Create A Simple Self-Watering System For Your Plants Using Old Cut Up T-Shirts

You've booked your trip. You made all the arrangements, your bags are packed, and as you get ready to walk out the door, it dawns on you: What about the houseplants?! You refuse to let yet another plant bite the dust due to your neglect, so you need a quick and clever trick to keep your plants watered and alive while you're on vacation.

Luckily, if you have some old t-shirts, you have everything you need to set up an impromptu self-watering wicking system for your plants. Wicking systems draw water from a source — any container will work here, like a soup pot or a plastic tub — to a destination, your potted plants, in this case. You just need something absorbent to carry the water, and those old t-shirts hiding in the back of your drawer will do just the trick.

Simply cut the shirt into strips and secure one end to the bottom of the water container with a weight. Then, bury the other end of the strip a few inches into your houseplant's soil. That's it! Water will slowly (but continually) travel the length of the t-shirt strip to keep the soil moist until you return.

There are a few extra tips that help this wicking system. First, make sure the t-shirt strips are fairly taut so that they don't sag at any point. Sagging will inhibit the water from traveling all the way down to the soil. Also, positioning the water container above your plant pots can help water travel more efficiently, as gravity will be on its side. Any absorbent material can work for this DIY self-watering planter system, so you can use whatever you have on hand. If you aren't in a rush, experiment to see what works best. Natural fibers and materials that aren't too thin, like thick cotton string, yarn, or rope, tend to make the best wicks.

A simple plastic water bottle can also serve as a self-watering system in a pinch. All you need to do is poke two small holes in the bottle's lid using a small nail or skewer, fill the bottle with water, and rest it in your pot with the lid facing down. The two holes will allow water to slowly drip into the soil.

If you know you tend to forget about watering your plants when you travel; you can get ahead of things by grabbing a set of Plant Nanny Recycle a Wine Bottle Stakes from Amazon. These simple stakes are designed to secure a water-filled wine bottle into the soil for worry-free watering and also repurpose wine bottles in your garden.