Several people asked me about the ‘bucket watering’ I
mentioned in my post about the drought this summer. So I’ll share with everyone what I did to
save my plants this summer. I am using
it on my small trees, shrubs, roses, and my tomato and pepper plants.
I bought 5 gallon buckets from Lowes (plus I had a bunch
already at my house).
I use the Lowes buckets in particular because their grey
color blends in to the landscape better – unlike the hunter orange buckets from
Home Depot!
I drilled a single hole with a 5/64th inch drill bit. You want it small so it comes out slowly. You’ll be surprised at how fast water comes
out of even a small hole.
You put the hole in the bottom right above the inside bottom
of the bucket.
Now make a little circle or mark at the hole so you can find
it easily since you may have to clear it.
They are really hard to see because they are so small.
You then position the bucket next to the plant that needs
the water. Fill the bucket and fine
adjust it so that the water comes out just at the base of the plant.
In my tiny garden, I have only 2 tomato and 2 pepper
plants. They are planted so that one
bucket can water 2 plants. For these, I
drilled two holes on opposite sides of the bucket. It’s working well as I have some very happy
plants.
If your plants are really behind on water, I suggest filling
the bucket every day for 3 to 5 days.
After that you can probably water every other day, unless it is really
miserable out – like in the triple digits.
If it is that hot, you might even need to water twice a day.
Before you fill your bucket each time, give it a shot of
water to clean it out. It doesn’t take
much debris to block the small hole.
Before you buy buckets next time, check at your Whole Foods store to see if they'll give you any. They go through a ton of them.
ReplyDeleteSuper great idea!!! Will have to do it next year!
ReplyDeleteWow, what a neat idea!
ReplyDeleteGreat idea! Thanks for sharing it! :)
ReplyDeletexoxo laurie