilization against our rooftop winds; this year we used bricks, which are not ideal. Next year, I'll probably use sandbags. The company really should offer a solution, particularly if they are aiming their main sales at tomato gardeners. Which they do. Just look at the home page:
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I have no idea what sort of cage is hidden under all that fabulous tomato-y goodness on their storefront page, but if it's a couple of those dumb round wire cages, this pic was obviously taken in early June. All gardeners know those round cages are utter, useless crap. Ok, one exception: I hear they're workable for determinate tomatoes (but who grows those?). Honestly, how those cages are still sold year after year is a mystery to me.
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Garden Patch company, I implore you- how about a really big, free-standing external trellis? Or one that connects directly to the planter; the planter is certainly heavy enough, even with my rooftop wind. Or a couple of types- say, one for vining plants, and one for climbing plants. Pleeeeze?
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