Self-watering Herb Spiral – An Idea Worth Sharing

A herb spiral is a great idea to grow herbs on a mound of dirt. However, in hot and dry weather with extra radiant heat from stones even herbs struggle to survive. To keep them alive a regular watering and a fair a bit of water is required. For that reason a self-watering way sounds like the way to go. But how to make it work in a spiral with steeping soil for herbs to grow? Being an engineer I came up with a very clever but simple design idea which should work marvellously. So here is a description how we designed and built our herb spiral.

The spiral has three water reservoir levels as shown on the schematic. Each level comprises of the following layers (described from bottom to top).

• Softening layer (carpet) to smooth ground surface to protect black plastic
• Concrete underlay (black plastic 0.2mm thickness)
• Protective layer (carpet) to avoid punching holes in plastic
• Ag pipe across an entire reservoir and bended upwards to supply and spread water
• Water holding medium (stones)
• Soil around perimeter and in fill soil in the middle
• Stone to build outside wall

The pictures show step by step how we built each water level. The plastic underlay is as high as the stone water storage so the excess can overflow. From the top level it overflows into a middle level, from there to the bottom level which then overflows into the ground underneath. Each level watering pipe has got a float (a wooden skewer in a styrofoam rounded piece) to indicate the water level.

At the bottom the soil is about 10cm deep. When it curves around the spiral the soil depth increases to about 40cm. That’s where the next level starts with 10cm deep soil again. So in that way we achieved continuously raising soil without any interruption.

Our self-watering herb spiral is about 2.5 metres in diameter and 1 metre high. We planted over 20 different herbs around it according to their needs (e.g. mint in shallow soil thus more moist facing east; oregano in deep – less moist soil facing north).

We (two people) built the entire herb spiral project in just over one day with mostly freely available material on our property. It cost us a couple of dollars for the black plastic underlay. We located it in our newly built kitchen garden less than 10 metres from our kitchen. It’s already been well used for every day cooking.

There are more bright ideas to come and share from our Spurtopia Homestead, so watch the space.

Self-watering Bathtub - Easy to Make, Easy to Grow Food

Self-watering bathtub 

When I found a bathtub on the side of a road, a bright idea came to me - it could be a great self-watering garden bed! The challenge would be to create a raised floor for holding soil above and storing water below while allowing water transfer between the water storage and the soil. I have come across a lot of different bathtub designs using woodchips, gravel or sand for water storage but they significantly reducing water holding capacity and at the same time are bulky and fairly heavy. So I came up with a design using a few recycled materials to create a self-watering bathtub with a massive water storage capacity of  about 100litres.

The self-watering bathtub has turned out to be very successful for growing our vegetables specifically water loving plants such as cucumbers and melons. The massive water holding capacity provides a constant supply of moisture to plants (via a wicking effect) with no need for watering for several weeks even months. It makes growing vegetables easy and bulletproof. More importantly, the self-watering bath tub is easy to make from materials readily available.


Materials needed:

• a recycled bath tub,
• three bricks
• a piece of steel mesh/old rigid fence
• a couple of hessian bags/ old towels
• a piece of PVC pipe about 60 cm long

Step by step to make a self watering bath tub:

Raised floor - Steel mesh on bricks 

1. Seal the bath drain with a plug.
2. Place three bricks on their edge into the bathtub (one at each end and the other in the middle of the tub).
3. Cut the steel mesh (a concrete reinforcing mesh or an old fence panel) to fit into the bathtub and rest it on the bricks creating a raised floor.
4. Use hessian bags/old towels to cover the steel mesh with hessian ends reaching down, into the bottom of the bathtub. The hessian will hold the soil and provide wicking from the ends. (You can add a shade cloth under hessian bad which holds soil better and last longer.)
5. Drill a overflow hole into a side of the bathtub level with the raised floor.
6. Cut a piece of pipe (about 60cm long) and stand it so it runs from bottom to the top of the bathtub, to be used to fill the lower area with water.
7. Fill the bathtub with rich organic soil.
8. Plant seeds or seedlings.

Hessian bags on mesh with ends in water

9. Mulch it!
10. Water it well from the top and fill up water storage.
11. Make a float (a piece of styrofoam and a wooden skewer) of a smaller diameter but the same length as the pipe and place it into the watering pipe to indicate water level.


