My Quiet Battle With Water: How I Saved My Garden Using 2-Litre Bottles

What You'll Discover in This Post

Before you get right into my personal story, here is a rough outline of what you will be reading in this post. I wrote it in the way that I always want to be spoken by gardening blogs, but which they never do:

You will discove the time when I didn't know how to keep seedlings alive and I let them die under Soshanguve's temperatures. The sun and the way my vegetables were changed by a plastic bottle. How roots get watered when irrigation is done deeply and what they are. The calmness that comes from the fact that you can watch plants grow without being worried that you have to water them constantly. The tips that I learned from my mistakes, through the heat, from cracks and small victories and the method of starting your own slow watering device with any old 2 litre bottle

The Day My Garden Started Drinking Differently

I can still recall one morning to the point that it seems like it was yesterday the sun was visibly brightening the sand and stretching its warmth to the earth even before 9AM, and my seedlings were looking so weak that it was hard to believe that it was the first day of their life. You know how the Soshanguve heat hits… it is not just that the soil gets warmer, but the water is also taken. I was watering that plant every day, sometimes twice, but the plants were still wilting at around mid afternoon.

It felt like the defeat of a silent war that I was experiencing.

At that moment, I thought of trying a small thing… just a small experiment that I had seen elder gardeners do. I found some empty 2 liter bottles that were lying around the yard, rinsed them, made small holes in the caps, and inserted them into the ground next to each seedling.

What I didn't know is that this tiny gesture would totally change the way my garden keeps itself under the heat.

The ground was dry as always, but that morning my heart was different full of hope, curiosity, almost like I had discovered a little secret in gardening.

Learning How Plants Truly Drink

While I was filling the bottles, a magical thing happened during the next several hours.

The water was not that it went out quickly as in the case of normal watering. It kept. It penetrated. It went farther.

The earth that was already wet up to 2 cm and had evaporated, the moisture slowly made its way down where roots are.

The flora in my home appeared to be more peaceful. I am not sure how to put it however, by the end of the day, the leaves that had been drooping like ailing puppies were actually the ones that were going to remain firm. They were calm, renewed, and even a little bit proud.

I came to the understanding…

It is possible that my outdoor plants were not required to be watered with a larger quantity possibly they were in need of a more efficient way of getting the water.

How I Set Up the Slow-Drip System

I really want to tell you the way it was so simple because sometimes the solution to our biggest gardening problems is so embarrassingly cheap and humble that we don't expect it.

I used a 2 litre bottle.

I made a few small holes in the lid.

I buried the neck of the bottle a little.

I filled the bottle. That's all.

Yet, this small bottle was now delivering water to my plant throughout the whole day.

Chlorophyll containing bottles reduced the evaporation even further.

The transparent ones were helping me to see the water levels changing throughout the day.

The dark ones were giving out just a bit quicker which happened to be great for plants like pumpkins and okra that are more thirsty.

Step by step… my rows were turning into a small drip irrigation farm kind of thing with the help of recycled plastic that didn't cost me a thing.

The Scorching Heatwave Which Put All to the Test

A fortnight after, we got one of those extremely hot days in Gauteng that seemed to heat the sand and even walking out of the house would make your throat dry.

It is still in my memory that I was going to the garden with my hands at noon and I was quite anxious that the seedlings would be lying on the ground like I had already cooked them with the heat.

I mean…

They were OK.

Not flawless. Not colorful. But still there alive with enough power to continue developing.

That was the point when I understood that the bottle irrigation system was not a deceit. It was survival.

It was the thing that saved my garden when my watering can was not enough.

Watching Growth and Enjoying the Reward

The leaves grew twice as large as they did before, the days changed to weeks.

Since they had a reason to go down, roots went deeper.

The earth remained fresh even at times of strong sun.

And there is a kind of joy which is quiet and it comes from seeing growth that is not dependent on panic watering all the time.

I felt like I was farming more efficiently not putting in more physical labor.

It's as if every time I see the bottles, they are small watchmen silent, enduring, executing their work without requiring my intervention.

My Simple Tips From Experience (learned the hard way)

I would not list them in bullets here because this is more like a diary, but let me share the lessons I learned:

There are bottles that leak very quickly if the holes are too big, so I had to make a change.

Some have to be covered with soil a little bit more to prevent the sun from heating the water.

And I figured out how to refill my bottles really early in the morning, even before the sun got hot the bottles are the ones that really water the plants constantly throughout the day.

Transparent bottles indicate the water level going down, which is really helpful to you to understand whether the soil is absorbing too much or too little.

It happened that I forgot to refill one day and yet the plants survived because the deep moisture was still there. I really liked that part of it the forgiveness, the cushion, the breathing space.

Final Reflection - The Lesson My Garden Gave Me

Truth be told, this bottle system was not only a water saving device, it was a lifesaver for me.

It took away the anxiety that was always with me that the plants would die every time there was a heat wave.

It was once again my hobby, the gardening, and not the chore of running around wilted leaves to save them.

In Soshanguve, a place where water is scarce and the sun is always shining, I found out that often the most effective solutions are those we make ourselves using what we already have.

So, as I am strolling through the garden of green leaves, each one calmly drinking from a simple bottle, I am feeling great not for the reason that the garden is flawless, but because it made it through the tough times with me.

Every single drop was of great value.