Self watering 3/4 square foot container garden

and a couple of other new garden projects.

Raised bed with lilacs and some bulbs at the end of the driveway. Raised on the back (near) side, ground level on the “front”. The yard used to be this height before digging down and regrading. As a result of the regrading we also have the raised walls with a few feet to plant in along the side and back.

The lilacs are in full bloom, there are more on the other side of the house, but with different colored flowers. I think I”ll be putting in tomatoes, and basil along the back side of this bed. Best full sun (non-lawn) in the yard.

Along the drive are my 6 new self watering 4 gallon containers. Plans courtesy of Mother Earth News. I happened to have 12 of these buckets in the shed, and dipped into the recycling bins to use the tops of soda and water bottles to use as funnels in the bottom. (To wick water up from the bottom and keep the soil just moist enough, and prevent the lower level from turning to mud. Plus the rest of the bottles made convenient cloches for the zucchini and buttercup squash I planted a week or so early. Gonna attempt to grow these vertically and keep them from overtaking the lawn. We haven’t had this much grass in years!

Two buckets stacked, with a watering/overflow hole at the top of the water reservoir. Still need to build a box to dress them up a bit – you can see them from the street afterall. I’m going to used salvaged stockade fencing). Three have carrots. (Scarlet Nantes – yum!) There’s room for 16 in each bucket after thinning out the (tasty) little ones, and three have leeks – 4 each. I’m so tempted to scatter the rest of the carrot seeds in the raised bed.

This 3’ diameter hollowed out oak tree planter has the aforementioned buttercup squash, six seeds started, will thin to one or two plants – or let them fight it out and harvest as many yummy softball sized fruits as I can! This is open to the ground so there should be no problem with their taproot finding room, I’ll just have to remember to water these, while the rest of the veg will be much more self sufficient.

In a slightly smaller oak ring on the other side of the yard, (you can almost see my winter compost bin poking out from behind the granite blocks (soon to be the rest of the wall) I have hidden another self watering container.

I set in a pair of stacked rubbermaid tubs with an access tube for easy refills. The zucchini are here, four plants to thin down to one or two. – just enough to tide me over until the neighbors start leaving bushels full on the doorstep, and in unlocked cars.

Still have a fair amount of raking to do, clearing out the last of the fall leaves, and such, but I’m happy to have at least started the vegetables. I’ve also finished off my last harvests from the indoor herb garden, and will be ordering a lettuce kit for never ending salads and sandwich fixin’s.

As for the rest of the garden, I’m torn between joining a CSA (if we can swing it) or getting a bunch of flats.

-- southern NH. - smack dab in the middle of 5a and 5b - with lots of shade and full sun, in all the wrong places.