An alternative way of making the self-watering bathtub is by using plastic crates or a wooden pallet.
Cut a PVC pipe of the same length as a crate/pallet height . Glue (adhesive sealant) the pipe into the drain hole at the bottom of the tub with the top of the pipe sticking out into bathtub (about level with the top of the crate/pallet. Make sure it is properly sealed, so water is held in the bathtub up to the top (about 20cm) of the PVC pipe. (If there is more water in water storage it overflows through the top of the pipe and get out the bathtub drain.) Then place plastic crates up-side down to create huge pockets for water storage. Note you can use anything which would create raised floor (eg. wooden pallet). Cut a watering-in PVC pipe so it comes from bottom to above the top of tub and secure it in a corner of the bathtub. Cover crates with shade cloth which goes up and down on the perimeter of the bathtub and between crates creating pockets. Fill pockets up with soil which will become a wick. Fill the entire tub with rich organic soil.

Mulch it on the top to stop any surface moisture evaporation and plant seeds or seedlings. Water it from top for a week or two so soil will settle down and an effective wicking effect is established. Place a bit of styrofoam float with wooden skewer into the watering pipe and fill it in with water until it's full and starts to flow from the bottom.

The trick of growing healthy plants is to keep them stress free. If they have enough nutrition, the right soil temperature (not too hot) and a constant supply of moisture especially on hot summer days, they will thrive. This can be easily achieved with the self-watering bathtub. Nutrition after heavy rain can be recovered from the water storage which also keeps soil cool, via an evaporation effect - without loosing water. The constant on demand, water supply via a wicking effect make plants happy even during hot summer days.

The self-watering bathtub is great to use everywhere: at gardens with bad soil or trees roots sucking all nutrition, concrete yards, balconies etc. We found them great for growing our food as they really, really work.

Happy gardening

Living a Simple, Happy and Healthy Life - Article

YOUR VEGIE PATCH magazine in January 2016 issue published an article about our lifestyle. Thank you Tess Holderness for writing such an inspirational story about us and getting our message across.

SpurTopia virtual tour on Google maps

Now you can take a virtual tour on Google maps and be inspired.

Thanks Google for capturing Spurtopia place.

SpurTopia virtual tour

Wicking Pot - easy and quick to make

People are talking about up-cycling materials but what can we really up-cycle quickly and have a long lasting benefit? We make wicking pots from a plastic milk container to grow seedlings, herbs and strawberries. You can make and plant such a wicking pot in less than 1 minute. The pot provides a plant with a continuous supply of moisture via a wick which transfers water from water storage to the soil, on demand. You do not need to water it every day as it will last for several days/weeks.
How to make the wicking pot?

Materials you need:
- 2 or 3 litre milk container (or any available plastic bottle)
- piece of "Chucks" cloth.

Cut a milk container in half with scissors. Cut a piece of "Chucks" about 10x5cm. Punch a hole in the lid and push the "Chucks" half way through with a pair of scissors. Make sure that the "Chucks" is fairly tight in the hole otherwise water will leak through and flood the soil.

Plant seeds, seedlings, herbs, greens, strawberries and they will thrive as a continuous supply of moisture reduces plant stress during hot summer days.

Did you know: To stop evaporation,  use vermiculite on the top of the pot. It's light so seeds can grow through. As vermiculite is also light in colour, it reflects sunshine and keeps the soil surface cool. It also holds a lot of moisture, about 7 times of its weight.

Vegetable pyramid - Grow your own vegies and fruit

Vegetable pyramid from self-watering planter boxes

We grow a substantial amount of vegetables on a couple of square metres of concrete yard by
using our invention, self watering planter boxes - single, double and triple decker. They are arranged into a 3 dimensional, terrace shaped pyramid. As soil depth varies from from 15 -  30 - 60 cm,  any vegetables and some fruit can be grown. We grow herbs, tomatoes, capsicums, eggplant, cucumbers, potatoes, carrots, red radish, beetroot, spring onions, garlic, and leaks to name just  a few. Fruit grown includes strawberries, raspberries, cape gooseberries,  even a small 2m high paw paw tree. You can grow whatever you like to eat as the the opportunities are unlimited. More importantly, the vegetable pyramid is made of self-watering boxes which are water efficient and save you time with daily watering. As the plants get a constant water supply, they thrive throughout summer without shade even in the full sun. You don't need to dig up your backyard if you want to grow fruit and vegies.
- Maximize space - Growing in terraces (growing vertically),
- Creating a variety of growing spaces (orientation, full sun, part shade)
- Water efficient
- Utilizing space (concrete or dirt in which nothing would grow)
The pyramid proves it works so well that we want to share the idea with you.
If you want to learn more, come to our hands on workshop: Make your own Self-watering planter box. For more info about our presentations and workshops see http://spurtopia.blogspot.com.au/p/events-workshops.html
Happy gardening.

