hey everyone Sam here and welcome back to Green acre homestead in today's video
I'm gonna take you through the build of something that is new for us and that is
a self wicking container garden raised bed apparatus thingamajig the materials
for this project are a 55-gallon barrel in my case I found a bunch of these on a
really good deal locally and as you can see in the background I've kind of
started a horde if you don't have a hoard like me or can't get the barrels
you're basically looking for a large plastic container around the 20 to 30
gallon mark in addition to your container you want some jugs where
there'll be milk jugs 2-liter bottles Hawaiian Punch jugs any kind of plastic
container with a screw top lid that you can use for the water reservoir to be
buried below you also gonna need a piece of pipe to fill everything with from the
top and then you need some dirt good potting soil is what you really want to
use for this because this is a container garden and then you also want to top it
off with some amendments such as sustain and sea mineral there's links to all
this stuff down below so don't worry if you missed me as I rambled on and went
too fast as far as tools for this project you need a cordless drill with a
3/16 inch drill bit you need a saw or in my case a reciprocating saw to cut the
barrels in half well ok you might not need it if you're not cutting barrels in
half other things such as a marker and level and some duct tape go a long ways
as well my method for cutting the 55-gallon barrels in half is pretty
straightforward as I laid them on their side if you look very carefully there's
actually a seam in these barrels right in the middle from top to bottom so what
I did is took a sharpie marker and outlined that seam so that I could see
it a lot easier and then it was as easy as taking my reciprocating saw with a
fine-toothed blade on it I think this is made from metal that works great for
plastic and going ahead and plunge cutting and cutting it in half following
that marker line very easy the barrels I got are the type that have the two screw
top lids and I made sure all the barrels I'm using for this project have the lids
or the bungs I think is really the name for it although that's weird
anyway made sure that they were in place because I want to use the top and the
bottom both four separate containers and they
need to be watertight I've got a drill bit here in my drill this is a 3/16
drill bit and I've got an old Hawaiian Punch jug that we got some family
members I've been having all of our friends and family save all kind of jugs
like this for us for a while to get enough for this project but I still
don't have enough it's amazing how much this thing actually will take but that's
ok this is repurposed recycled would have been trash otherwise but we're
going to use it here in our garden so I'm going to do is put 8 holes in the
bottom one on each face all around the four sides and four in the corners and
then I'll drill two at the top to let the air escape as it fills with water
from below there's not a specific science to how many holes you want in
this you just want to have enough for the water to flow freely flow in and out
and then a couple on the top to vent your air space as it flows and fills and
drains and then make sure the lids tight and put it over here in my bucket
one two three four five six seven eight nine ten eleven eleven jugs in the
bottom of this 55-gallon barrel that's a lot of water storage this is good I like
it so what I'm going to do is take a piece of this one inch schedule 40 PVC
I'm going to cut the bottom at an angle so that I can fish this down into one of
the jugs and it's it all at the bottom and not seal it but still have room to
sit and let the water flow because this pipe is how you're going to refill your
container with water you want to find a pipe that fits your container opening as
tight as possible if you can't get it exactly right you can always use some
duct tape or something of the sort to kind of tape and seal it around that jug
to make it a nice tight seal and also it's a good idea to do that so that you
don't accidentally pull the pipe out whether it be you or kids if you have
them and mess up your system and have to take it all apart just to put the pipe
back in that container
with all the jugs and your fill pipe put in place and looking pretty now's the
time to fill your container with dirt or soil in our case we purchased some
potting soil and compost mixture from a local gravel mulch dirt yard that was
close to us that was by far cheaper per cubic foot than anything you can buy in
the store that being said try and use what you can
find in your area but you definitely want to aim for potting soil something
that is not going to be really dense and compact you want this to be fluffy and
allow moisture and water to move freely throughout the system with all the jugs
in there nice and pretty we can now take this container over to our sole and
start filling the container making sure the sole packs around all the jugs and
everything down to the bottom and fill it to where it's just at the top of
these containers
at that point we're going to add into fertilizer or amendments one is called
sustain and the other is called C mineral these are recommended by Leon
himself and if they work for Leon they're gonna work for me I use the same
increments that Leon talks about which is 1/2 cup of sustain and 1/4 cup of C
mineral I sprinkle it evenly around the top and then I fill the rest of the
container full of the sole all the way to the top or pretty close to the top at
