Five Gallon Bucket Planter

I started off by drilling a 4 inch hole in the center of the 1st (inside) bucket. No measuring, just put the guide bit by the nipple in the center.

Then while the bucket was upside down, near the side of the bucket, I used the 1 inch bit to drilled the 1 inch hole as a pass through for the fill tube. I also drilled the drain holes with the 1/4 inch bit.

Note: There was no measurements for the drain holes, and there is no specified number of holes, but I did stay about a 1/2 to 3/4 of an inch away from the 4 inch hole and just worked my way around the bucket and worked my way toward the outside of the bucket.

The drain hole for the 2nd (outside) bucket is where the most important measurement comes into play.

When I measured the distance from the bottom of the inside bucket to the bottom of the outside bucket it was about 3 1/2 inches.

You want to have about 1 inch of air space between the water level and the bottom of the inside bucket so that left me with 2 1/2 inches.

I scored a line around the outside of the outside bucket at 2 3/4 inches (an extra 1/4 of an inch to account for the lip at the bottom). I then drilled a series of holes around the bucket, about 5 inches apart.

I cut my fill tubes length to at about 19 inches, so the fill tube sits about an inch above the buckets. Because the fill tub sits on the bottom of the bottom/outside bucket I choose to cut a 45 degree angle on what would be the bottom of the fill tube to allow for water flow when add water.

The measurement of the Nursery Pot that I used is about 3.34 inches high, and it sits about 1/4 inch off the bottom which works perfect! I added holes on the side, about 1 inch up from the bottom.

I then traced the bottom of the bucket on the landscape fabric, to cut a circle and cut a cross in the center, where the 4 inch hole and a small cross close to the side for the fill tube. I used about 6 inch squares for the wicking cups. This will help keep dirt out of the bottom bucket/water reservoir.

Using a zip tie, I secured the fill tube to the side of the bucket by drilling 1/4 inch holes on each side of the fill tube, then snipped off the extra with a scissors.

Before inserting the nursery pot (wicking cup), I used the 6 inch square of landscape fabric and potting soil to fill the cup. Holding the landscape fabric at the bottom of the 5 gallon bucket securely in place, I inserted the nursery pot.

To finish the 5 gallon bucket planters I added about 2 inches of potting soil, to hold down the landscape fabric at the bottom of the bucket.

I only added 2 inches to the bottom because I wanted to leave room for the different types of plants I was going to grow. When transplanting my plants I added enough potting soil to bring the plant up to about 1 inch below the top rim of the bucket.