Vertical gardening

Half metre long cucumber

Single, double triple decker boxes

Growing food on concrete

Gravity irrigation system using recycled material

A vacuum cleaner pipe and a watering rose

We use gravity to irrigate our garden by collecting water from the roof into a series of caged water tanks and wheelie rubbish bins. Our total rain water storage capacity is over 5000 litres. All this cost us less than $100. What a deal! (We can buy a caged 1000 L tank for $25. Contact us if you want to know where to source them.) From these tanks, a swimming pool hose and grey PVC flexi pipe bring water to the garden. At the end of the pipe is a vacuum cleaner pipe with a watering rose. Gravity (about 1-1.5m height difference between water tanks and garden bed) is sufficient to deliver enough water and pressure to hand irrigate the garden with a nice and gentle sprinkle of water from the watering rose. No pump and electricity needed – just the height difference. More importantly it saves us a lot of walking with a watering can.

A caged water tank with a swimming pool hose

We also use a gravity fed drip irrigation system successfully. Brown, irrigation drip tube with dripper nozzles, spaced about 30cm apart, works well on low pressure. A standard garden hose syphons from a rubbish bin to the garden bed and it connects to the drip tube. By varying the depth that the garden hose is placed into the water storage (half way or at the bottom of the container), we  can control how much water will be used (half or all of the water storage). Also, by adding a liquid fertilizer (seaweed, a compost tea bag) into the stored water,  your garden can be fertilized.  The only issue we found was that seedlings need to be planted near the drippers as the plants might struggle for water.

A tip: Water tanks which do not have an outlet at the bottom such as rubbish bins can be connected in series with a piece of hose from one to another over the top. The symphonic effect via pipes full of water  automatically levels water in all tanks.

Spurtopia's latest inventions - Double and Triple decker self-watering planter boxes

We recently shared our invention - Self-watering planter box (a "single decker" - one box) made from a styrofoam box and a piece of PVC pipe. Now we have come up with version two "double decker" (two boxes) and version three "triple decker" (three boxes).  The principle of a self-watering planter box is soil in the pipes acts as a wick bringing moisture up by capillary action, keeping soil in the box above the water storage, moist.

- The double decker comprises of two boxes, bottom box for water storage and top box for soil. It is made with three PVC pipes of about 100mm diameter and box height in length. A watering pipe in a corner of the box runs from the bottom and is the height of two boxes. In this pipe is a float with  a wooden skewer (a couple of skewers taped together to reach the top of the pipe), indicating water levels. The second box has small holes in its floor, punched with a screwdriver,  for better drainage and aeration of soil.
- The triple decker is an extension of a double decker with a third top box which has the bottom  cut off. It comprises of water storage in the bottom box, two boxes of soil and three PVC pipes.

Double Decker - Self-watering planter box

Triple Decker - Self-watering planter box

Advantages:
- The boxes when filled with home made organic soil and water are very stable (soil weight will push one onto other).
- Soil never gets waterlogged as excess water will overflow between boxes (no overflow hole required).
- Nutrition does not leach out - during heavy rain, nutrition is retained in the water storage and later plants will "suck" it up.
- Styrofoam as insulation, offsets external temperature and sun radiation fluctuations keeping soil at a steady warm temperature.
- Mosquito proof - only access to water is through watering pipe which is blocked by a float.
- Water efficient - only water used, is by plants.
- Huge water storage capacity - up to 40 litres in the bottom box so no need for watering for several weeks
- Made from free, readily available, recycled materials - styrofoam boxes sourced from a local fruit and vegie shop or fish market, old PVC pipe from kerbside collection or off-cuts from a plumber.
- Diverting material (boxes, pipes) from landfill
- Portable - moving boxes during seasons (position in part shade during summer and move to full sun in winter). If moving home, an established garden in styrofoam boxes comes along with you and provides you with already growing vegies.
- Raised garden - Boxes can be place on existing ground where nothing would grow due to poor soil quality or  tree roots sucking all the moisture and nutrition.
- Soil in a box is aerated from the bottom through small holes which provide plenty of oxygen for plants.
- Boxes are lightweight compared to boxes with gravel based water storage which also significantly reduces water holding capacity (gravel takes up space).
- Suitable for growing all kind of vegetables including root vegetables as well as small fruit trees.

