So, I got a nice planter with my Molbak's coupon. But it doesn't have any drainage holes. And since it will sit on the deck, I don't really WANT it to drain much. Decided to make it self-watering.
Discussed a few ways to do it with B. What we wound up doing:
4" diameter PVC pipe in the bottom - 4 one-foot lengths. 2 side-by-side in one half, a gap, then 2 more. Wrapped these in nylon stockings, so they won't fill with dirt. They should hold the water.
The dirt that falls down around them should stay wet, when there's water down there. But that's at the bottom of the planter only.
Drilled a hole in the side of the planter, at the height of the top of the PVC pipe.
Filled it with dirt and planted some nandina and primroses (it's march yet). The nandina came from Flower world. They're pretty thin; I hope they thicken up to make a better screen.
We've had a lot of rain and it's definitely weeping from that little hole, and doesn't seem to be saturated at the top, so I think it's working! I hope the container overall is tall enough that using the bottom few inches for water storage isn't a big deal. We'll find out. The nandina was inexpensive, at least, only $8 a plant.
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