💾 Archived View for tilde.club › ~skyhulk › octopus.gmi captured on 2023-03-20 at 18:20:33. Gemini links have been rewritten to link to archived content
⬅️ Previous capture (2021-12-03)
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I bought one of those vertical garden things from Bunnings so I could grow stuff out on the balcony without taking up too much space.
It's a rickety frame on wheels on which you mount two long pots and nine small ones. The pots come with the kit, you can't just use any old pots.
The kit also includes some plastic pipe and fittings so you can connect a hose and drip-irrigate the pots. Kind of necessary, because they're so small, they dry out really quick and the plants die.
~ HOWEVER ~
Who has a hose connection on their balcony? I would suggest: nobody. Leaving no irrigation system.
So I kept germinating seeds--herbs and small root vegetables and flowers--and they all kept dying from exposure out in the breezy brick and terrazzo. Even watering every day wasn't enough.
Solution! The Octopus.
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The Octopus is an old coffee jar filled with water, placed inside an empty top-level pot and with strands of twine leading from the jar to each filled pot.
Each piece of twine is tied onto a metal ring that serves as a weight to keep them submerged in the water. The twine wicks moisture from the jar to the plants.
Not one plant has died since! Many new plants have been born! And I only have to fill the jar once a day at most.