Potential challenges:
- Styrofoam is plastic and might leach out chemicals - the box can be painted internally with bees wax to created a protective coat.
- Boxes might leak - a black construction foil can be used as an inner liner
- Sunshine might deteriorate styrofoam after a few years - an external coat of paint will stop styrofoam deterioration and create colourful, aesthetically pleasing boxes.

Double decker

 

Boxes  are water efficient  and store large amounts of water - up to 40 litres -  so they do not need to be watered for several weeks and you can go on a holiday for a month and the plants will have plenty of water to drink. Our boxes are over a year old and still in perfect condition even without paint.
When filling up boxes with organic soil, make sure you fill up wicking pipes properly so wicking is effective. When planting plants, water them for a couple of weeks from the top so they can establish their root system. Also soil will become more compact and wicking more effective.
In one of our single decker boxes, a self-seeded paw paw started to grow half a year ago. Now it is nearly two metres long. So it is possible to grow anything.

The double decker  is great for plants with larger root systems and higher water requirements such as tomatoes and cucumbers as they love lots of water. We harvested 5 cucumbers, over half a metre long off one plant). Also root vegetables such as carrots or daikon radish will grow there - if you plant them straight above a wicking pipe, you can harvest over half metre long, straight carrots.

Triple decker boxes with huge soil volume and depth (over 60 cm + 30 cm wicking pipe) can be used for any kind of root vegetables no matter where planted in a box. Huge soil volume  in the two boxes is sufficient even for a dwarf tree.

Plants growing in a double decker

In these three types (single, double and triple decker) self-watering planter boxes, any vegetable can be grown. 
We are fully aware that styrofoam is plastic and it most likely leaches out some substances. So far we have not found any evidence against growing vegetables in styrofoam boxes. People growing vegies in plastic pots or eating broccoli which was delivered in these boxes (in direct contact with Styrofoam) don't even think about that. This is a paradox. We believe that home grown vegetables in these boxes are a thousand times better than vegies from shop shelves.
In the self-watering planter boxes, we grow successfully all kinds of fresh tasty and healthy vegetables so we would like to share our invention with you. If we can make it for free you can make it for free.

Build a ‘Cob’ oven in 5 minutes to bake delicious pizza and bread

Pizza ready to bake

A convectional cob oven for baking pizzas and loaves of bread is a great addition to sustainable living. However it is quite elaborate and time consuming to build one and requires a huge amount of material such as clay and  bricks. Moreover it is not portable.
We built a ‘cob’ oven from recycled material in less than 5 minutes. How? We used eight recycled bricks and an old barbecue cast iron plate. To create the "oven", we used a barbecue lid, (with a handle attached) the same size as the plate. Stack the bricks on their sides to create a U shaped campfire pit about 25cm in height. Place the BBQ plate on top of bricks then place the lid on top of the plate to cover it. The space between the plate and the lid becomes the pizza oven. That's it!
Set a fire under the plate and you can start baking pizzas within a few minutes, not like in a conventional cob oven which you need to heat up for several hours and burn a lots of firewood. Get the plate to a good temperature, put the pizza on it, cover with the lid and bake for about 10 minutes. To adjust heat intensity you can either add firewood to increase temperature or spray water over the fire with a plastic bottle (with a  small hole in the lid) to reduce its intensity.

Baking time

We also bake bread in our cob oven. To do this use a pizza stone and put it on the hot coals. Cover the oven entrance (with a door made from other bricks) to keep the heat in. Optionally, also set  a fire on top of the plate so it provides extra radiant heat from the top so the bread bakes brownish and nice and crisp on the outside. Bake it for about 30 minutes.
We made a "pizza peel" from a piece of sheet metal (about 25x25cm) with one edge bent up, creating a  handle, to take pizzas to and from the plate. Pizza and bread from the wood fired oven comes out crispy with an extra smokey flavour. People who tasted our home made pizza baked in the cob oven said they have never tasted such delicious pizza.

