Homemade Plant Watering System
Homemade Plant Watering Systems
Are you going on vacation, or are just forgetful, and need your garden watered. Don’t want to depend on rain to do this for you? There are some steps you can take to ensure your garden gets the water it needs, so you won’t fear losing everything from lack of water. For outdoor garden watering you can make a simple but effective homemade plant watering system, with just a few simple materials.
With an old garden hose and a water timer you can have a worry free system for watering your outdoor garden whether you are on vacation or just a bit forgetful when it comes to watering. Using a sharp knife cut small slits into the garden hose about 1/4 inch long and about 4 inches apart along the entire length of the hose. Snake this hose into your garden so that is will reach and water the entire garden. On the end of the hose closest to the faucet place and set your water timer to the times you wish you garden to be watered. Turn on the faucet, a slow trickle is usually best, and the timer will allow water to flow through the hose during the times you have set. It’s as easy as that. There are also black hoses on the market that have pre-cut holes or slits in them, and they are made specifically for the purpose of a slow long watering. A long slow soaking of your garden is better for it than a drenching, as the soil stays where you want it and you don’t risk having the roots of plants exposed as could happen with a drenching and the flow of lots of water and soil out of your garden. A good idea before you leave on vacation is to try this to see how long you want your water timer set. A dawn or dusk watering is usually better for your garden than the middle of the day when the sun is high in the sky.
The homemade watering system you can use for the automatic watering of the plants inside your home is easy and cheap. Depending on how big the plants and containers they are in are, will determine how big of a container you will need to accomplish this. Using a small container that contained a food product from the grocery store, again depending on the size of your plant container, an 8 or 16 ounce container will do, cut an X into the bottom of the container and place this into the potted plant, pushing down slightly to ensure the bottom of the container is a 1/4 inch or so below the surface of the dirt.
Materials:
• PVC pipe 1 inch or 2 inch diameter works best.
• Hand held drill fitted with a 1/8” sized bit
• PVC pipe end cap sized to fit your pipe
Fill with water, and the plant will slowly be watered. As the soil becomes wet it will block the X and water flow will stop until it becomes dry, and again will allow water to flow.
Both of these systems work very well and will ensure your plants get the water they need when you are away from home.