Gardens on a square foot, grow maximum amount of plants on minimal surface.
First of all these cultivation methods are used to maximize crops on minimal planted area.
Choose between either plant on vertical walls or terraced grow tables.
Hydroponics are meant to be time and water saving cultivation systems.
Therefore these cultivation systems are almost always connected to some sort of automatic watering.
This watering of your mini garden can be done in many ways, but hydroponics are the most popular method.
And finally, these DIY ideas for planter tables and grow systems are great if you like both gardening and woodworking as well.
Cultivation of young plants on a terraced grow table.
Each planter is easy accesible, watering is done automatic.
Surplus water drips from above into the lower planters.
Weeding is kept to a minimum and maintenance is easy because of the planters height.
Hydroponics explained the easy way.
Whatever cultivation system you will use, the main objective is maximum growth and minimal costs.
The hydro systems are probably the best if you only have a small place to grow plants.
These DIY ideas for planters and gardening are derived from the Dutch site steigerhout recycling.
Square foot cultivation system in pyramid design.
Surplus water drips through the punctured lids into the lower planters.
The pyramid was made from repurposed planks, the planters are made from plastic bottles.
On this picture you can see that the watering system is so-called totall loss.
Total loss system or recirculation of irrigation water?
Once the water has reached the lowest planters there is no more recycling.
You could easily change that into a complete recirculating system.
Place the planter pyramid in a large container.
Use a small pump to recirculate the recollected irrigation water, but filter the water first.
It is especially good practice to place your circulation pump inside a sieve.
Improve the filtering and water flow capacity by covering the sieve with a piece of cloth.
This stops dirt from clogging up your pump or tubes and hence reduce the pressure.
Living wall hydroponic recirculation rack.
Most noteworthy, a small pump and drippers recirculate the water and liquid plant food to the top.
Water then drips from the top planters downwards, gets filtered and reused.