Cover up with a lid to create "oven"

Easy and quick home made pizza base

(the ingredients for about 4 thin pizza bases)
300g whole meal flour
240 ml of water
1 teaspoon of dry yeast  Mix ingredients in a bowl to make a dough and let is rise for about half an hour. Then take a piece of dough and roll out to about a 25cm diameter pizza base. For a roller, we use a wine bottle. Use extra flour while rolling to avoid dough sticking to the surface it is being rolled on. The base should be very thin, about 2 mm so it's baked quickly and comes out crispy.

Baking bread in our cob oven

Base dough and toppings for a vegie pizza

Final product - delicious crispy pizza

Adding an extra smoky flavour makes the pizza unforgettable

State of the art technology - Maggot grower tin

Maggot grower tin

Chickens need a great deal of protein to produce nutritious eggs. Where does this protein comes from? A small proportion from grains and the biggest amount from insects, bugs and worms which chickens find in the garden. But how about providing chooks with a constant supply of protein? We came up with a solution - growing maggots from meat scraps, in a tin. Basically, find a tin  (we used a 4litre olive oil  tin) and punch holes all around including the bottom with a screwdriver. Partially cut the top off the lid to make the tin operable. We put meat scraps from the kitchen and local butcher into the tin. Flies get in and lay eggs and in a couple of days, the meat scraps are full of maggots. As they crawl around, they, every now and again drop and fall through the holes into the chook run and the chooks feast on them. This process will last for a few weeks. When meat scraps are exhausted and maggots eaten by the chooks, empty the tin and start again. We do this every few weeks, providing chickens with a continuous supply of protein - maggots. More importantly, we are reducing meat scrap waste which would otherwise go to landfill. This state of the art technology maggot tin grower, is free, so effective and works amazingly well.

Maggots dropping from tin are a treat for chooks

Bones for growing maggots

Down the drain? OR Down to the garden!

Harvesting grey water for garden irrigation

We use ‘grey’ water from our washing machine to water our garden. We are fully aware of the fact that conventional laundry detergents and fabric softeners contain a lot of nasty stuff which will make grey water unsuitable, even toxic for a garden. That is the reason we use a  home made washing detergent (soap, washing soda, borax)  and Citrus Fabric softener (citrus peel and water) which are friendly to nature, very cheap and easy to make (10 Litres of washing detergent for less than $2) and the fabric softener is literally free. Because we know what our home made detergent and softener contain, we are happy to use grey water from the washing machine  on our garden. 
Generally, a grey flex pipe is used to drain water from the machine. However, we did not have a 30 metre long flex pipe between our washing machine and the garden. Instead,  we use a 13 mm garden hose  and a bucket which collects water from the machine pipe. The bucket acts as a buffer water storage from which water is gravity drained via the garden hose to the sugar cane and banana patch. The height difference between the bucket and the  plant patch is approximately 1.5 metres. Sugar cane and banana plants love a lot of water and nutrition which is provided all year round. No wonder that  even during hot and dry weather, as we had last summer, plants were thriving. 
Did you know that a top loader washing machine uses approx. 160 litres while a front loader only about 60 litres per load. 
The average Australian household uses about 30,000 litres of water for a washing machine per year? Every day about 80 litres (8 watering cans) of grey water from a washing machine can  be used on a garden rather than going down the drain.

Washing water irrigating sugar cane and banana

Gravity fed grey water irrigation via a garden hose

Chicken Grain Feeder from recycled material

Chicken Grain feeder

A common problem with feeding chickens is the mess they make throwing grain around which is not only wasteful but also attracts mice and rats. We addressed all these issues with our home made chicken grain feeder from recycled materials - a plastic bucket and  piece of PVC pipe - The feeder will store several kilos of grain which lasts for a few weeks.

How to make a "cheap-skate" Grain Feeder:

Cut a 150mm diameter PVC pipe to fit the full length of the bucket. Then cut a 2 cm slot  at the bottom of the pipe,  half way around the pipe. This will create a hole (slot) when the pipe sits on the bottom of the bucket and grain can flow from the pipe (grain storage) into the bucket. Cut two "windows" (holes) 5x10cm into the bucket about 5cm above the bottom for chooks to stick their heads in. The holes need to be just large enough for a chicken's head to get in, so when pecking grain, the grain will not get thrown out.

We don't have any wasted grain on the ground around the feeder and do not have any rat or mouse issues as there is no food to attract them. It works so well for us, it's the reason we share the chicken feeder with you. If we can make it for free you can make it for free.

