DIY Self Watering Raised Beds/Green Thumb Nursery

If you're growing in

raised

beds

but trying to figure out how you're going to water those

raised

beds

, then you're going to want to check this out today, what if you could come up with an irrigation solution that you hardly ever do? i have to water right today i am at

green

thumb

nursery

in my hometown of russellville arkansas and we are going to show you a very cool way to put your raised beds where you don't have to water much and maybe except for peak times of the year maybe not water at all. I know it's crazy, but it can be done and we'll show you now.

This is Tammy Jansen. She is the owner of Green Thumb Daycare. She is a retired school. teacher and she has recently opened this

nursery

and i have to admit this is amazing what i love about this nursery is that she has made room for edible plants vegetables herbs she has signs all over the place about pollinators and natural things and that just makes this nursery so unique but my favorite thing is that i saw your raised beds when i first came here and then i started hearing the buzz about the unique way you water them so this unique raised bed vegetable waterer is something that you've done in your own home yeah so before we get into the details because we're actually going to fill one out today we'll tell everyone and show everyone how it works what results you've seen in your own garden so I have 25 of these raised beds at home and in the last six or seven years we started with some that work so well we added them and now we have up to 25 and yeah they are so much more lush because they get that constant

watering

and then I don't have to remember to water them and just realized they are much healthier plants and produce much more because of that continuous

watering

I'm so glad I caught you at a good time because you haven't finished you have several of them already done and they are already growing lush yeah yeah But you've got a pair that you're still filling up, yeah us, one of the things I wanted to do when I did the nursery was teach organic gardening classes, so we're building some here at the nursery and, um, we have two more left, so we're saving them so we can show you the process. so let's go ahead and what we're going to do is you're going to really show us what this system is and we're going to see how you put it together right and then at the end we can see what it looks like when it's all packed up yeah what that sound sounds like sounds good okay tell me about these raised beds what are you doing before we even start the watering process ok so first we built um four by eight beds and we've leveled them because we're on a slope and we made sure they were flat so all the material inside be the same ok tell us about the plastic and why you cover the bed with plastic so we lined the bed with plastic because we are going to create a wet reservoir that holds rainwater or water to feed the plants we use a plastic of six or eight thousand it doesn't matter what color it comes in different colors but it just needs to be stronger um I've seen where people have used pool liners it's actually a strong thing that won't break down over time so I just we staple at the top, it also creates a barrier between the treated wood, many treated woods are food safe but just to be safe if you do it is kept in the dirt median separate from the chemicals in the treatment as well, so ok so your first step if i understand you correctly is to fill the bottom with rocks please explain why and maybe because many of us have been told we should never want to have rocks in the bottom of a container pot or something like that but this is completely different explain a bit about the rocks and also how deep the rocks need to be so we used river rock it's a rounded rock that the way it doesn't tear the plastic if you used another type of gravel that has jagged edges, will bore a hole and won't hold water, so river rock works best, is to create a void between the space for water.

