Containers are a great way to put a tomato garden or vegetable garden in places you couldn't normally put one. They are great for growing balcony tomatoes in your apartment, or for putting some plants just outside the back door on your patio as well. However, one big drawback to almost any container garden is the need to stay on top of keeping it watered, especially in the hot summer months. But there are a number of designs for self watering containers and planters that work fairly well without saturating the roots of your plants.

Despite what the name says, the typical self watering container does not actually do the full watering job itself. Probably it would be more accurate to call it a planter with a built in water reservoir. You don't normally connect plumbing to one of these, but simply fill them and have it use the water over an extended period of time.

Advantages of Self Watering

The advantage to any container garden or planter is that you can put your flowers or vegetables in spots that are not typical gardens, like patios or even apartment balconies. But the big problem with most container grown plants is that they need to be watered on a regular basis, yet if they are not properly drained they can actually drown a plant if they are exposed to too much rainfall or just over watering by the gardener.

Self watering containers are a good way to address the watering problem. By making a planter that has a reservoir, along with some type of wicking system to feed the water as needed, you can go a much longer time between times that you have to actually water the container. It's really a life saver in some hotter parts of the country, which in months like July tend to be most of it.

Build or Buy your Planter

Making one of these is not that difficult. You can do it with just a couple of five gallon containers and a few miscellaneous parts, most of them can be found around the house, and a drill with hole saw.

There are components to buy that make the job of building your own planter somewhat simpler if that's the route you want to take. Or just simply buying a self watering container is an option. You can find them starting at around fifteen dollars, and going up from there.

Earth Box Planter

If you are interested in simply purchasing a self watering planter, one of the most popular is the Earthbox planter system. This is a fairly good size unit, that has an optional stand that makes it possible to grow vegetables and even climbing plants like vine beans and sweet corn. It includes a patented internal self watering grid that makes it impossible to over water the plants or flowers you house in the Earthbox.