After our experimental late summer/fall garden using self-watering containers, we're turning our sites on a winter garden using the same method.

Here is North Central Florida, where the winters are mild, we're just now getting our first frosts. Two growing seasons are a plus, but we got off to a late start on our fall planting. Working out the self-watering containers took some time, but the effort paid off with some delicious okra, peppers, tomatoes, pole beans and corn (yes, even corn can be grown in a container.)

Our container potting soil mix consisted of 1/3 peat moss, 1/3 worm composted horse manure, and 1/3 perlite. As our only organic fertilizer, we used worm castings mixed in with the potting soil mix (about 6 cups) and added a liquid soil inoculant, made from these worm castings, every two weeks.

For our winter garden, we have some collards and kale plants started in containers and we have moved all our remaining pepper and tomato plants to the green house. Our first frost came Thanksgiving, so the greenhouse was a life saver.

All-in-all, the self-watering containers worked just fine, with a few adjustments. For instance, we discovered, too late, we should have placed a piece of landscaping cloth in the bottom of the compartment containing the potting mix to prevent roots from clogging the water wicking process.

You can see a play-by-play of our self-watering container garden on our garden "blog-by-a-dog", Organic Garden Works.
Updates and pictures are on their way!