watercress planter: 20080607
There happens to be watercress growing about a quarter mile from my home. So, I decided it would
be interesting to have a little of it growing close to my house. And maybe that would
inspire me someday to fix a way to grow a worthwhile amount. You see, watercress, as its name
suggests, needs more water than is normally available in a growing spot around the typical house, and that includes my
house. And I do not want to carry water to the watercress every week or so. So I dug a hole about two feet across
and about 18 inches deep where a outlet pipe from a rainspout discharges roof runoff. Put a large
plastic plant container filled with earth into the hole. Since the container had holes in the
bottom that would let water escape, and watercress needs to be drenched just about constantly, I
put a 2 inch layer of clay in the hole before placing the pot. The clay plugs the holes in the
pot so water does not drain out. After putting the pot in place, I poured a slurry of clay
and water around the outside of the pot to help stop water from eventually seeping out through
the holes in the pot, through the clay under the pot and perhaps up around the pot. Would have been
a lot easier to hot glue the holes in the pot before putting top soil in the pot but I had it in
my mind that the pot didn't have holes and did not check that until after the top soil and
watercress plants had been placed in the container. Anyway, the soil in the pot does not quite
fill the pot, there is 2 inches of pot above the top of the soil. When it rains, the rainwater
soaks the soil in the container and the the two inches fills with water so there is enough
water that the soil will stay drenched hopefully at least until the next rain. I suppose,
occassionally I'll have to carry water to keep the soil in the watercress container soaked.
If all goes well, perhaps there will be enough watercress in the spring time to enjoy it in
a half dozen or so meals. If the watercress does well, maybe I'll use a cutting torch to cut a discarded water heater
tank in half lengthwise, use one half as a large container to hold enough watercress to have,
perhaps, as much watercress as I can use.
To see a photo of the watercress planter, move your mouse cursor onto this sentence, then scroll to the bottom of the page.
|
|
|
Things
to make: improvised devices, gadgets, gizmos, easy things to make.
Most use common tools and materials.
|
Things to make
|
|
|
Things the
webmaster made
|
-- Three articles about making
homemade items and devices, each about 500 words.
--
|
|
The Happy Tinkerer - Tells why
you might want to make-your-own homemade items, gizmos, devices.
|
|
|
Making Homemade Gizmos For Fun - Tells
where to get ideas about what to make.
|
|
|
Homemade Gizmos For Fun and Function - How my inventions happen and why I like it.
|
-- Anyone can be creative
--
|
|
Imagine and Create - Mini articles
on how to use creativity.
|
-- Do a quiz or two
--
|
|
Quizzes - Answer the
10 questions, get your score.
|
-- Take a survey
--
|
|
Answer the question, see other people's answers.
|
-- URLs
to other web sites --
|
|
A few interesting
sites
|
-- About
MakeGizmos --
|
|
Statement of intent and comments
about the type of content found at this site.
|
|
|
|
