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Brick planter - wheres the drainage?

Nicole999Nicole999 Posts: 2
in Problem solving
Hello. We have decided to try to revive thid brick planter thats at the back of our house. Its been filled with water and soil since we moved in. We have emptied it and it looks well built. There was a filter tray half way down, and beneath it was filled with stinky water. We cant find any drainage underneath. It doesnt seem right to us ... it looks well built but surely it will get all boggy again?
Should we fill with soil and plants or cover up?
nter

Posts

  • wild edgeswild edges Posts: 9,916
    It looks like it's lined with metal? Have you poked around the bottom to see if there's a drainage hole that might be blocked?
    Tradition is just peer pressure from dead people
  • Ladybird4Ladybird4 Posts: 36,846
    Hello Nicole.jevons and welcome to the forum. The planter looks like one of those automatic watering planters that were popular a few years ago. The filter you are holding, covers the sump where water collects and in the ones I am familiar with there was a cotton (?) wick that fed through the hole in the filter and down into the sump so that by capillary action the compost in the pot could stay wet. However, there should be a drainage hole somewhere to allow an over flow of excess water so that it never gets above the filter. A few discreet holes drilled through the mortar between the bricks and just below where the filter sits might alleviate the problem.
    Cacoethes: An irresistible urge to do something inadvisable
  • B3B3 Posts: 26,486
    I was thinking the same as Lb4. I'd scrape out some mortar.
    In London. Keen but lazy.
  • AnniDAnniD Posts: 11,939
    Hello @Nicole.jevons :)  It looks to me as though it was built to disguise a drain cover. I'm probably wrong, but it seems funny place to build it, and the concrete base just looks like the edging to one. It could be that all the sludge has built up over the years . There are air bricks either side of it but it seems to have been butted right up to the house wall which isn't usually good for the damp proof course.
    What is that bit of metal pipe above it ? Is it a cut off piece of down pipe from the gutter ?
    Maybe l'm just overthinking it..... :)
  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 86,095
    My first thought was the same as @AnniD ... something to do with a drain/soakaway 

    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • Lizzie27Lizzie27 Posts: 11,657
    And mine. I think it's some kind of drain underneath.
    North East Somerset - Clay soil over limestone
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