All the Dirt on Gardening

Here's an update to my still-popular 2008 post on how to build your own self-watering planters, sometimes called Earth Tainers - Complete plans are at Tomato Fest under earthtainer http://earthtainer.tomatofest.com/  John Reinhardt at Technorati There's a variation on the theme at    http://beclecto.com/tag/earth-box/  and http://beclecto.com/2010/03/spring-earthbox-planting/ If you'd like to see it on video, Kansas State has a Master Gardener presentation at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-oYZtqs9AlM www.dummies.com After you go to the click, look at the list on the right - there are another 20 methods using a variety of container sizes, styles and materials. www.Lechuza.com   If you prefer to purchase self-watering containers, remember Lechuza - gorgeous, functional solutions to watering inside and out. http://www.lechuza.us/on/demandware.store/Sites-US-Site/en_US/Home-Show

Today, a blog reader wrote a comment on one of my entries from last summer, saying that the Earth Tainer instructions were no longer available at the link provided. It's true that the pdf link where you contribute to a charity is a broken link. But the instructional videos are still available. Click on this link to go to Tomato Fest Scroll down the page to the bottom. The links are still active and you can see the videos Link one is building. Link 2 is assembly. Link 3 is planting. EarthTainer Construction Videos Chapter 1 - Introduction and Building the EarthTainer View video , Download video Chapter 2 - Assembling the Cage System View video , Download video Chapter 3 - Planting View video , Download video Construction AND, if you want the revised version 1.6 printed instructions in a pdf file they are at This Blue Marble. Click here Homemade EarthTainer . The constructionsection is a pdf and the assembly links are there, too. Hope this helps. Tell me if you build them and how...

Imagine a tomato planter that holds 10-gallons of water, keeping your plants happily moist while conserving water. Californian Ray Newstead was inspired by a product he saw and thought he could improve upon. Newstead made his planters out of easy to find plastic containers for a cost of under $25. Photo: Valencia tomatoes from Johnnys Selected Seeds The plans are free at the Tomato Fest site though you are requested to make a donation to Feed the Children in exchange for downloading the plans. The 16-page plan document format is Adobe PDF . Newstead's Earth Tainer site looks new; the plans are not available on it yet.