I dunno, Chai, your planter may be acting like a vase... however rarely, or maybe a little bit all the time. Or maybe water retention isn't the problem, though it sounds like it is.
A mix of the two drain-the-top-part ideas (weeps and pipe in gravel) would be to dig to grade all along one side, oh, say, ten inches wide. Drill the holes at whatever spacing a little bit above the grade level. Put in that fine meshed cloth mentioned above, for the whole length - fill with gravel to about six or eight inches wide and high or higher, to cover the holes. Backfill behind the gravel baggie (you can "staple" the "bag" shut, fairly tightly.** Make sure gravel abuts the weephole. Then fill with your soil snd mix over the baggie.
**Oh, but wait, the wall is higher in some places. Maybe you make the baggie outside the planter and lift it in.
Was the inside of the planter waterproofed? There are membranes you can buy for that. I just use two coats of Henry's asphalt adhesive. I'm not clear you would have to do that, if it hasn't been done, but it could make the wall last longer, given you do water the plants and the water stays until it evaporates - that is, if it doesn't drain.
It could be well worth the money to consult a licensed landscape contractor for an hour or two's time, because that person would have local knowledge and experience. I think I'd do that, if I were you, before I went further.
chai :
reread your post . as already suggested , make sure your planter has good drainage . we have quite a few smaller planters around and i always enlarge the drainholes because the roots will clog them up quickly .
if you are planting plants that enjoy sandy soil , planting them in sandy soil should be best .
are those plants very slow growing ? the sand wouldn't give them any nutrients , so you may either have to be prepared for slow growth are do some fertilizing .
i've been told - and follow that rule - to use no more than half the recommended amount of fertilizer per gallon of water but not to spare the water . .anyhow , have fun - usually plants are very hardy and will send out stress signals giving you a chance for remedial action before giving up their ghost .
the greatest fun is seeing plants coming up after several years in places you never planted them - squirrels around here are very good at spreading around not only bulbs but bits of plants too - even though they can be a nuisance at times .
hbg
I was editing when Hamburger posted; I'd like to post my edited version, to clarify.
So, not to bore you, I made a few changes.
I dunno, Chai, your planter may be acting like a vase... however rarely, or maybe a little bit all the time. Or maybe water retention isn't the problem, though it sounds like it is.
A mix of the two drain-the-top-part ideas (weeps and pipe in gravel) would be to dig to grade all along one side, oh, say, ten inches wide. Drill the holes at whatever spacing a little bit above the grade level. Put in that fine meshed cloth mentioned above, for the whole length - fill with gravel to about six or eight inches wide and high or higher, to cover the holes. Backfill behind the gravel baggie (you can "staple" the "bag" shut, fairly tightly.** Make sure gravel abuts the weephole. Then fill with your soil mix over the baggie.
**Oh, but wait, the wall is higher in some places. Maybe you make the baggie(s) outside the planter and lift it in. I'm not a landscape contractor. For people in my field, we do make elaborate specs, at least sometimes, and details to be followed, but don't get around to telling the contractor just how to do it, as in, "now, lift..."
Was the inside of the planter waterproofed? There are membranes you can buy for that. I just use two coats of Henry's asphalt adhesive. I'm not clear you would have to do that, if it hasn't been done, but it could make the wall last longer, given you do water the plants and the water stays until it evaporates - that is, if it doesn't drain. Anyway, that's in all our details for planter walls. I even did it myself here on my low walls, perhaps in a surfeit of caution given the way water just swooshes down down down through sand.
It could be well worth the money to consult a licensed landscape contractor for an hour or two's time, because that person would have local knowledge and experience. I think I'd do that, if I were you, before I went further. I know it's disappointing, but now is the time to deal with what to do for the long run.
osso wrote :
Quote:It could be well worth the money to consult a licensed landscape contractor for an hour or two's time, because that person would have local knowledge and experience.
that's true , but it is also a lot of fun - and aggravation - to just muck around .
our land is very heavy clay with hardpan not very far down . when our house was built 44 years ago , landscaping was of course not provided . so i HAND-SPADED about 8,000 square-feet of that heavy soil the first summer we lived their . home at 5 pm - quick supper - digging soil until about 9pm and would fall into bed dead-tired - sure made this pencil pusher fit ! :wink:
for our small vegetable and flower garden we must have bought up all the peatmoss new-brunswick could produce to make it workable .
hbg
I'm figuring they didn't break through the hard pan, if there, probably on purpose, hbg. I've no idea, though, just how hard it is.. at the Tea Residence.
On your effort, man, I'm impressed. It's like that in some parts of my last area of residence too, though not immediately near where I lived.
Wow, thanks everybody for the the GREAT advice...maybe it'll help someone else reading this thread one day also.
Just got cleaned up from another bout of planting when the sun went down and it cooled off.
Osso...so funny...when I mentioned yours and RJB's suggestions he said "oh yeah, I'll just drill you some weep holes", and there you used the term in the first post I read when I came back.
That seems like what we're going to do to solve the problem...I promise to take a picture some day to show ya'll how pretty it is....very colorful.
Soon I'm going to have a spit of ground, maybe 25' x 13, that I'm going to plant ground cover in, and in the Fall we'll plant a crepe myrtle.
I've never gardened before, so I'm trying to keep it simple, but I'm actually pretty pleased with how it's coming along.