least
once you have all your containers in place you want to go ahead and drill one
or two holes through the side of your container these holes are designed to be
the overflow or they spill out if your container gets too full of water you
want these holes to be placed about one inch from the top of your airhole vents
on your containers and basically what that's going to give you is a one-inch
air gap inside your container to keep everything from getting very swampy and
oversaturated that measurements going to be different depending on what container
you're putting all your jugs in and the jugs use and so forth so you just got to
eyeball it and fit whatever works for your specific application I like to
drill my overflow holes on the opposite end of the container from the filled
pipe this may or may not make a difference I really don't know but my
thought process behind this is that if I'm filling out on one side and that jug
is really full and it's taking a little bit longer to percolate and even out the
whole system I'm less likely to start spilling out my overflow thinking that
everything's full when in reality I just have kind of a bottleneck in that first
little container and it has yet to equal a Bryce equalize and it has yet just to
équilibre tin the system itself so my thought is putting the holes on the
opposite side should mean that whenever it drains out the opposite side it
should be more uniformly filled across the container again may or may not be
true but that's my thinking at least all right with all your soul on your
container now is the time you might be thinking to just fill it up and rock and
roll but if you have done like me and not put your container in its final
resting place move it to its final resting place before you fill this thing
full of water it will get heavy very heavy you're gonna add at least well in
my case close to eight to ten gallons of water which is a lot of weight on top of
your sole which is already wet and everything else you don't want to pull
you back out so put it in the spot where you want to and then fill it up I went
ahead and put some scrap blocks together to level this the best I can so that the
water level is correct and it just sits nice and stable especially since our
greenhouse floor is sloped and uneven but it all leveled up
now it's time to fill it up and you got to be patient with this this is a lot of
water going in this system that has to go in the main jug and then drip out to
the others so don't get in a hurry just enjoy it and think about all that water
storage it's kind of chicken versus egg scenario whether you want to fill your
container first and then transplant or transplant and then fill I'm choosing to
go ahead and fill it up in case something goes wrong or catastrophic and
I can fix it I don't have to take my plants out back and forth and run the
risk of drying the roots out so I guess in that sense I would recommend fill
your container first make sure everything looks good and then put your
plants in
I've decided to put our Brickhouse tomatoes in here these are the ones we
started from seed from Hoss tools and these are supposed to be a very good
party disease resistant rot resistant tomato so a good one for me to put up
here I'm gonna go ahead and try and squeeze three of these transplants into
one fifty five gallon container this might be a little too much for the
container I don't know I can always cut some out or really thin them down skinny
or if I have to Cole one if it gets crazy but I've got more Tomatoes then I
kind of know where to plant right now so I'm gonna make them squeeze crowd in
together but it's got to play nice you have to get along and we'll see how they
go so each pot does have two tomato plants I'm go ahead and transplant both
of them and then we'll see whichever is the weaker of the two and they'll get
cold out so I am planting six right now but I'm only gonna keep half of these go
ahead and dig this out by hand the beauty of this kind of soil it is very
easy to dig out by hand turn it under got some good root structures in there
there you have it guys there is a self wicking container made from a 55-gallon
barrel or half of one some old Hawaiian Punch jugs sourced from family and
friends and some dirt and PVC there are tons of benefits for these wicking
containers the reasons I like them and I'm trying them the most is ease of
watering I don't have to worry about my plants dying and starving on me and the
fact that it is a container or raised bed system that is very modular movable
minimal cost to construct and reusable year after year I am by far no expert
this is the first Jay I've ever done these and my mentor and educator on this
whole system has been Leon he is a fellow youtuber gardening with Leon I'll
put a link to his channel below if you're interested in any kind of aspect
of wicking beds and to see what all can be done with them definitely go check
out his channel he's an awesome wealth of information that old-time gardener
showing you how to grow anything under the Sun and some containers and hoop
houses so definitely check them out and I think you'll enjoy it if you enjoyed
this video well that'll be it for this one I've got the tomatoes done but I've
got a lot left to plant and build the process is the same it's a matter of
rinse and repeat and begging family and friends for as many jugs as they have
because as you saw this takes quite a lot if you have any questions or
comments leave them down below we love to read them and love to hear from you
guys otherwise take care we'll see you next time on the homestead
you