As a renter of a third floor apartment in Little Italy with only a humble balcony, I decided to expand my territory by creating a garden at ground level. With the involvement of the first floor tenants, I installed five self-watering gardening containers connected in a network to a 200 liter barrel of water. The barrel is connected to a container with a floater like in a toilet to maintain the desired level of water in the rest of the garden containers. Five wooden planters help to complete the decoration. Lettuce, strawberries, nasturtium, tomatoes, basil, ground cherries, cucumbers and some annual flowers make up the garden. Some cannas will give the whole garden a tropical flourish and the herbs spice up the colorful mixture. The plants are for everyone and the first floor tenants take care of the watering. A true community has been created around the garden, much to the enjoyment of all passers-by.

Leftovers from the past year's experiences, the containers are made of two bins, one inside the other with a water reservoir that feeds the growing mixture by capillary tubes. Since its installation, 3 weeks passed by without needing to refill the water reservoir! Thanks to a good aeration and watering, the plants are in great health despite the extreme hot weather.

For everyone's enjoyment, I'm challenging the beans to climb up to the second floor along fishing wire before the end of August.

All bets are on!
Click here for more pictures and to see the evolution of the garden.

Posted to: Nos histoires / Our stories | Health and Quality of Life Improvement
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Submitted by rotem on Tue, 03/07/2007 - 2:55pm.