earthship planter - We Like Small

A Guide to Building A Planter Cell
The same planter design can be used as either a grey or blackwater cell
Step 1. Layout the Area with Rebarb
Work out the site that you wish to create a planter in, taking into account where you are running
plumbing lines in to and out of it.
Its best to mark out the space you want with paint,
this allows you to see the proposed space andchange it before you make it perminant. Once you
are happy with the site of your planter bend rebarb
to make the circumference on the planter.
Step 2. Excervate the Inside of the planter
The space inside the planter needs to be dug out to
create a sealed enviroment for the planter to work.
Excervate the site using any means necessary, with
it be with mini bobcat, breaker or simply just shovel
ling the soil out.
The bottom of the planter needs to be slightly elevated with a gradient of 50mm or 2 inches over a
5m planter to allow the water to flow from top or
bottom. Its best to check this using a builders level.
Step 3. Cement Rebarb
Lay cement around the rebarb that sits on the outside of the planter to create the start of the wall.
Raise the rebarb slightly off the ground using stones
to allow the rebarb to be completely encased in cement.
The mix for the cement is 3:1 sand to cement
Step 4. Can Wall
Create a can wall to build up the side of the planter
without using to much cement. The cans are not
structural in this they just allow the wall to built
using less cement. The cans are pinched on the
bottom to allow a bit more grab and then placed
down into the cement, can are never laid more that
3 finger widths apart in all directions to stop weak
joints (cold bridges) as the cans hold no structural
strength.
Step 5. Basic Pipe Layout
Once all the walls have been excervated you need
to work out where your inlet and outlet pipes are
going to be going in. The walls can be drilled or
broken using a jack hammer to allow space for the
pipes to be placed.
These pipes need to be slightly angled (1/4 inch to
every foot) to always allow the water to flow and
stop and collecting or stangant water in the pipes.
We need to have a rough location of the pipes before we move onto the next steps.
Step 6. Lining the planter with EPDM
After you are happy with the planters shape and the
pipes are in a possition you can start to lay out the
EPDM. The EPDM is a rubber liner that is needed
to create a sealed inviroment inside the planter, so
none of the water is lost of leached outside of the
intended area.
The EPDM is stretched over all the walls of the
planter and left long for the time being, it will eventually be cut into shape but for now its best to left
long.
The EDPM is pretty tough but it can still easily be
cut so be gentle with it and watch out for glass and
metal. If it is torn it does need to be replaced.
Step 7. Securing Pipes
Once the you are happy with the EDPM layout its
time to cut out the holes for the pipes. This is best
done with sissors and time taken with this step as
any bleeds means the entire piece needs to be replaced. The holes need to be cut small and then the
EDPM is stretched to fit onto the pipe.
To totally secure the pipe from leaching two extra
sleeves are placed over the pipe, one underneath the
edpm and one ontop of the edpm. These all need
to stretched ontop of each other before a gasket is
fixed over all layers making a water tight bond.
Step 8. Pipe Network
With the pipes flowing between the planters in
the way you want its now time to fix the observation pipe and the pipes to allow drainage into the
sysytem.
The downpipe just needs to have about 10-15 small
holes drilled into it to allow the water to flow out of
it easily.
The pipes are run to the surfaceof the planter to allow you to observe what is going on incase of possible problems and clogging down the road as this
is the only possible problem point. These pipes are
capped to stop anything falling into them.
All of these pipes are plastic welded together as per
conventional plumbing. The pipes all need to be
made verticle using a spirit level to keep things tidy
Step 9. Large Rocks Around Pipes
Around the pipes its best to place so large rocks,
this allows the water to flow into the pipes easily.
The water needs to quickly drain in and out when
it builts up and the large rocks allow the space to
diserpate the water quickly. Do not skimp on the
rocks use lots as it allows for a quicker drainage
and absorbsion
Build a pipe of rocks up so that it covers the holes
that you drilled into the pipe.
Once the rocks have been placed you must check
that the pipe is still verticle as they can be easily
moved with such large rocks. A small piece of
EPDM is fixed ontop of hte
Step 10. Install recerculation pipes
At the lowest eleveation end of the planters we installed two 4 “ pvc pipes. These two pipes also have
holes drilled in the bottom of them as will eventually have pumps placed inside them and the water
needs to flow in and out easily of these pipes.
More rock bulbs are placed around the bottom of
these as well as these will need to have the ability to
drain in and out easily as well.
With grey water one of these pipes will go
off to the toilet and the other will run water back to start of the filter to allow the water
Step 11. Install to a Peat Moss Filter
A peat moss filter is placed just before the recirculation pipe.
It is placed in big boxes and works as a final filter
before the water is recirculated or set off to be
used
Step 12. Fill Planter With Gravel
Once you happy with the pipes and check that
everything working with the system its time to fill
the planter with gravel.
gravel is cheap and easy to fill up the bulk of the
planters. The water can still easily flow through the
gravel and allows quite a lot of water to build up in
the gaps between gravel stones.
Step 13. Sand Layer
We added a small layer of maybe 3-4 inches of
sand on top of the gravel.
This stops the top soil and all the nutruients to
fall through into the gravel. The roots of bigger
plants are still able to work their way throught this
sand layer and find the water that flows through
the gravel.
Optional Step Excess Grey Water Flow
Additional grey water can be piped into the top of
the planter, this is really handy if you need to filter
this water for particles. Food and hair are really
bad for grey water as struggle to break down inside the planter. Food particles are now typically
filtered into the black water as they are the same
material as blackwater.
The washing machine needs to be fittered with
stocking fitting as hair needs to be stopped from
entering the planters.
Step 14. Metal Lathe Planter Wall
Once the structure is filled in enough its time to
start to secure teh walls. The EDPM is cut on the
top of the planter walls so that the cement can surround and secure the EDPM into the wall structure creating a water tight planter and stopping the
EDPM from moving.
The metal lathe is secured onto of the EPDM to create a surface for the cement to bond to. It is secured
using metal screws into the beer cans. These tempory fixtures are very quickly surrounded with cement to secure the structure properly.
Step 15. Cement Render Plaster Walls
Once the walls have been metal lathed its important
to plaster the walls of the planter with cement fairly
quickly as the fixiing in the lathe are only tempory.
You can fiinish the walls smooth or rough depending on your preference.
You can also finish with tiles to create a kicker
around the bottom its really up to you how to finish
your planter.
Step 16. Top Soil
About 3-4 inches of good quality growing soil is
used ontop of the sand. Its worth using good quality soil as will help get the plants settled and rooted.
Step 17. Plant
Now everything is done plant
Plants that have been growning in grey water cells
include: Bananas, Beets, Chard, Pinapple, Spider
Plants, bamboo, grapes, papaya, figs, carrots, brocoli, sweet potato, tomato’s, sweet potato, house
palms, herbs, geraniums and rubber trees. But a lot
more things are possible.
With blackwater cells do not grow root vegitables