Silo within the bucket

Inside view

Our chooks drink champagne – Home made waterer

Home made waterer for chickens

We made a waterer for our girls (chickens) from recycled materials - a champagne bottle and a piece of PVC pipe with bottom cap. The bottle holds water and automatically releases it when the water level gets below  the neck of the bottle. A small feeding window will keep water clean.
How to make it?
Cut  the pipe to length (approx. 25 cm) and this will hold the bottle neck about 2 cm above the bottom of the pipe. (see photo) A 2 cm water level will be constantly held in the waterer. Then cut a small window 5x10 cm for chooks to stick their heads in to drink. The window must be above the water level otherwise all water contents will spill out. That’s all. 

You do not need to buy a waterer, just recycle a bottle and a piece of pipe and it does the same job if not better.

SpurTopia's Invention: Self-watering planter box

Self-watering planter box

We invented a self-watering planter box for growing all kinds of vegetable. The box stores around 10 litres of water so no need watering for several days even weeks. More importantly, by up-cycling materials: styro-foam boxes from local fruit and vegie shops and a piece of plastic pipe from kerbside we divert stuff going to land field. Vegetable thrive in these boxes as they have constant wet feed from the bottom encouraging plant roots growing down rather on a surface. It's also water efficient as only water used is by plants - no evaporation or water run off. The planter box retains nutrition during rain while in a garden bed they leach out. Also soil never get bogged and a float indicates amount of remaining water. The self-watering planter boxes are mosquito proof - the float in watering-in pipe and fly mesh from in the overflow hole. These boxes are perfect for balconies and patios also in places where soil is so bad that nothing would grow there. We successfully grow vegetable on a concrete yard in full sun with no shade even during hot summer.
How to make self-watering planter box from recycled materials in 5 minutes? It is so simple, get a styrofoam box and a piece of pipe. We use a broccoli or salmon boxes, 50mm PVC pipe and a wooden skewer.

Step by step manual:

Guts of the box

- Cut the lid to fit in the box by sharp knife.
- Make three holes for pipes in the center line of the lid. Make sure holes are slightly smaller than PVC pipe so the lid does not slide. Use a smaller diameter pipe or the end of a silicone tube, which works well for 50mm PVC pipe, to cut holes.
- Cut a corner of the lid to fit a watering-in pipe.
- Punch randomly holes in the lid by a screw driver.
- Cut three or four pipes (legs) about 10 cm long by a hand saw, the watering-in pipe length to fit box height  about 30cm.
- Screw pipes into holes so they hold firm in the lid. Alternatively create support legs from styrofoam off-cuts, so the lid does not slide down under weight of soil.
- Place lid with pipes down into the box so it creates a raised floor. Add watering-in pipe into a  corner.
- Make a float. Use a styrofoam off-cut and shape it into circle of smaller diameter then pipe. Stick a wooden skewer in it. Slide it into watering-in pipe and cut the top of the skewer at the same level as the watering-in pipe.
- Make a overflow hole into a side of the box at the same level as the raised floor. It's handy to have watering pipe and overflow hole on the same side of box.
Photos step by step to make self-watering box

Self-watering Planter Box schematic

Ready to plant box

Fill in pipes with soil thoroughly then add soil to the top of the box. Soil will act as a wick (by a capillary effect) bringing water up to plants. A float indicates how much water is in the box. The overflow hole in the side of the box allows overflow when watering in or during long rain when the water storage fills up. Punched small holes in the lid provide drainage and an aeration of soil from the bottom. You can paint the box on outside to make it last longer. Ours are without paint and still in good conditions after a year of use.
This is the cheapest (using recycled materials for free), the most effective (10 litres water stored) and  insulated (styrofoam is a great insulation) Self-watering Planter box we know of. We have been using these boxes for a year and successfully growing organic and healthy vegetable such as: capsicums, chillies, tomatoes, eggplants, cucumbers, leeks, onions, garlic, strawberries, beans, lettuce and other leafy vegies and herbs etc.


If we can make it for free you can make it for free.
We also run free hands-on workshops: Make your own self-watering planter box.
For more details see http://spurtopia.blogspot.com.au/p/events-workshops.html
Happy Gardening

Lash veggie during hot summer days

Vegies thrive in self watering planter boxes on a concrete yard