You know, it's like a river, you know, so it's creating that reservoir, but the rock is on its own, um, it's holding the dirt there as well, so when you add the dirt, it doesn't sink into the water, so it creates a harder surface, but then the water gets between those rocks to make the reservoir how deep are you going to be filling with the rock um about 12 inches uh if you go much less than that you're just going to have to water more often you know fill the bed or whatever so they recommend 12 inches of that and then you'll have 12 inches of dirt as well so basically the 12 inches of rock at the bottom is this reservoir where the water is going to go in between the individual pieces of right rock and then from there he's going to show us later that the water actually gets to the ground and gets to the plants right so he's just going to hold it like a pool or a bathtub so it has all that water but in the water it'll be around the rock and then once again the rock will just hold the you know it's to hold that dirt back so it doesn't sink into the water so you mentioned overflow explain it to me and I guess that's the next step in the process yes so we put in an overflow pipe so in case you forget to get the water hose out to fill it up or if it has rained many inches for days on end and it stops like last week like last week the water it doesn't go all the way up because it has plastic on it so it will hold it up to the top so it would increase the chances of root rot or just different diseases and things where water just sits so we put an overflow in the top of where the reservoir is so when it gets to that level the water starts seeping into the ground and then it never lets it past that point and it's 12 inches that's just what is the amount they recommend to have in these beds for this process and that's where we put the overflow pipe and drill a hole we use pvc pipe it doesn't have to go all the way through just about a third or half of the way so we've already drilled the hole all we have to do it's just poking a hole in the plastic, but we make a very small hole because we want it to be as tight as possible around this so it doesn't leak. around the plastic I'll just find it so we just make a little rip and then okay I'll leave you it's so tight you have to hammer it in and that keeps it from leaking around the edges and so on. now it sits right on top of the rock so when it rains the water collects or if you fill it with a water hose as soon as it gets to this point it just starts draining down to the ground ok so a big part of this. absorbent bed is this pipe here and you can either lay it down like we're doing now or you can add it before you add the rock so walk me through all this so this is a three or four inch corrugated sewer pipe so it's got holes in it the only purpose of this is if you go in in the summer it hasn't rained and your plants need to be watered you want to fill that reservoir at the bottom you just put the water hose on this and the water shoots out and fills the bottom bed so this it's just the way to supply it with water if you're not collecting rainwater but that way you still get water coming from below to irrigate so this is strictly only if you have to fill the bed manually So because you're just pouring water on it, that's why you don't have to have the length of the bed, right?

Eventually it will be like a bathtub where you have the faucet going down it will automatically push the water all the way down and fill it up so you don't have to, we've run it halfway sometimes but find it works just as well and is more cost effective if you don't it uses a long length of pipe so we make it long enough to cover it um so I don't know two feet long probably ok maybe a little bit longer 28 inches or so just enough for it to stay under the rock and then in the next step we put the landscape fabric over it to separate the dirt from the rock because it will clog the pipes, it will also clog the empty spaces between them and you will only get mud and therefore not absorb it everything and so if you don't don't put that barrier between that you actually never have standing water in there we're feeding it under the board so it's right on top of the rock instead of above and on top of it and actually we cover you have to make sure you cover that pvc pipe because if you don't the mud will rise up inside that pvc pipe um colt is making a slit in it so it goes around that pipe just cut it a little bit so you can get it in as surrounds it and he's putting rocks along the edges like this and that's really just to hold the place in place so it doesn't move when you start throwing dirt on it does it matter what kind of landscape fabric you use no no Really, um, you want something that the water can seep through, so you don't want it so thick that it stops everything you know, like the plastic you use so nothing grows.

You don't want that, but you don't want the thinner stuff. either because it's going to deteriorate over time, have you ever done like I'm thinking about the landscape fabric I have at home and it wouldn't span four feet? It's probably like a three footer. Have you ever made double as smaller or try to make the four foot fit yeah just us um we always make each of our beds either three foot or four foot and so I choose the width of the bed based on what I'm going to plant in it so if I'm growing stuff I just use three foot beds because it doesn't take up too much space but even on a three foot bed I just use four foot and just fold it ok so now there's a fun part now it's the soil yes ok then tell me what kind of soil are you filling this with so it's composted soil it comes from a friend of ours who has a cattle ranch and he removes soil from the fields that he doesn't care for he throws nothing on top and uh turns it over with the unused hay over the winter and so after the second year um it's ready to use and it's got cow manure and dirt and you know all that deca um stuff that breaks down over time there mostly the hay bales ok so everything is full of this amazing compost go into a little more detail how this works like we saw how you did it but how does the water get to the soil so these beds have different names . they call them absorbent beds they call them

