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View Full Version : Settling water dispute in a planter


Olafhenny
05-13-2012, 09:54 PM
Dispute settlement in a planter.

I had a small, but fairly deep pond. It was deep enough to winter water lilies, but because there
was no water circulating, it was not very functional. So I decided to convert it into a planter
for tropicals. 2 cubic yards of compost and top soil filled it up nicely with even enough to form a
mound on top.

Tropical plants, of course, do not do so well over winter here, so I decided to also include a yucca.
Now the yucca likes to have dry (-well dryish) feet and I wanted to plant it right next to philodendron
and wandering jew. Both really like to soak up the water. The sprinkler system does not distinguish.

So here is, what I did: I planted the yucca on a bit of a mound....


http://www.bananas.org/gallery/watermark.php?file=48796 (http://www.bananas.org/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=48796&ppuser=7269)

Then I took a piece of plastic and cut a nice round hole in it




http://www.bananas.org/gallery/watermark.php?file=48799 (http://www.bananas.org/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=48799&ppuser=7269)

Did likewise with a piece of fly screen




http://www.bananas.org/gallery/watermark.php?file=48798 (http://www.bananas.org/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=48798&ppuser=7269)

Gathered up the yucca and slip the hole of the plastic over it. Did the same with the fly screen and
shaped a bit of a swale




http://www.bananas.org/gallery/watermark.php?file=48797 (http://www.bananas.org/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=48797&ppuser=7269)

Slipped some bits of old ground cloth or similar, between the plastic and the fly screen




http://www.bananas.org/gallery/watermark.php?file=48801 (http://www.bananas.org/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=48801&ppuser=7269)

Trimmed off the excess. Covered the whole ting with a thin layer of soil




http://www.bananas.org/gallery/watermark.php?file=48800 (http://www.bananas.org/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=48800&ppuser=7269)

And – viola, you have a functioning water exchange, - or so I hope. The wandering jew is the
purple thing in the lower left corner and the philodendron is in this photo half way between it and
the yucca




http://www.bananas.org/gallery/watermark.php?file=48802 (http://www.bananas.org/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=48802&ppuser=7269)

Another perspective of the planter as it stands now. The far right corner is reserved for a quite
large basjoo pup, as soon as it has recovered enough from the winter blahs to stand on its own.



The plastic is there to prevent the water to seep in the soil, where it shouldn’t. The fly screen
is supposed to prevent the soil from sliding off the slick plastic and expose it. The bits of ground cloth
will accomodate the water to flow to where it should and unload near the philodendron and the
wandering jew.

momoese
05-13-2012, 10:20 PM
Cool, it will be interesting to see how your experiment works out.

palmtree
05-13-2012, 11:49 PM
Sounds like an awesome plan and the bed looks good! What species is the yucca? Many of the yuccas here get tons of water and dont seem to mind. I have a Yucca recurvifolia that I did not plant (a bird must have dropped some seeds) and it gets flooded by rain water, hose water, and even pool water and it still grows. The recurvifolias around the area seem to get a lot of water also since they are often growing next to plants with lots of water needs. As long as its warm outside they should be good with water, but some species are more water tolerant than others!

Olafhenny
05-14-2012, 12:34 AM
Sounds like an awesome plan and the bed looks good! What species is the yucca? Many of the yuccas here get tons of water and dont seem to mind. I have a Yucca recurvifolia that I did not plant (a bird must have dropped some seeds) and it gets flooded by rain water, hose water, and even pool water and it still grows. The recurvifolias around the area seem to get a lot of water also since they are often growing next to plants with lots of water needs. As long as its warm outside they should be good with water, but some species are more water tolerant than others!

Now you are telling me! :) After I went through all that trouble. I never had a yucca and don't know
a thing about them, other that they are promoted here as a dry land plant, supposed to grow here
without watering and we are just a bit above being rated as desert, with our annual rainfall of 350mm
(14 inches).

Accordingly I just assumed, that they did not want much water. :(

To answer your question mine is a Yucca Filamentosa.