Sub Irrigated Planter Boxes...S.I.P. boxes

I have been gardening for several years. Everyday i walk in my garden and i am always scanning to see new things to learn about. Never have I and never will I say I know everything about gardening. But what i do know i would like to share so you too can learn to grow food. In this first post in a multipart post is about constructing your own S.I.P. boxes. These boxes can look good in your garden as well as making for some really great growing conditions for plants.

As i said in my first post my goal is to spread the word about growing your own food. To grow your own food is a big step in becoming self sufficient. My feeling is why buy it when you can build it. That what this story is about. Building your own s.i.p. boxes or Sub Irrigated Planter boxes. As the name suggests the water is contained underneath. This allows for several things to happen. First this allows for a good root system to form, second it allows for an even watering of your soil and plants, third it allows for water wicking to occur, and fourth it allows for a better smoother capillary action to take place. Capillary action is the process where the soil naturally absorbs water. Imagine a corner of a paper towel being placed into water. The water moving up and being absorbed is the process of capillary action.

So what is the first step? Believe it or not its not buying lumber or screws. Its finding the right location. Most fruit and vegetable plants will require full sun to grow. So you need to walk your backyard or the space you think you may like and watch the sun and shade patterns through out the day. If you can find a spot that gets at least 8 hours of sun in a day you should be good to grow food. You should also note some other thing about the location like what other plants are near by. Not all plants like to grow next to each other. Do you have easy access to water.?Lugging pales of water over a long distance can be tiring. Is the ground level? If not you want it to be. Use a shovel and a 2x4 to level the ground for a good base underneath you s.i.p. box. Is the area a high traffic area? If you have a lot of people, kids and animals walking and running near your garden its only a matter of time before some one falls in or pees on ou hard work. If possible make it an area where you know things won't be disturbed.

Now that you have found your spot its time for the second step. Which is what size s.i.p. box to build. The obvious factor in determining this is what size space you have. For the purposes of this post i will use the dimensions that i have which is 6ftx4ft. Don't stress about the size. Even if you have a small s.i.p. box you can use high intensity gardening technique to fill as much space as possible and yield as much food as possible. The construction of the s.i.p, box will not change and the fundamentals will stay the same despite the size.

As i said i will use the size box that built for the descriptions in this post. Once you have the size box you want to build you can move to the third step. Which is buying the supplies. If you need to you can build the box in steps so you don't need to spend so much all at once. So what do you need? Not much!!! First you will need lumber. Pressure/chemical treated or natural lumber? For this build you can buy pressure treated. Modern pressure treated wood no longer have the bad things in there like arsenic and other thing you don't want in your soil. But even modern pressure treated wood still have chemicals in them. For this application the pressure treated woods will last longer in the outdoor elements. Mine are almost 3 years old and still have a lot of life left in them. You will see later in the next post how your soil and plants won't be touching the wood. So the size is 6x4 but how deep should it be. For my box i have a depth of 18 inches. This is a good depth for the roots to grow big and out. It also allows the roots to make a good strong base for the plants. So 6ftx4tx18in.....I used the weather shield pressure treated wood from the home depot. I bought the 5/4in x 6in x 10ft. This was the perfect thickness to hold the shape of the box with all of the dirt filled in it. It also allows you to cut the 6 ft portion off and leave the 4 ft portion you need. You need 6 6ft portions and 6 4ft portions. You will also need some 2x4 as well. These cuts will provide some extra side support for the box. You will need 6 18 inch pieces. You can get this wood cut at the store if you don't have the equipment. Now for screws. On this one i recommend you don't cheap out. Get good construction screws meant for the outdoors. Use something similar to a deck screw or deck screws themselves. I don't recommend you use nails. They won't hold up over time. A good construction screw will last. I used a spax construction screw, #8 x2inches. But a box of them its cheaper per screw.

So with the wood and screws so far you can build the frame of the box. I built mine in layers. I took two 6ft pieces and two 4ft pieces and made a rectangle. The 6ft pieces screwed into the sides of the 4ft piece. Once you have the three sections you can stack them on top of each other. Use the 2x4x18in pieces to secure the three sections together. Two pieces on the 6ft side and one on the 4ft side. When you are done it should look like this. In this pic there is two 2x4x18 inch pieces on the 4 ft side. That was a mistake. the second piece has been moved.

Do you need a bottom or not? I prefer one but it is not necessary. If you want one i suggest using a pressure treated wood as well. Simply cut out to the size of your box and screw to the bottom. It should look like this.

If you decide not to have a bottom that is fine. I do recommend putting some card board down on the ground first. This will help with weeds but still provide a nice even surface for everything. Now to make the box pleasing to the eye I also added a cedar wood trim along the box. Cedar is a good wood for repelling bugs and pests. They don't like the smell it gives off. You can cut the cedar anyway you like. I used a 45 degree cut on mine. The cedar wood i bought is 1/2 inch x 4 inch cut to the appropriate lengths for my build. It looks like this.

Please stay tuned for my next post on how to finish the box. Thank you for reading. Stay well.

Winwood