self

watering beds capillary beds but basically you have a water reservoir and the water seeps that just means it just soaks up so at any point you can come and dig as far away and the water , the soil is wet and so the water is only absorbed by the soil up there and to where the roots are it will go up about 12 inches but as an example is when you put a paper towel in a cup with water you I can see the water coming up the paper towel it just seeps to the top that's exactly how the dirt works on this it just takes the water like a straw and sucks it up and carries it down to where the root systems are . the plant and always water from the bottom wow i mean i can like i said i can imagine how much water is saved overall and as you mentioned you have seen it with your eyes how much more lush the plants are. interesting to compare my garden and yours in august yeah because i'm sure there will be a big difference well i mean it seems like i water every day and i never water and the only time i have a water hose in my garden is in the heat of the summer if it hasn't rained and i put it in the pipe to fill the reservoir because uh 12 inches of water will last about a week but as your plants get bigger the root systems get bigger and they drink more water, so sometimes it's you know a little less but the way i know if i need to fill it is just dig down if i go down about two inches and it's still dry i know it needs water but i try to get into the grind in the heat of the summer just put the water hose in there once a week whether you need it or not because that overflow pipe will let me know how much water you need and so if it comes out right away it's full but if it lasts a while then it needed water but they just constantly water themselves when they need it instead of watering a lot one day and then being busy and forgetting to water the next and that's what puts stress on the plants and so you have better foliage. you have a better crop it produces the plants are generally healthier because of the constant watering from the bottom it also prevents you from getting pests because rainwater splashes you know i mean you're just having the water splashing on your plant with the soil so you don't have as many of those issues so it's just water from the bottom up and I can also imagine that because you don't have to irrigate with city water as often you don't have the chlorinated water which I think can affect the microbial life in the soil when you have a lot of chlorinated water and that could be part of my problem in the middle of the summer it's not that it doesn't water enough but they do water with chlorinated water correctly and i do as little as i can but you know in the summer it just It doesn't rain very often so you don't really have a choice unlessmay you have a well you know that would be nice we just don't have a well so just use the but most of the time i have never watered and you can see the garden behind us and of course it has rained a lot but it will show like this in Julybecause he doesn't really know that there is a drought you know and he doesn't know that humans forget to water yes they only drink when they need to you know very well and you also have the option of versatility because like us you have here you do trellis lots of vegetables here um we haven't built the trellis yet but we have the materials to make it um so i grow whatever i can grow just because it's easier you don't have to bend over and it takes up a lot less space we use heavy duty wire or just whatever of the really stiff wires there are different types of horsewire but you just have to get squares big enough so your product doesn't get stuck in the middle just like we have this piece here and um i think these were the inches it's four by four squares four by four squares you can make them bigger or you can make them smaller um smaller the product is going to get stuck in the middle just attach two by fours on the ends and then we use the little staples that you have to hammer in and as fence staples and it's very rigid and it supports the weight of plants and it withstands storms you know it doesn't blow so we've had ours for years and we haven't had to replace it or anything because it's really heavy corrugated I mean really strong metal so many options and most importantly you don't have to spend so much time watering you can spend more time in the garden doing what you love i think that's the reason we build so many of these we started which is two then we move on to four and then we went to 25 and then here we have 14 or 15. but we started as we got older and realized time was money so we had to pay a little more but now i don't have to do as much tiring word and i can really enjoy when i come here and it doesn't take that long so tammy this has been so much fun i've learned a lot like i said i'm going to be beating my husband to hopefully do this at our next campus . bed and I think this gives people a great option especially there are so many parts of the country that are experiencing persistent drought and I think this will be a great solution for so many people so thank you very much for bringing us the trip is good what nice thing is you can have it anywhere in the city in the country it doesn't really matter you can put them anywhere and it makes gardening easier you know and for those of you who are in Arkansas or if you are traveling . through arkansas because it's a great place to visit be sure to check out the

green

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nursery here in russellville arkansas and like and subscribe to this channel for more how-to videos like this that you